Brijitte Jean-Philippe English Ms. Cinnater Ordinary People Beth is the matriarch in the book “Ordinary People”. Beth rebels against the role to not be a perfectionist. She faces several problem with her son Conrad and Husband Calvin. Also the two of them have no expectations of Beth to be perfect, but Beth puts it upon herself to be that way. Conrad and Calvin want Beth to be a “normal mom”, a mother that’s going to talk about feelings and help with the family’s emotions, but Beth refuses to change her ways.
All characters in The Grapes of Wrath bear moment's of deep self disappointment; however, Ma does not create a chance for them to stumble. Instead, she protects her family from people who would try to break their spirit. For example, Rose of Sharon is approached by a religious woman, who panics her into believing that the baby she will have will be ruined for life. Ma Joad understandingly knows how easily ones spirit can
Her mother is pleading for her not to go as she does not think that they want her there. “Listen Rosaura, that one’s not your friend. You know what you are to them? The maid’s daughter”(Heker,1). Rosaura’s mother is trying to convince Rosaura not to go because she has a feeling that they are going to embarrass her.
With necessary communication, the relationships in a family can be maintained smoothly. However, a family’s relationships can be easily destroyed by miscommunications. The character Sister is one of the most important characters in the story. Sister is lack of communication with her family, clouding her view of the world by her narrowed-mind, which deepens her family’s misunderstanding of her, even results herself in leaving home, and moving into the post office. In the story, Stella-Rondo, who is the younger sister of Sister, tries to turn Papa-Daddy against Sister, and tells a lie to Papa-Daddy that Sister thinks he should have cut his beard.
Reb Molinsky is shown to be almost a slave of his own religion, to the point that he is willing to sacrifice the integrity of his household just to serve his God. Like Sara, his will and faith in his goals are so strong that he completely turn his head away from his family’s needs and chooses to lock himself in a room filled with his books while everyone else starves. This is perceived as an inhumane action, but we need to consider that Sara’s actions are no better than her father’s. Once she is an accomplished woman she goes back to her parents, just to find her mother laying on her deathbed. In other words, she turned her head away her family in order to study and fulfill her goals.
Ruth, in The Color of Water, exemplifies this quote because she completely disregards her own self-esteem. Instead, she ignores what other people, including her own her family, think of her as long as she can accomplish succumbing to her values. Both her black acquaintances and white acquaintances do not understand her association with blacks and decide to ridicule her. Despite this ridicule, she continues to live independently so that she can support her children. Rachel also decides to keep up the church that her husband started despite the death of her husband.
By Edna neglecting her Tuesday’s at home she not only puts a bad name on herself, but that bad name is reflected on her family too. Edna decides “to do as she liked and to feel as she liked” (Chopin 95) demonstrating a selfish nature according to the expectations of a Creole woman (95). As Edna continues to go against her husbands’ wishes she “[resolves] never to take another step backward” (Chopin 95), deciding that in order for her to continue down this path of independence and succeed she needs to put her entire being in to this decision (95). The further Edna continues down this path, and the more she pushes against her husband testing his boundaries, she decides that she would be better off living on her own. The decision to move in to her own house is beyond unacceptable to her husband during this time but Edna does not care about this, rather speaking of how she “[knows she] shall like it, the feeling of freedom and independence” (Chopin
But that didn’t stop her; she planned to go to Nigeria with Asagai for medical school, which costs money. This dream didn’t work out to well since Walter invested all the money that Mama gave him into the liquor store. He wanted to open a liquor store with Bobo and Willy because he wanted a real job. When Bobo came to tell him that Willy skipped town with the money Walter was in utter denial. Beneatha and Mama were furious along with Ruth.
Once her and her husband arrived at mother’s house, Maggie and Dee started arguing about who take the quilt that been in the family for a very long time. Dee thinks that she should get it because the is older and more”responsible”.They kept going on and on about it for a while.Finally mother jumps into the conversation and solves it,by telling Dee “NO” and Maggie that she keeps the quilt. Once Dee and Maggie are done fighting about the quilt, Maggie tell Dee to have the quilt instead. Dee gets mad at Maggie because maggie gave up the quilt to easy. She feels that she dont have any self respect for herself.
She teaches her social etiquettes and decorum. Alongside practical advice, the mother also instructs her daughter on how to live a fulfilling life. She offers sympathy, such as when she talks about the relationships her daughter will one day have with men, warning that men and women sometimes “bully” each other. Often, however, the mother’s advice seems caustic and castigating, out of fear that her daughter is already well on her way to becoming a “slut”. She tells the girl, for instance, not to squat while playing marbles, not to sing any Antiguan folksongs in Sunday school, and to always walk like a lady.