Elisa In The Chrysanthems

Jared Keim Mr. Bowne AP English III November 19, 2016 Teaching the Lesson of Inequality The television is on. The bottom line reads, “ Black unarmed teenager killed walking down a street at night-- top anonymous executive says the gender wage gap is because one week at of every month, women are irrational due to their period.” Gender and racial inequality is a problem faced by society throughout time. In Toni Cade Bambara’s, “The Lesson,” the divide between the black American children, and the privileged, upper class white children is used to demonstrate social inequality.

The setting shapes the mood and tone of a story and has a great affect on what happens in a story. The setting influences the events that take place, how the characters interact and even how they behave. Settings show where and how the character lives, what they do, and what they value. Characters have a relationship with the setting just as much as they do with other characters in the story. This is seen in the effects the setting has on the development of the Character Elisa in the story “The Chrysanthemums.”

Andres Gordon Into to exceptionalities November 19, 2015 Orchid of the Bayou The book is about a girl of Cajun decent named Fischer, who suffers from Usher syndrome. It causes deafness at birth and increasing tunnel vision. While growing up living in the bayou her parents and family thought she had a mental disorder.

Ascher’s juxtaposition between Compassion & Fear Barbara Lazear Ascher, in “On Compassion” Gave two scenarios in which a woman gave a homeless man money when he had stared down the lady and her baby, questioning whether the offering was out of fear or compassion. Ascher then gives another scenario where a homeless man walks into a bread shop silently inside the shop. Moments later a french woman walks out of the kitchen with a hot cup a coffee and food to give to him. Ascher then questioned if the french woman gave the man food out of her heart or she just wanted him out. Out of fear of disturbing her customers and losing sales.

In Barbara Lazear Ascher’s essay “On Compassion” she analyzes the idea of compassion primarily through the way society treats the homeless/less fortunate. Using anecdotal narratives and rhetorical questions, she contemplates on the true motives behind compassion and encourages her audience to ponder on this same situation. * Ascher begins her essay with an anecdote about a homeless man approaching a mother and her baby using eloquent, high-level language. As she begins to describe the man, she states that his “carefully plaited dreadlocks bespeak a better time” (paragraph 1).

Can the fear of the unknown hold us back from excelling in life? In The Storm by MckNight Malmar, the story focuses on how fear seems to rule a young woman’s life; leading her away from happiness. From the beginning of the story, Janet experiences an almost inane outlook on the world- she’s terrified of the smallest things. This child-like manner corresponds with how she views herself, “She did not really see the pale face with its blunt nose, the slender, almost childish figure in it’s grown-up black dress, or the big brown eyes that looked back at her...

As the class of 1951 from University High School patiently watch the clock tick closer to the next chapter in their life, William Faulkner addresses the class with a small piece of advice, choose to change the world for the better. While these students eagerly await what’s next, Faulkner implements that fear should not drive your intentions by adopting a hopeful tone. In the case of most graduations, everyone from the graduates, to the family members, and the school faculty become over emotional. Knowing this, the author appeals to this sense by continuously using emotions and expressions, such as “baffled and afraid... or frightened or bribed.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s coming-of-age novel Purple Hibiscus narrates the story of Kambili, a girl in Nigeria, who deals with religious hypocrisy and abuse of her father, a product of the British colonization. She and her brother, Jaja, visit their aunt and receive a different perspective on their family’s lives. This novel takes place in the Igbo region of Nigeria, after the Nigerian Civil War that ended in 1970 and colonialism of the 1900’s. In Purple Hibiscus, Adichie conveys her views of the Nigerian Civil War to the reader by using the setting, specific events reciprocated in history, and contrasting characters within the novel. Purple Hibiscus is set in post-colonial Nigeria- where incidentally Adichie grew up- in a time of government, economic, and social struggle, after the Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Nigerian-Biafran War.

Despite growing up in the same house, Aunty Ifeoma and Papa Eugene from the book, Purple Hibiscus, raises their children in contrasting manners. Papa Eugene oppresses his children from having individuality and results to violent punishments when his children go against his views. On the other hand,Aunty Ifeoma is more understanding to her children’s decisions in life and uses more peaceful means to bring her points across. Another clear difference between Ifeoma and Eugene is the teaching methods they use to teach their religion, Catholicism, to their children. Eugene disciplines his child to be prejudiced against heathens while Ifeoma lets her child have more liberty in what to believe.

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a very dense novel that focuses on the development of the main character and the supporting characters which could be defined as Bildungsroman. The narrator, Kambili, takes a reader through the psychology of the characters and explores them in different ways. At the beginning, we are exposed to the family that has a patriarchal figure as a father and a husband who is the perpetrator of domestic violence. Yet he is a role model and a remarkable figure to the public. The novel penetrates deep through various forms of violence which are coercive, discursive and domestic and are the ones that separate families, communities and the Nigerian nation as a whole.

The sample student paper had many interesting observations in The Chrysanthemums by John Steinbeck.   My initial observations about the story, were also that the flowers symbolized Elisa in many ways. One of them was that the chrysanthemums represented the unhappiness Elisa felt in her life. Another meaning in the flowers was how Elisa saw herself in the flowers as a delicate and beautiful. Steinbeck makes us see the connection between Elisa and the flowers when the man from the wagon complemented her flowers, she felt he was complementing her.

“In this situation, I expected every hour to share the fate of my companions, some of whom were almost daily brought upon the deck at the point of death, which I began to hope would soon put an end to my miseries….” (Equiano 87). In this essay I will tell you about some things that you need to survive. Faith, resources, and fear are what I’m going to be telling you about. I will be using quotes from two stories I read that taught me about the hardships of survival.