Judas Iscariot, the disciple, hanged himself from a tree after betraying Jesus Christ and giving him a kiss. The tree in which Judas hanged himself is known as “Judas Tree,” mainly found in Southern Europe and Western Asia. In the short story “Flowering Judas” written by Katherine Anne Porter the title is related to this religious event of betrayal, murder, and denial. The two main characters in this short story are Braggioni and Laura. Braggioni is a cruel, powerful leader of Marxist revolutionaries in and around Mexico City. Laura is a beautiful American women, age 22, who took up residence in Mexico. Braggioni, Braggioni’s wife, and Eugenio also perform certain actions that make them betrayers, however Laura is Judas the betrayer in “Flowering Judas.” Starting off, Laura betrays her students who she teaches. The students in her school love her and are enthusiastic about learning from her teaching. “Children [write] on the blackboard, ‘we lov ar ticher’” (Porter 1695). But Laura does not put all her commitment and passion to her teaching. As stated by Sister Mary Bride, “Even though she was a teacher, she had no love for the little children who crowded around her each morning with fervent greetings and festooned her desk with flowers. They ‘remain strangers to her’” (129). A teacher is supposed to love her children, to be part of them, and to focus in her children. With the lack of eagerness and dedication to accomplish her activities as a teacher, she is making less of herself and betraying her students. Additionally, a young man appears in Laura’s life that sings outside her bedroom window, writes poems to her, and follows her around town to demonstrate his passionate love for her. Porter states, “She tells herself that thro... ... middle of paper ... ...8. Esplin, Emron. “Magic Relism in ‘Flowering Judas’ and the Dual Realities of Katherine Anne Porter’s Time in Mexico.” Southern Studies 12 1.2 (spring-summer 2008): 23-46. Reprinted in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jelana Krstovic. Vol. 108. Detroit: Gale, 2008. 349-59. Gottfried, Leon. “Death’s Other Kingdom: Dantesque and Theological Symbolism in ‘Flowering Judas’.” PMLA 84.1 (January 1969): 112-24. Reprinted in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Anna Sheets Nesbitt. Vol. 31. Detroit: Gale, 1999. 134-42. Porter, Katherine A. “Flowering Judas.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. Vol. D. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2007. 1691-00. Print. West, Ray B, Jr. “Katherine Anne Porter: Symbol and Theme in ‘Flowering Judas.’” Accent 7 (spring 1947): 182-88. Reprinted in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Anna Sheets Nesbitt. Vol. 31. Detroit: Gale, 1999 124-27.
Ed. Ed. Judith A. Stanford, Ph.D. Mountain View, California: Mayfield Publishing Co., 1996. 1212-1213. The.
Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durkham, N. C: Duke UP, 1995, 150.
Vol. 8. Chicago, IL: World Book, 2009. Print. G Freeman, Shanna.
She was a teacher at a few schools, and when she was smaller in Walnut Grove for the second time, she ran errands for her mother and other town folk. When Laura first settled in De Smet, two brothers and their sister came to Laura’s house during the hard and cold winter, the Wilders. They agreed to help the Ingalls until summer and then went off to start their own settlements. After Laura started teaching, one of the brothers, Almonzo, started bringing her home from her job on the weekends, which was a long way. Almonzo had a team of fast driving horses and a buggy. On one of the rides, they talked about their names. Laura found the nickname Manly, and Almonza found the nic name Bessie, from her middle name Elizabeth. Soon the two were married and two miles north of her parents home Manly had built a home for the two of them to live in together. Like her parents, Manly started to farm on his new land. His crops failed, and they moved to Missouri, Mansfield in an area called the Ozarks. They bought some new land in a very rocky estate that came with a basket full of tree seeds for an orchard of fruit. Laura and Manly lived there for the rest of their lives. Laura then bore a baby girl, and even before the baby was born, Laura insisted it was a girl and that she would be named Rose. Her plans were carried out exactly. Many, Many years later, when their farm was developed and Manly and Laura were older, Laura decided to
One of the stories is that Judas, who was so overcome by grief, at the death of Jesus quickly went to repent after seeing his mistake. So, Judas repented, returned the thirty pieces of silver to the Priests, and then hung himself from the tree of Judas. There are two different endings to that one, the first is that he did it on purpose and the other says that Judas hanging himself was accidental.
She is a shy, quiet girl who keeps herself at a distance. She loves glass figurines and prides herself on them. To her brother, she is seen as crippled because she cannot walk well and is socially awkward. This results in Laura’s reality being different than the rest of the family’s because she closes herself off into a space where it is only her. Amanda wants the best for Laura, for her to have a husband or finish business school, because she wants Laura to get out of the house and get living. However, Laura does not want to live in that world, and it is shown when she skipped her business classes and through her interaction with Jim, her high school crush. Jim is the only person who is able to take Laura out of her own weird reality, and bring her into the reality of an ordinary girl. Laura breaks through her reality when she talks about the unicorn horn that Jim broke off her glass figurine, she tells Jim that, “It doesn’t matter. . . . [smiling] I’ll just imagine he had an operation. The horn was removed to make him feel less—freakish!” (Williams, 2009). Therefore, Laura being with Jim makes her feel a little less odd. This brings Laura out of her own reality for a bit, but then she retreats back into it when she finds out that Jim is engaged to someone else right after he kisses her. He broke her free of her own reality for a bit, just like how he broke the horn off of the
Laura unable to survive in the outside world - retreating into their apartment and her glass collection and victrola. There is one specific time when she appears to be progressing when Jim is there and she is feeling comfortable with being around him. This stands out because in all other scenes of the play Laura has never been able to even consider conversation with a "Gentleman Caller."
It is said in the character description that Laura “[has] failed to establish contact with reality” (Glass 83). This illustrates how Laura is childlike and naive, in that, Williams literally says that she has not established contact with reality. Laura is naive because she refuses to face life and all that comes with it, she is also childlike because she has sheltered herself and is unaware of her surroundings much as a child would be. Early on in the play the reader discovers that Laura had affections towards Jim when they were in high school. This, of course, will prove to be part of Jim’s easy manipulation of Laura. Shortly after this discovery, Laura’s gentleman caller, Jim, is invited over for dinner with the family. After having completed their evening meal, Laura and Jim go to another room and being
Eds. Gary Goshgarian and Kathleen Kruger. New York: Parson-Longman, 2011. 500-04. The. Print.
Piaget, Jean. (2009, January). Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, Retrieved September 22, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.
William P. Cunningham . Ed. Marci Bortman, Peter Brimblecombe, and Mary Ann Cunningham . Vol. 1. 3rd ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=GVRL&userGroupName=univca20&tabID=T003&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm¤tPosition=1&contentSet=GALE%7CCX3404800460&&docId=GALE|CX3404800460&docType=GALE
When he asks what she gives it to him for, she replies, “A—souvenir.” Then she hands it to him, almost as if to show him that he had shattered her unique beauty. This incident changed her in the way that a piece of her innocence that made her so different is now gone. She is still beautiful and fragile like the menagerie, but just as she gives a piece of her collection to Jim, she also gives him a piece of her heart that she would never be able to regain. Laura and her menagerie are both at risk of being crushed when exposed to the uncaring reality of the world.
Ed. George McMichael. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000. 697-771. Davis, Sara de Saussure, p. 84.
8th ed. Vol. C. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. 662-72. Print.
Laura started off in a bubble, and has lived in it all her life. She has been protected from the real world, so she has never experienced the effects of betrayal, poverty, or labor, let alone death, which she does get to experience, by the end of the story. Laura meets face to face with death, and the results of it will change her look on life forever. It is a wonder she ever had a chance to be a caring, sensitive person with a sibling like Jose. Jose is an unfeeling, heartless and self-absorbed person who is completely clueless to those around her who don’t have lots of money or expensive assets. She sings songs with mock passion: