All relationships are dictated, changed, and motivated by a variety of factors. Communication can be the difference between success or failure in a companionship, or trust could solidify an already strong couple. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, a Japanese novel written in 1994 by Haruki Murakami, follows a young Okada who desperately seeks after his wife, Kumiko, after she fails to return home from work one afternoon. In his novel, Murakami restates consistently that the cause of Okada’s relationship to break down the way it did was due to the insecurities felt by Kumiko because of her past and the damage this has had on her, which is similar to the themes presented by Michel Gondry. Gondry’s 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind also …show more content…
Where The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle presents a linear format, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is presented in an entirely non-linear format. Both Murakami and Gondry begin with depicting their respective primary relationships by showing them as an organically happy couple – however where this the present for Okada and Kumiko, this is the future for Joel and Clem. Both texts then proceed with breaking down the relationship entirely, exposing the roots of each couple’s emotions, and gradually building back on them. However, where Okada moves lineally through the story, Gondry shifts between past and future. Regardless of structure, both texts are clear in showing how both females have insecurities regarding the past, and this ultimately leads to the end of each relationship. Murakami’s linear structure allows the reader to grow and learn as Okada does, discovering gradually more and more about Kumiko’s troubled childhood and family life in which she prioritises over their relationship. This climaxes in the concluding chapters as it is resolved that “Quote from Kumiko -> She must deal with her past first”. However, Gondry moves backwards in his primary relationship. The audience are met with a clearly incompatible Joel and Clem, and are forced to wonder how they changed so dramatically. This is answered when Gondry regresses through their relationship and the cause of their fighting is clear. Joel does not trust Clem due to …show more content…
Murakami centres The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle on having two primary characters, Okada and Kumiko. From this, Murakami employs all other male characters to represent some aspect of Okada, and all female characters to do the same for Kumiko. For example, Cinnamon’s choice to not talk clearly shows a lack of communication on Okada’s part in his relationship. Murakami carries this through into the theme of insecurities regarding the past affecting a relationship. All females that Okada encounters share a story from their past that explains how they got to their current situation, primarily Creta’s past as a prostitute. This strongly plants the image in the readers mind that the females in this story are deeply affected by their past. Gondry also exercises minor characters, but instead to foreshadow possible events. Mary and the Doctor’s previous relationship and destruction via the memory wipe is revealed, and this runs in parallel with Joel and Clem’s relationship. As Mary and the Doctor’s relationship is shattered by their past, a similar assumption can be made for Joel and Clem’s relationship as a result of the past established in the
Finally, throughout this novel, a negative mood tends to plague the storyline. Once, something positive tries to make its way through the darkness, it is almost immediately shot down by a negative turning point. Right from the start of this novel, a negative perspective is induced when it seems as if Reuben won’t live as a result of his puny defective lungs. Furthermore, the continuous tormenting of the land family through the actions of Israel Finch and Tommy Basca resulted in even more palpable negativity. Lastly, economic depression also tortured the Land family as they continued to strive to make ends meet throughout their daily lives. As a result of the lack of positivity in Peace like a River, it is safe to say that the novel possesses an extremely negative mood; yet, this fact might soon change within the storyline.
The tile of the poem “Bird” is simple and leads the reader smoothly into the body of the poem, which is contained in a single stanza of twenty lines. Laux immediately begins to describe a red-breasted bird trying to break into her home. She writes, “She tests a low branch, violet blossoms/swaying beside her” and it is interesting to note that Laux refers to the bird as being female (Laux 212). This is the first clue that the bird is a symbol for someone, or a group of people (women). The use of a bird in poetry often signifies freedom, and Laux’s use of the female bird implies female freedom and independence. She follows with an interesting image of the bird’s “beak and breast/held back, claws raking at the pan” and this conjures a mental picture of a bird who is flying not head first into a window, but almost holding herself back even as she flies forward (Laux 212). This makes the bird seem stubborn, and follows with the theme of the independent female.
Self-acceptance is clearly determined through one’s mind set and the steps that one has or is taking in order to achieve this goal. However, this journey can be slowed by various negative forces that life consists of that one was to fight through in order to achieve the final destination of self-acknowledgement. In the novel, Birdie by Tracey Lindberg, the main character, Bernice undergoes physical, spiritual, and emotional changes that are expressed through her slow development into the person Bernice strives to be. The ultimate destination for Bernice is acceptance of her three identities; Bernice, BirdieBernice and Birdie. Bernice is a defeated and depressed women, BirdieBernice being a motivated version
M. Butterfly, as its title suggests, is the reworking of Puccini’s opera, Madama Butterfly. In Puccini’s opera, Lieutenant Pinkerton, a United Sates Navy officer, purchases the conjugal rights to Cio-Cio-San, a fifteen-yrear-old Japanese Geisha
The plot of this short story is mainly about the insecurity and jealousy that the author feels when it comes to his wife. He believes that his wife is consecutively cheating on him with different man. The feeling of insecurity was shown before the husband came back to life as a form of a parrot. An example of his peculiar and obsessive insecurity can be found in paragraph (11-12) in the short story when he is led by his insecurity to impulsively look up the name and address of his wife supposedly lover. “But this guy from shipping. I found out his name and his address and it was one of her typical Saturday afternoons of vague shopping”. “So I went to his house, and his car that was just like the commercial was outside. Nobody was around in the neighborhood and there was this big tree in the back of the house going up to a second floor window that was making funny little sounds.” During the time that this man was alive, and time that he came back to life as a parrot, he failed miserably to communicate his wife his feelings and fears; therefore he could only made assumptions instead of just facing his wife and clarify the situation. In paragraph 19 he portraits his inability to exchange ideas with his beloved wife “I talk pretty well, but none of my words are adequate. I can’t make her understand.” The man is total loser, he is unable to express his emotions and ends up paying for his lack of courage
This novel went into how she and her father both were similar in how they expressed and experienced their own identification in gender roles. Either it being shown in their own way or even it is being through one another, they did not realize how close they were until she understood herself at the end. This then became the opening to them discusses their life experiences that involved identifying with another gender, which made them gain a better understanding about each other. The reason why the readers gain this perspective was how she used this graphic novel technique to become concise and obtain a mutual understanding in what she was expressing and explaining throughout the novel. With this mutual understanding of how she made this graphic novel, then the readers can focus more on how in the beginning they thought they were very different people, but later on grew to understand that both choose different gender roles. This gave them many similar outcomes, which help them grow even closer than they were before. With that Bechdel stated at the end, “ He did hurtle into the sea, of course. But in the tricky reserved narrative that impels our entwined stories, he was there to catch me when I leapt.”, which suggest that even if he is gone in real life he is still a part of her life’s
The novel Away is a clear example of how people are connected to the past. It characterizes three generations of a family of women. These women are connected through their experiences. They are all women of extremes; they are passionate about everything they do. They have the characteristic of going away. They follow their hearts into a land dominated by their imaginations. Nature is a part of each of the women. They follow the constant change in landscape throughout the novel, from Ireland, to the Atlantic Ocean voyage, to Upper Canada, and finally to Loughbreeze beach. Each woman in the novel is connected to the water; it draws them in and will hold them there forever. The women have relationships with men that they are drawn too because of the man's individuality. Away portrays three women from different generations and shows how similar they are. The women are strong and passionate about their causes; they are bound together through generations of going away. They leave their surrounding environments in an inner search for peace, compassion, beauty and love. Each woman connects to the other through her uncontrollable passions. The women in the novel are connected throughout each generation by their experiences of the past and present.
... narrator, those events triggered a moment of hesitation where the narrator had to make a choice, leave his old lifestyle and pursue a relationship with the girl, or he can continue his free lancing and not take things seriously. The narrator changes, but the girl becomes what he was, a seventeen year old who doesn’t take things seriously. When Holden gives Phoebe his red hunting hat, he is making her the next ‘catcher in the rye’. He grows into adulthood and he takes Phoebe as his replacement by giving her the red hunting hat, which symbolizes the role. Both Holden and the narrator grow into new roles and give up their old roles to women. Although, they both give up their roles and grow into adulthood to the same women who helped and influenced them to grow up. These characters helped the protagonists overcome their fear of change and finally turn them into adults.
Characters in different works of literature are placed in situations that bring out their true nature. Sometimes, being thrown into these scenarios, reveals a character's flaws. Two characters, Maria and Jack, become mentally unstable because of the positions that they find themselves in. Life-changing situations cause them both to lose their sanity.
Relationships are often difficult and messy, especially in the world Tayari Jones presents in her 2011 novel Silver Sparrow, chronicling the lives of the two daughters of bigamist father James Witherspoon. Jones depicts the complicated the world of Dana Yarboro the secret daughter, her father’s attempts to hide her from the prying view of the world and her refusal to stay hidden. While Chaurisse Witherspoon the public daughter James proudly presents to the world for all to see, enjoys the luxury of suburban life. Throughout the novel Jones’ character, Dana tries to reconcile how she can be part of her father’s family, but not truly a part of his life. While Chaurisse moves through the world with blissful ignorance of the secret life that lay
Within every story or poem, there is always an interpretation made by the reader, whether right or wrong. In doing so, one must thoughtfully analyze all aspects of the story in order to make the most accurate assessment based on the literary elements the author has used. Compared and contrasted within the two short stories, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, and John Updike’s “A&P,” the literary elements character and theme are made evident. These two elements are prominent in each of the differing stories yet similarities are found through each by studying the elements. The girls’ innocence and naivety as characters act as passages to show something superior, oppression in society shown towards women that is not equally shown towards men.
In the story “The White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett you are introduced to a young girl and what her seemingly simple life entails. There is so much that can be learned about values and culture through the background information of the story. The story is a good example of a period piece that introduces us to the lifestyle one could expect in a 19th-century farm. A clear picture is painted showing us what society was like during that time in history. Through Sylvia the little girl, we learn so much about people and what the world is like for them in the 19th -century.
The two females noticed everything around and questioned everything. The find a bird cage and wondered if she owned a bird and it not, what was the bird cage for. Ms. Peters and Mrs. Hale find the bird and notice that the neck had been twisted. Mrs. Hale states how all the women live close together but feel far apart, they all go through the same thing. George Henderson, The County Attorney says that all these things the woman found and were about to take, weren’t relevant to the crime scene because they were things that weren’t dangerous, in other words I believe that he said these things were unrelated to anything that happened that night, because they were things that belonged to a women or mainly because there were small things that during the 20th century wouldn’t hurt a man or a man wouldn’t let himself be taken down, by something so irrelevant. At the end of the story the women conclude that Mr. Wright, killed Mr. Wright the same way he had killed her bird. Mrs. Hale and Ms. Peter decide to hide what they had uncovered about the event that took place that night Mr. Wright was killed. In my opinion the reason they decided to hide all this information was because like they said Mrs. Wright was very happy and her husband was very
with throughout her life, leads her to a shattered future filled with confusion and a lack of stability. In the novel, one
A deeply complex relationship forms out of differences and similarities within both Joel and Clementine. Arising out of these differences are hidden details slowly revealed by the Gondry. Stylistically Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind contains many time distortions, where backgrounds and characters on screen are being erased. Relationships, as well as happiness start to dissipate as the film progresses. Enduring questions form debate, about whether happiness develops a healthy committed relationship or does a committed relationship develop happiness? Is an erased relationship better than remembering the past? How can one learn and move forward, if he or she removes their past from knowledge. Is Joel and Clementine meant to be together or are they actually making the same mistake