Sexuality In ZZ Packer's Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

What makes a good story? Oftentimes writers encounter questions like this and start to wonder about the writing essentials of a good story. As many skills and beautiful words that make up a captivating story, it will have to be one that makes connections to the readers. Only when readers are able to make a connection to their experience or values, they start gaining from the story. Through creating conflicts, conveying the theme and a relative background, the writers of “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “Sonny’s Blues” fully express their values and thoughts by the “bridge” between readers and them.

describing the transformation that Edna Pontellier undergoes as she realizes that the conventions of her society have been constraining her from becoming her true, independent self. Edna’s awareness of her duality of self, her private emotional life, and the loneliness that accompanies her newfound freedom are all clear evidence that she truly becomes enlightened and revived by the end of the novel. The inability of the other characters in this novel to hinder Edna’s transformation is a reflection of society’s complete powerlessness against the inner flame of emotion

In Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, the major theme that develops is a loss of innocence. This loss of innocence is a common theme in many of the stories including Brownies, Our Lady of Peace, Speaking in Tongues, and Geese. In the first story Brownies, there is a troop of black girl scouts and a troop of white girl scouts going camping. The black girl scouts have always looked at the white girls as different, and were calling them names. “They smell like Chihuahuas.” At the beginning of the story, all the girls are still “little children” and innocent. This all changes when one of the white girls from troop 909 calls one of the black girls a nigger. When the black girls heard of this, they decided to seek revenge on the white girls. When the troop

Nella Larson’s novel Passing, tells the story of two African American women Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry who embark on a journey to “reconnect” with one another. Although, similar in appearance, these two women were very different in the way they determined race. For women like Irene and Clare who were physically able to “pass” as white women, despite having African American heritage the typical connotation that race was distinguished by the color of one’s skin did not apply to them. As a result, many women like Irene and Clare would cross the racial lines. The character Clare Kendry was the perfect example of “passing.” Clare explains why she decided to leave her former African American identity for one of white privileges. However,

This novel, The Awakening, is about a woman named Edna Pontellier learns to think of herself as an independent human being. Also, Edna Pontellier refuses to obey against the social norms by leaving her husband Leónce Pontellier and having an affair with Robert Lebrun. Kate Chopin describes societal expectations and the battle of fitting the mold of motherhood in the Awakening by how Edna Pontellier and Adele Ratignolle contribute to their family in different ways. Edna Pontellier’s attitude toward motherhood is that she is not a perfect mother-women. Adele Ratignolle’s attitude toward motherhood is that she is a perfect mother-women.

To understand the linkage between sexuality and gender, it is important to reimagine the relationship between sexuality and gender and the rapport they hold with self-identification. Not long ago, sexuality was tied to procreation - becoming the core of one’s identity. Gender had always been tied to biological sex. However, a crisis of gender identity emerged and blurred the gender and sexuality binaries that had become commonplace social facts. A fluidity was created that allowed individuals to not feel the pressure of fitting inside distinct identification categories. Steven Seidman’s Revolt Against Sexual Identity provides anecdotes that describe the liberation that comes with rejecting these norms, “...her identities as transgender, female,

There is a sharp contrast between shame and self-acceptance. One must psychologically determine which they will let dictate their actions. Shame tends to impede one’s own progression of this self-acceptance. This is an apparent feature in Dorothy Allison’s “Trash”, as she navigates between the two interchangeably by giving the reader a taste of her personal life. In this autobiography she allows the reader to delve into the personal and dark times in her life. As well as the highlights and strong points in her life. Allison’s mental dissension is portrayed through her family’s poverty, unrealistic expectations of society, and her lesbian identity.

The pursuit of dreams has played a big role in self-fulfillment and internal development and in many ways, an individual 's reactions to the perceived and real obstacles blocking the path to a dream define the very character of that person. This theme is evident in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, which is about the search for identity. A woman of a mixed ethnicity resides in several communities, each playing an important role and serve as crucial influences on her life. During the story, she endures two failed relationships and one good relationship, dealing with disappointment, death, the wrath of nature and life’s unpredictability.

“Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” by ZZ Packer follows the story of Dina, a young black girl from Baltimore, as she copes with life studying at Yale (117-119). Throughout the story, Dina seems to be a fiercely and independent character that likes to be on her own and away from society. She always speaks her mind, regardless of the consequences, but her independence destroys her because of her lack of introspection. This helps her to give up things that will help her get out of her individualism. Due to this, she pushes away the only friend she has because of her inability to understand herself, and her toxic personality. She wants to keep hurting herself adding more pain to her life. She is clearly an example of someone who is in pain that needs

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve experienced a sudden moment of realization, they become aware of themselves and their surroundings. This “awareness” led to their demise and created a door for sin. Likewise, the main character in the novel “The Awakening” experiences a sudden moment of awareness. Like many women of her time, she tried to follow the tracks laid out for her, trying to please the eyes of the people. But what happens when a person lets go any effort to be someone, become someone or identify themselves to someone? This sole desire to set one’s own tracks leads to the initiation of self-realization. The main character, Edna Pontellier had many different awakenings that set the tracks to her self-awareness

Nella Larsen’s Passing is a novella about the past experiences of African American women ‘passing’ as whites for equal opportunities. Larsen presents the day to day issues African American women face during their ‘passing’ journey through her characters of Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry. During the reading process, we progressively realize ‘passing’ in Harlem, New York during the 1920’s becomes difficult for both of these women physically and mentally as different kinds of challenges approach ahead. Although Larsen decides the novella to be told in a third person narrative, different thoughts and messages of Irene and Clare communicate broken ideas for the reader, causing the interpretation of the novella to vary from different perspectives.

Society is shaped by a number of different forces and factors. Inevitably, these forces come together to construct the life of the individual. In this essay, C.W. Mills’ sociological imagination will be discussed. A personal problem,homosexuality, and a social issue, homosexuality, will be highlighted. In concluding the essay, a reflection on the usefulness of the sociological imagination will be offered.

Inside and beyond the myth and the social impact of the subject as One or Substance.

Unlike Changez, Zabreen is able to carry the double-consciousness with her dual identities at the same time, and uses the stereotypes and her own experiences as power to fight back the false perceptions and educate the white dominant group about her country, people, and sex. Coming from a privileged family with cultural capital in one of the biggest cities in Pakistan, Zabreen is very well-educated with an open-minded father who encourages her to have the best education in America and a independent mother who pursues high education and owns her own business. Deeply influenced by her female family members, Zabreen is clearly aware of women 's ability to success and women 's sufferings in her country. Studying in one of the top private high schools and universities in America, Zabreen understands the social conditions of a white dominant culture very well that she is fully aware of the stereotypes and false racial perceptions that Americans have for Pakistani as she sees herself through the eyes of the white dominant group. Fully acknowledge of the situations of her country and all women, Zabreen turns the stereotypes that people give her into power to fight back the false perceptions and educate the dominant culture with her book the Dual Seed and her Ted Talk "The Storied They Never Told You". What makes Zabreen different from Changez is when she says: "I had to take control of how I was perceived by erasing the misconceptions my friends had been conditioned to form. I

Many people believe that men and women cannot be friends. Like Harry in When Harry Met Sally, many people believe that sex will always have a role in these types of friendships. Research has found that there are five challenges to cross-sex friendship, and sexual attraction is one of them. Emotional bond, equality, audience, and opportunity are the other challenges. Firstly, emotional bond challenge brings up the question of whether the closeness is due to friendship or romantic love. This is often the initial question in cross-sex friendships, especially in order to determine where the relationship is going. Sexual attraction is the next challenge and whether it is present in the friendship or not. Evidently, if sexual attraction exists then