Since the beginning of our lives, our surroundings have influenced us. In school, our teachers and friends help shape our identity and most importantly, our families have guided our views since birth. While our environment has a profound impact on our identity, we have an equal impact on our surroundings. We constantly change our surroundings through contribution or removal of their aspects to accurately reflect our transforming personality. In Margaret Laurence's, A Bird In the House, Vanessa transitions from an imaginative young girl into a realistic and complex woman. I have symbolized this transition through the changing environment of her bedroom.
At age 9, Vanessa is mainly characterized by her extensive imagination. The scenery of castles displayed outside of the door and
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In this room, Vanessa’s chair faces the window directly and outside the window is the blue sky of the world. Thus she faces the scenery of reality head-on. She is capable of experiencing the positives and negatives of life and understanding its implications on humans. The magnifying glass on her table symbolizes her ability to examine her current life and the memories of childhood which are hidden away in the green boxes beside her desk. She is able to go beyond her previous conclusions and deduces the circumstances and struggles of the people she encountered in her life. The painting of the iceberg on the wall symbolizes the information hidden within people and she uses her magnifying glass to discover the majority of the content beyond the surface of the water. For example, she expresses the responsibility of Harvey's aunt for raising Harvey into an abusive and violent person. Therefore making a statement as to the extent of the influence of circumstance on the outcome of a person’s life. By examining her past, she shows the growth of her complexity and her understanding of the depth of
The book "The Parrot In The Oven" whriten by victor martinez tells a story about a fourteen year old named Manny. Manny is a “young man” living at home with his parents and siblings in Fresno, California. him and his faimily are not wealthy but not too poor. the book teaches you that coming of age takes many experiences and issues to help an young man learn and grow. while reading this book you can relate to the problems that Manny has to face.
One’s environment plays a positive or negative role in shaping a person’s identity depending on where they live. Growing up in a bad neighborhood, one might be surrounded by gangsters, dangerous streets, and have a higher chance of becoming a burden on society. Growing up in a rich neighborhood, one might worry less and get whatever they want; so life is not a burden. But being exposed in a poor environment shapes one’s identity positively by motivating a person to grow and evolve for the better. Experiencing sufferings in an environment may inspire a person to change for the better.
Tracey Lindberg’s novel Birdie is narratively constructed in a contorting and poetic manner yet illustrates the seriousness of violence experience by Indigenous females. The novel is about a young Cree woman Bernice Meetoos (Birdie) recalling her devasting past and visionary journey to places she has lived and the search for home and family. Lindberg captures Bernice’s internal therapeutic journey to recover from childhood traumas of incest, sexual abuse, and social dysfunctions. She also presents Bernice’s self-determination to achieve a standard of good health and well-being. The narrative presents Bernice for the most part lying in bed and reflecting on her dark life in the form of dreams.
“Win or lose, good or bad, the experience will change you,” says Richelle E. Goodrich. This directly relates to the character Catherine, in the book Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman. Catherine’s experiences led to her discovery of the need for change. Catherine gradually becomes more thoughtful, mature, and reflective as she has experiences like meeting Jews and the king’s cousin, or even just writing in her journal, that motivated her to change. Writing in her journal led Catherine to the discovery of the need for change.
Her descriptions of the room, with the furniture seemingly being nailed to the floor and the windows being “barred” show an underlying understanding that her thoughts and personality is being confined. The irony present in this description, due to her belief that the room used to be a nursery, shows her early denial of her husband’s dominance over her. As the story progresses and she begins to see the woman behind the wallpaper, the reader is exposed to the narrator’s realization that she is the one that is actually being suppressed. The descriptions of the wallpaper, showing how confining it is for the symbolic woman behind it, shows how the narrator is being trapped by those bars in both her marriage and in her mental illness. Thus when she says, “At night in any kind of light… it becomes bars,” the reader is shown how restricted the narrator feels, reflected through the wallpaper.
Renewed perceptions of ourselves of the world we live in is significantly entailed by discovery. Discovery may be unplanned, unexpected and confronting, as efficaciously demonstrated in Robert Frost’s ‘Stopping by the Woods on a Snowing Evening’. The pessimistic tone, correlating with prospective suicide, accentuates his loss of identity and value, behaving as a foundation upon which self-discovery can be achieved and thus offer new understandings of ourselves and the world we live in. Furthermore, this notion is vehemently exhibited in James McTeigue’s film ‘V for Vendetta’. The imprisonment of Evey, an epiphanic moment, acts as a catalyst for self-discovery, renewing her perception of herself and the world she lives in.
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story set in the 1890s about a female narrator who struggles with postpartum depression. She moves into a home for the summer with her husband, John. Since she has this sickness, John forbids her from doing any sort of activities other than some houes work. If she was doing anything, her husband would want her to rest to help with her illness. This was a common "cure" known at the rest cure back then.
In Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Changeling”, the hardships of gender stereotypes are exposed. The contrast between a young girl’s imagination and the reality of her gender role is clear by her attempt to appease her parents. She is neither manly enough to gain the attention of her father nor womanly enough to attain the respect of her mother. Her dilemma of not being able to fit in is emphasized by Cofer’s use of imagery and repetition.
People throughout their lives are constantly discovering who they are and who they want to grow into. The same statement accurately describes Maya Johnson, a strong woman who wrote about her life in her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. As a little girl, her mother’s ex-boyfriend raped and she had to rediscover herself whilst navigating through the grim veil of trauma - a process that burdened her for many years. Throughout her life, she encountered many different people, some good, others bad, but they each helped her eventually discover her identity. ‘Identity’ is how people define themselves as a human being, and, therefore, nobody else can dictate it.
Daphne du Maurier’s short story “The Birds” is a piece of fiction that displays many literary elements. This story displays suspense, foreshadowing, and imagery. By using these literary elements du Maurier creates an intense story that leaves the readers wondering what happens next and wanting more. First, foreshadowing is used to reference events that will happen further into the story.
The environment in which an individual grows up in can affect life greatly. Our surroundings influence one’s personality, self-expression, and individuality, otherwise known as identity. Finding one’s true self is the most grueling stage of life and expectations of family and society make the process even harder. One’s true identity can sometimes clash with hopes of others, thus breaking tradition and/or family ties. Pressure to change will always be present, but staying true to uniqueness will prevail.
How she describes her surroundings and her interactions with her family evolves as her condition worsens. By the end, the reader can truly see just how far gone the narrator has gone. The narrator’s fixation on the yellow wallpaper had gone from a slight obsession to full mental breakdown. As it is with most good stories, the presence of strong symbolism and detailed settings is a very important aspect of the story that helps to draw the reader into the story.
“You change your life by changing your heart.” said Max Lucado. This is exactly what Catherine did in Karen Cushman’s Catherine, Called Birdy. Her experiences led to the discovery of the need for change. The interactions and experiences she had with the Jews, her mother, and a villager led to Catherine becoming more gentle, caring, aware of her surroundings, and more of herself than she was before. One way that Catherine changed was after her encounter with the old Jewish Lady.
Do you know anyone who has Orinthophobia, the fear of birds? Or do you yourself fear the birds? “The Birds”, written by Daphne De Maurier, is a short story that uses various literary terms to make an exceptional piece of writing. The story uses the literary devises such as foreshadowing, imagery, and characterization to create an exhilarating tale. Maurier uses these three components to tell a thrilling story that keeps the reader on edge.
As I mature, my perspective of life and what it is to be a unique individual is ever changing. I believe that an individual’s environmental and surrounding contributes to their identity greatly. The culture in which one grows up in is a element that shapes one’s beliefs. When I was younger, my friends aided to shape my identity. My peers had a great influence on how I defined myself in early childhood because I deeply valued and cared about what others thought of me.