Everyday Use and Sula are coming of age stories. They both illustrate times in people’s lives when they have to decide to how they are going to live with their past and themselves.
made a mistake. President Nixon would be the first American President to actually lose a war. Despite his actions against our government, John Kerry went on to be an elected Senator from the State of Massachusetts in 1996. His well-publicized history of being a radical supporter of the Vietnamese communists and possibly guilty of war crimes had no effect on the voters.
Kevin claims that Dana is his wife; Rufus squeals and says, “Niggers can’t marry white people”, “It’s against the law” (Butler 60-61). The Deep South had banned interracial marriages until 1967. Although interracial marriage was unheard of, miscegenation was common but it “often led to complications in the South. Sometimes white men loved their black concubines more than they did their white wives” (Blassingame 84). Many of the white wives would file for divorce if this happened and they would also take out their anger on the black woman involved. As Rufus was carried in the house, his mother frantically entered the bedroom and pushed Dana aside. Margaret Weylin noticed Dana and asked for her name. She seemed to recognize Dana from the past but as she spoke Rufus interrupted her asking for some water. Margaret turns and looks at Dana, as if Dana is her slave, and orders her to “get him some water” (Butler 69). Failure to do so Margaret dismisses Dana to the cookhouse. Dana realizes that if she is stuck in the south she might as well be working. She was offered a tutoring job, Kevin disagrees with her decision. Dana says, “I’m here. And I am supposed to be a slave”, she is trying to fit in with the black stereotype. Dana pretends to belong to Kevin while they are in the Weylin’s house to prevent blowing her cover. She is from the future, so she appears to be highly educated compared to the other black people in the south during the time of slavery. Although she is beginning to work she has to be careful because she knows information about the future that could get her into serious trouble. Master Weylin is threatened by her education level and is concerned on losing his investment on her, if she runs
Some of the families were more evolved than others, yet all of them faced problems in the family. Gill’s family had to cope with Kevin’s problems as well as dealing with Gill’s job loss and marriage issues. They coped with it by lashing out at each other, and Gill trying harder to be a better dad. While Helen’s family was different from Gill’s family because she was divorced. Everyone in the family was just looking for a male figure in their life. Julie went after a deadbeat boyfriend; Gary resorted to masterbation and lonliness; and Helen tried to keep her family together while also looking for a new man, but always ends up being a scumbag. Nathan’s family seems like a normal family until you realize what is actually going one. The problem is that Nathan focuses too much on Patty, their daughter than Susan. Susan copes by trying to divorce Nathan and his un-attentiveness to her while Nathan makes a fool out of himself to keep her. Finally, Grandpa and Larry. The main problem in is that Larry is in deep trouble in the mob and Grandpa doesn’t want his kid to fail at life. Larry copes with his problem by wasting more money at the casino to pay back the mob, and Grandpa not knowing how to resolve Larry’s problems. All-in-all, they have a lot of problems in their family, but what family doesn’t. The best way they could have solved their communication issues was just to walk through them, to express what is bothering them. That is easier said than done though. The evolving family is always changing with every problem that arises, but they still
Home. An alternative life kept from the outside world. Behind closed doors, it can be filled with tension but others may see happiness. Life outside my home is my escape from the anxiety that’s built from within the walls of what is called my home. But now, it’s not fully a family with just me and my mother. We’re all separated, living different lives, but we’re good and stable. Others just know the outcome of how my family is right now while a few know the whole story. My home has so many memories I don’t want to remember, but it has shaped who I am today, especially being separated from my little brother and the events leading up to it.
Troy’s inner selfishness is the sole reason for his affair with Alberta, and it is what eventually triggers the split in his family. When trying to stop the metaphorical bleeding caused by his affair, Troy characterizes himself with Rose as “we”, to which Rose responds with, “All of a sudden it’s ‘we.’ Where was ‘we’ at when you was down there rolling around with some godforsaken woman? ‘We’ should have come to an understanding before you started making a damn fool of yourself” (68). Rose is totally offended that he would even consider them together, and rightly
In Rot & Ruin, the author uses the theme of family being important. Here is a example of the theme from the book “He barely liked his family-and by family he meant his older brother. Tom.” The conflict is that Benny and Tom do not have a good relationship and have grudges against each other. If you hold grudges against your family or do not have a good relationship with your family, you will have no one to fall back on and you will be by yourself. Another example of the theme from the book is “Sorry, Benny- I forgot. Point is, you got family of some kind, right?” This example shows that you will always have some type of family, even if you don’t know it.
What are the different versions of family in McCandless’ story? Discuss both Chris's biological family and the families he creates for himself along the road.
August Wilson faces a lot of difficulties in his life. He begins writing Fences in the twentieth century, and he portrays the African American experience between the 1900s to 2000 (Wilson 11). In Fence August Wilson tells the story of a father, Troy Maxson’s lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Troy was a very talented baseball perspective with hopes to play in the major leagues. Maxson’s had the bad luck of having to grow up when racism was the biggest part of America. This meant that all professional baseball teams were still not for black people from playing. In fences, the troy character is very negative just because, he suffered in his past. In Fences, August Wilson shows that troy is a villain because he is unfair to his wife, wants to control everyone, and mean with his son.
Parents are everyone 's first role models. Regardless of biological relation, those who raise us have a profound influence on the way we perceive and interpret life. Parents lay the foundation of our first sense of morality and empathy, and usher us to the path of our development of social skills. No matter how consciously one may attempt to have no resemblance to their parents, it is an inevitability of life that we will harness aspects of their influence and carry them through our lifetime. In Mary Shelley’s, “Frankenstein”, the influence of parental figures is displayed by the morals and values instilled in the monster.
Laurie Halse Anderson’s historical fiction novel, Fever 1793 takes place in Philadelphia in 1793, during the yellow fever epidemic. Mattie is the daughter of Lucille Cook, and is extremely lazy at first. As the story progresses, she becomes more mature and more responsible for her own needs, as well as others’ needs. By using description and character development, Anderson shows that putting others before yourself is an important thing in life to learn how to do, especially with lives on the line.
I define my family more like Robert Hayden than Linda Hogan; I define my family as my mother, my sister, my grandparents, and house where I grew up. Linda Hogan’s family was a nomadic tribe that moves from place to place, and she wrote about problem of perception of herself as a part of one race; Robert Hayden in his poem describe don’t understanding of parents’ love in a family; while I can describe my family issue as a misunderstanding the role of the father in the family because I grew up without the father. My mother got divorce when I was a child, and couple years late my father was killed. Like Hayden I can say about my house that I felt “fearing the chronic angers of that house” because my dad was alcoholic, and I saw a lot family violence
She finally forgets about him when she finds out he is not even her biological father. The terrible family she came from is no longer her family. She now has finally cut of all of the bad family, except for Mr. ____. Later on, she finds out that Pa has died. The bond is completely broken, making way for others to replace it.
Alice Walker’s Everyday Use (rpt. in Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, Perrine’s Literature Sound and Structure 11th ed [Boston: Wadsworth, 2012] 166-173) is a short story told by the mother of two daughters, Mama. The story tells the tale of the return of Mama’s oldest daughter, Dee, and the problems that Dee’s return causes for Mama and her youngest daughter, Maggie. This short story includes humor and irony, displays detailed characterization, and portrays a very effective point of view. These three literary elements contribute to this story by giving insight into the past and the true personalities of the characters, and the way the characters have changed over time.
The relationship between a mother and a daughter is always thought to be very sacred and one of an unconditional bond. Angela Cater shows us the typical bond in ‘The Bloody Chamber’ while Michele Roberts breaks the boundaries of what we see as normal in ‘Anger.’