The Dead Analysis

“The Dead” is the final story of the collection “Dubliners” written by James Joyce in 1914. To briefly summarize the story, Gabriel with his wife, Gretta, attended the annual dancing party hosted by his two aunts. However, at the party, Gabriel was confronted with embarrassing situations, such as a housemaid who was provoked by his personal comment and his dance partner who taunted him. At the end of the party, Gabriel found his wife who was enraptured by song and he got to know that his wife was thinking of her old lover who had died for her. Thus, he sadly looked at his wife and the story ended.

In “The Dead”, restrained behaviors of Gabriel and his aunts who have reputations made him as a person with authority. However, two different situations

However when his wife fell asleep, instead of feeling jealous of her first love, he felt sadness at her first love who died without knowing his own aching love. Therefore, Gabriel reflected on his passionless life and decided to live a life with full of passion like Michael Furey because he realized that life is too short to be wasted.

To sum up, Gabriel experienced an inward change after hearing the memory of his wife’s first love, Michael Furey that there is no division between the past of the dead and the present of living. It shows that Gabriel might change his attitude toward life and improve himself.

“Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” is an autobiography of a young mother and fugitive slave written by Harriet Ann Jacobs, who used pseudonym, Linda Brent. The book covers a subject on the author’s life as a slave and how she gained freedom for herself and her children.

The story can be divided into 3 different themes, the corrupting power of slavery, domesticity as paradise and prison, and the psychological abuses of

However, the author, as a black woman, was excluded from this system. Therefore, she showed how she was longing to create a real home for herself and her children.

However, the author, by explaining the example of the black woman who had a real home, also asserted that though having a home and a stable family life is valuable, it should be balanced with personal freedom to guarantee a woman’s individuality.

The psychological abuses of slavery:

The author also mentioned about the physical brutality and how slaves were forced to endure deprivation. However, she mostly focused on explaining the mental problems of slaves caused by physical abuses. She and many other slaves suffered greatly from being denied their basic human rights, such as men and women were not allowed to marry, women were often required to sleep with their masters, and their children were sold to other owners, so families had to be separated. Therefore, the author emphasized that the mental cruelty of slavery was as devastating as its physical