Ofelia's Last Fairy Tale Analysis

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. “I would get that spoon,” shows how desperate Marie was to reclaim that power that Sister Leopolda had taken away from her when she was a child (Erdrich).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In the novel Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel,it's genre “magical realism is a realistic style of imaginary scenes or realistic fiction. ”Esquivel demonstrate the idea of revolution and liberty with the war that takes place in 1910 during the Mexican revolution, a battle between the federales and rebels, as well as figuratively in Tita’s struggle within herself with Mama Elena. Throughout the book conflict arisen between family ties along with political affairs. The struggle is very difficult to overcome family tradition as well as breaking bonds to find independency during the time of crisis. In every act of bad deed or a feeling of guilt Tita felt that Mama Elena would be there watching her.

Pan’s Labyrinth shows an interesting mix between the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War and the imagination of a child that leaves viewers questioning if the imaginary world is actual part of the “real world.” Throughout these mixings of reality, observers are presented with female characters that come to show that the questioning of authority and reality seemingly results in a positive outcome. Ofelia and her mother Carmen are two opposite examples of this. Ofelia continuously disobeys those around her, and thus, she gets to live as the princess of the underworld at the end of the story. Carmen obeys all that Captain Vidal tells her, so by the end of the movie, she dies completing the captains ultimate dream of having a son.

In It's Not About the Santa in My Fe, but the Santa Fe in My Santa by Alma Lopez, she discusses how the Virgin Mary has influenced her life and how this religious icon has played a huge role for many people of Mexico. In my home, we have a huge Virgin Mary portrait hanging near our living room. My father and mother love and adore the Virgin Mary. Lopez mentioned at the beginning of the story how the Virgin Mary was always present in her family's home and community (pg. 249) I use to live in South Central Los Angeles and remember always seeing paintings on the walls of the Virgin Mary and seeing them as key chains or wallets people had.

She discusses that she writes for her father and people who are just like like him. Cisneros says, “My father represents, then, the public majority. A public who is disinterested in reading, and yet one whom I am writing about and for, and privately trying to woo” (367). She is saying that the majority in our society are people who are disinterested in reading culture because technology is taking over. Although she still tries to woo her father even though her works do not impress him.

Ella Enchanted is an interesting and fanciful take on the fairytale Cinderella that is adapted to suit modern gender attitudes. The tale unfolds in a fanciful medieval world filled with ogres, elves, fairies, and giants. The primary conflict of the story centers around Ella’s curse of obedience and her journey to break the curse. While there are some similarities between the book and movie versions of Ella Enchanted, the many differences are far more significant and include differences in tone, character, and climax.