Ofelia's Last Fairy Tale Analysis

‘Not God’” Sister Leopolda refers to Maries Indian heritage as the devil, darkness, and the dark one (Erdrich). This is how she convinces Marie that she needs the physical abuse of being burned with boiling water and being nearly put into an oven. Once Marie realizes that her background isn’t something to be ashamed of or something evil she leaves the convent. However, the trauma continues to haunt her throughout her life. Her hatred towards Christianity allows to keep herself in check but in “Flesh and Blood” when she goes to see Sister Leopolda on her deathbed her trauma is manifested when she tries to prove her strength at whatever cost.

If it were not for her nightmares she too would have passed. However, she could not sleep so instead read and wrote while in the basement. This is when you see Liesel at her worst point, for she has truly lost everyone. It is in this part where death acknowledges all the loss Liesel has faced, but still continues to live her life to the fullest. Death sums it up best when he says “i wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality.

Her desperation and all-consuming love for him became a source of idolatry in her life, and thus, an unholy endeavor in her life. For her, hell was separation from her son, and heaven was reunion with him. This is quite different from the other Ghosts’ perceptions of heaven and hell. I believe that Lewis (1973) uses this to challenge the audience to consider their own perceptions of heaven and hell, and to consider how the fall of humanity is reflected in their own

Through this autobiography written by Clare, she makes full confessions but distances herself from these crimes throughout the novel. She battles with her conscience over her part in their deaths as she “let slip” to key anti-apartheid about their whereabouts. She obsesses over her guilt so much so that her conscience manifests itself into recurring nightmares, insomnia and the appearance of Nora’s ghost. Her autobiography, Absolution, is her means of “self-exorcism” of her guilty demons. Through this, Clare not only struggles with her guilt but also her motivations in her sister’s betrayal.

‘That [Death] in a way was a metaphor for the idea that this book is about people doing beautiful things in a really ugly time.’ (Zusak, 2010) One of the central themes presented in The Book Thief is the idea of family. It is evident in the text that the idea of a family is not just limited to those in which we are inherently connected; it encompasses those we care for. Her arrival on Himmel Street, leaves Liesel struggling to face the abandonment she has experienced with her mother leaving her for a reason she does not understand and the devastating loss of her brother, Werner, whose ghost haunts her throughout the novel. Liesel’s only connection to them is through The Grave Digger’s Handbook which is also her first act of book thievery. Han is Liesel’s silver eyed, accordion playing foster father who wins her over with his gentle humility, quiet nature and caring demeanour.

By consistently mentioning Gemma’s accounts of sharing her fairy tale story of Briar Rose and the intentional attention to detail, Yolen highlights the strong intimacy associated with traditional storytelling and its power to create powerful connections. As Gemma began telling her story in the beginning of the novel, “the sisters nodded and stepped back a pace each, as if the story demanded their grandmother’s face, not just her scent” (Yolen 21). The way Gemma tells her stories to her granddaughters implies that there is a very traditional, intimate story time setting. In this way, storytelling allows not only for emotional intimacy, but physical intimacy as well. The story “demanded their grandmother’s face” implies that Gemma is looking each girl in the eye and trying to speak to each and every one’s soul (Yolen 22).

When we speak of the Physical bond, the Emotional bond always comes in mind, the following quote by Lucy Grealy “Autobiography of a face” makes this bond between the two characters apparent : “I treated despair in terms of hierarchy: if there was a more important pain in the world, it meant my own was negated. I thought I simply had to accept the fact that I was ugly, and that to feel despair about it was simply wrong”. (Autobiography of a face) Lucy had to accept the fact she was an ugly “Monster” instead of being depressed and despaired about it, she had to live on with her life. In a sense Scylla is similar, she herself had accepted being a Monster and she acted upon that, she did not lock herself up somewhere like in a cell. She as sad as it sounds, took the role that was given to her by others.

(40, Chopin) The awakening helped Edna to discard the conventional concept, and sought for the real self. Edna was awakened from her family. After Edna’s husband had conflict with her, she stayed alone and felt “An indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness, filled her whole being with a vague anguish.” (6, Chopin) The long-term suppression awakened her from the meaningless times she had spent, since she were under the control of her husband after marriage and forced to take care of children. By realizing that she should find her own happiness instead of clinging to outdated custom, she decided to get away from her husband. Therefore, she was not longer going to be the same woman as others who centered their lives on husband and children.

In this case, she causes much trouble. Doreen Fowler, a writer explains why the title and the mother are of significant meaning by comparing it to the Odyssey. He wants his readers to believe that the mother was capable of withstanding the forces outside the world just to seek revenge on the family she never really wanted. Fowler’s title, “Matricide and the Mother’s Revenge: As I lay dying,” is the first thing that makes audiences want to lend an ear to her opinion. She quotes a line from the Odyssey, “As I Lay dying, the woman with dog’s eyes would not close for me my eyelids as I descended into Hades,” (316) because she wants to show that the “woman” would watch the evils of those who came before her.

Is the fact that she sheltered her kids; to the extent where it had a negative effect. Her devotion and drive to keep her kids from becoming like their father may have been coming from a sincere place; however it only caused harm to their relationship. This can be shown when Jenny Lynn finds one of her offspring reading a book and decides to take matters into her own hands: (Pg.40) " my sisters one by one discovered my father's bedroom...my mother's reaction was always abrupt, bordering on the angry...and once I saw her slap my youngest sister so hard." Despite the fact that she disliked books and sees it as a waste of time. If she were to change her point of view or look at it from another angle, she might have seen books as a door to opportunities and other possibilities.