After a careful overview of these two texts, Red Scarf Girl, and “How to listen #3” (102) from Brown Girl Dreaming, a deplorable tone shows up. Both texts are about different people and different events. Yet both of them create the same tone. After examining the poem “How to listen #3” by Jacqueline Woodson from the book Brown Girl Dreaming the worrying and anxious tone shows up. Jacqueline's grandfather is sick and it's not getting any better. He continually feels unwell and is constantly up in the night. When Jackie hears her grandfather she awakes, “Middle of the night / my grandfather is coughing…” (102). Jackie is always worrying about her grandfather. She doesn't want to lose another male figure in her life. She has already lost
The Girl with the Brown Crayon tells a simple personal story of a teacher and a child, interweaving the themes of race, identity, gender, and the essential human needs to create, and to belong. With these characteristic charms, and wonder, Paley discovers how the unexplored territory unfolding before her and Reeny comes to mark the very essence of school, a common core of reference, something to ponder deeply and expand on extravagantly. The child, Reeny, meets a writer of books and story-teller, is introduced to his fictional characters, and debates, with other children, their virtues and weaknesses.
In "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall," there are two themes. The first is self-pity. The second theme is the acceptance of her death. Both deal with the way people perceive their deaths and mortality in general. Granny Weatherall's behavior is Porter's tool for making these themes visible to the reader. The theme of self-pity is obvious and thoroughly explored early on. As a young lady, Granny Weatherall was left at the altar on her wedding day. As a result, the pathetic woman feels sorry for herself for the rest of her life. She becomes a bitter old woman who is suspicious of everyone around her. This point is shown early in the story when the do Granny Weatherall, the main character in Katherine Anne Porter's The Jilting of Granny Weatherall, is an 80-year-old elderly woman who is at the doorstep of death. There is a sense of disillusionment with Granny that leads readers to develop their own interpretation of her relationship with Cornelia, her daughter As the narrator, Granny unknowingly would paint the picture of Cornelia as nuisance and bothersome. In fact, the reader can rationalize that it is just Cornelia's concern for an ailing mother that creates the situation of her seemingly being there all the time.
Death is something that is sometimes misunderstood and hard to accept. In James Baldwin’s short story, “Sonny’s Blues”, the reader learns of four deaths that had occurred during the narrator’s life time. One of the deaths that the narrator describes was of his daughter, Gracie. Gracie had died of polio. Originally, she was thought to only have a cold. Four days later, Gracie fell and there was no sound. When Isabel decided to go see, she found her daughter curled up on the floor and not breathing. By the time Gracie found her breath, she let out a horrifying scream. “And when she did scream, it was the worst sound, Isabel says, that she'd ever heard in all her life, and she still hears it sometimes in her dreams. Isabel will sometimes wake me up with a low, moaning, strangling sound and I have to be quick to awaken her and hold her to me and where Isabel is weeping against me seems a mortal wound” (92). From the quote above, the reader can picture the suffering Isabel is under from the lost of her daughter. One can also tell that she has not been able to deal with it completely by her reoccurring nightmares. Losing a child is very hard to deal with. It brings a lot of pain, sadness, but most of all much suffering. It is s...
Granny seems to be bitter about somethings, but not about the life and love she had with her husband. Granny says, “I wouldn’t exchange my husband for anybody except St. Micheal himself.” (Porter, 210) Though not ready for death, “I’m not going, Cornelia. I’m taken by surprise,” (Porter, 270) she seems to have a purpose brought by love even in death. She had a loved one that she wanted to go see. “Granny made the long journey outward, looking for Hapsy.”(Porter, 270) Her loving, though full of loss, seems a prime example of what it means to be a
However, their other details don’t exactly align as well as the message. For example, the surface of the stories are very different. The obvious storylines of the two stories differ greatly from each other. Additionally, the characters have their “life changing experience”s in different ways. In “Raymond’s Run”, Squeaky learns to accept Gretchen when she finishes the race at the end of the story. At this point in the story, she and Gretchen share “this big smile of respect between [them]”. Squeaky’s barriers have been broken by this new girl. Differently, in “The Good Deed”, Heather's alteration in behaviour happens at the end. After Heather had (technically) broken in, Risa comes back home to tell her real story, not the augmented one that Heather had crafted. Both of these girls, albeit differently, learn to break down their own mental barriers.
Parental pressure is often part of a child’s life. The pressure depends on gender, society, and also culture. The really short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kinvaid is a conversation between a mother and daughter. The mother talk most of the time; she gave a long series of warnings and advice to the daughter, who responds only twice. These advises are mostly about how to take care of her dad, or future husband, and also household chores, cooking, manners, social conduct. The voice of the mother seemed commanding and “bitchy” but the mother seems to expect a great deal of her daughter, and she did say what she had to say to let the girl know it.
Terrible heartbreak plagues the reader: “And the mother’s shrieks of wild despair / Rise ...
Towards the middle of the story, Usher’s twin sister Madeline is shown to be sick and close to giving into the “prostrating power of her destroyer” (21). Eventually, Usher gives the narrator the bad news that Madeline has passed away and immediately be placed in the family burial vault until proper arrangements can be done. Later, it is revealed that Madeleine had been buried alive and Usher knew exactly what he had done. When the narrator confronted him about what he did to Madeline, Usher simply replied with “Not hear it - yes, I hear it, and have heard it. Long--long--long--many minutes, many hours, many days, have i heard it -- yet I dared not speak...” (28). This abnormal response gives insight into how much of Usher’s thoughts control him; he let his twin sister remain in a coffin buried alive and did absolutely nothing to save her. Poe attacks how vulnerable individuals become to their own minds and forces the readers to consider the downside of the Human Condition. Although not on such intense level as Usher, people let their thoughts define who they are and what they do. Insecurity, a problem among several teenagers and even adults, begins with the person’s thoughts and self-esteem. Due to insecurity, many believe they aren’t capable of doing what they love and that they should stick doing what their mind is convincing them to.
...s the theme of family. For example, when you truly love someone in your family, you make sure that you show them you truly love them by not only giving them a hug but also telling them that you love them. I can relate to this situation because whenever I notice that my mom is feeling down, I make sure that I tell her that I love her and she is the best mom in the world. Another theme that is present in this poem that I can relate with my life is the theme of mortality. For example, the man is obsessed with not only how but also why Annabel died. I can relate to the man in this situation because after my mom’s dog passed away about nine or ten years ago I was wondering for the longest time why she had to pass away. She wasn’t always the nicest dog, but I still loved her anyways. This poem celebrates the child-like emotions with the ideals of the Romantic era.
Death can both be a painful and serious topic, but in the hands of the right poet it can be so natural and eloquently put together. This is the case in The Sleeper by Edgar Allan Poe, as tackles the topic of death in an uncanny way. This poem is important, because it may be about the poet’s feelings towards his mother’s death, as well as a person who is coming to terms with a loved ones passing. In the poem, Poe presents a speaker who uses various literary devices such as couplet, end-stopped line, alliteration, image, consonance, and apostrophe to dramatize coming to terms with the death of a loved one.
Death is not something to be feared, but faced with awe. Although, by nature, aging and death are merely facts of life; a loss of hope, the frustration of all aspirations, a leap into a great darkness, and the feelings of fear and anguish. Phoneix Jackson of Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" and Granny of Katherine Anne Porter's "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" face these inevitable signs of aging and death.
It is the first time that Lizabeth hears a man cry. She could not believe herself because her father is “a strong man who could whisk a child upon his shoulders and go singing through the house.” As the centre of the family and a hero in her heart, Lizabeth’s dad is “sobbing like the tiniest child”She discovers that her parents are not as powerful or stable as she thought they were. The feeling of powerlessness and fear surges within her as she loses the perfect relying on her dad. She says, “the world had lost its boundary lines.” the “smoldering emotions” and “fear unleashed by my father’s tears” had “combined in one great impulse toward
In her bedroom, Granny is literally confined to her deathbed, revealing to the reader that death is approaching. Granny speaks of a longer life from the place her life will end, emphasizing that death could come at any moment. As her mind starts deteriorating, she begins confusing the past with the present. At one time, she remembers having to dig hundreds of postholes after her husband’s death, and enlightens the reader with the fact that “digging post holes changes a woman;” (Porter 85). The change from a genteel lift to one of harsh labor representing another type of death. She worked hard for years, foreshadowing the time she will no longer need to work. Consequently, since she familiarized herself with hard work, accepting that her death is effortless is very difficult for Mrs. Weatherall. In the end, nighttime draws near, and Porter uses the time of day to symbolize mortality; the end of day is not only passing so is Granny’s life. Similar to the candle beside her bed, Granny draws her last breath to blow out light of her own life. Just as day has its end, so does every
The poem His stillness by Sharon Olds gave her a definite understanding of the man that she called “father.” Olds grew up in an abusive family home because her dad was always known as an alcoholic. Because of her dad’s habit, created hard living environments for her and she wished that her parents never got married. Whenever liquor was in her dad’s system, he was unemotional making life for Olds hard. She never described the things that he did to her. The visit to the doctor’s office made her opened up to her dad. She saw her dad as lovely and caring family man and she never imagine him being the man that he was at the doctor’s office. He did not overreacted when he heard news; instead he was calm and accepted the news. She felt tremendously sad for her dad and from there now she started noticing the man she never knew. Olds and her dad bond grew stronger at the doctor’s office. The man she had always known for his abusive behavior turned out the most caring man in the world.
The biggest difference between the two texts is that one is about gangs and racism while the other is about the way a boy’s perception of his father changes as he grows up. However, both texts cleverly use techniques to convey messages that are relevant to our society.