Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” is a short story about heritage. A thriller in which heritage is seen in different ways. In “Everyday Use”, Walker tells a story about the conflict between a daughter and her family. Even though, the character of Mama is poorly educated, she still knows the meaning of love of her heritage. She wishes to teach this to her two daughters but times have changed and her daughters have difference views of what they think heritage is.
Marilynne Robinson’s novel Housekeeping Introduction In this paper, it will be discussed Marilynne Robinson’s novel Housekeeping, and a literary criticism relying on secondary sources to explore the work of this novelist. Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and Lucille, two sisters who, after their mother's suicide, cared for by a succession of female relatives, finally and most unconventionally by their mother's youngest sister, Sylvie, a wanderer who returns home to attend to her nieces with a peculiar notion of housekeeping. Sylvie's unorthodox mothering--fanciful, impractical clothes; late-night suppers in the dark; a house overrun with newspapers, small animals, and leaves--inspires the conventional Lucille to abandon aunt and sister for a more traditional life with the Home Economics teacher and eventually induces the townspeople to attempt to remove Ruthie from her aunt's iconoclastic care. It is the threat of separation that forces the pair across the bridge. "It is a terrible thing to break up a family," Ruthie offers as an explanation for their flight from civilization; her statement is as well Robinson's articulation of her deviation from the myth of the unencumbered American hero.
Annie feels as though her mother is not trust worthy: “ Why, I wonder, didn’t I see the hypocrite in my mother when, over the years, she said that she loved me and could hardly live with out me, while at the same time proposing and arranging separation after separation, including this one. […](Kincaid 89) Annie thinks her mother wants her completely gone from her life. She does not trust that her mother truly loves her and will miss her. She believes that since her mother is the one who set up this separation, she is not as truthful and loving as Annie once believed. Similarly, Lairds sister also felt her mother was not trustworthy: “ My mother I felt was not to be trusted.”(Munro 50) Lairds sister was unwillingly forced by her mother, to stay in the house all day and fill countless jars with various fruits, instead of being outside in the fields with her father doing the work she loved.
Shakhboz Negmatov Prof: Chadwick Essay #-1 English. 12 Mon-Wed. 12:40-2:50 PM “My Secret Left Me Unable to Help” by Joyce Maynard is an essay about the author herself as a mother who trying help her daughter Audrey through some tough time in her life. Audrey traveled away for volunteering work in the Dominican Republic where she found someone She loves. His name is Johnny. All of suddenly, Audrey stop making regularly contact with her mother.
She does not feel comfortable taking on the old fashioned lifestyle her mother and sister do. Dee is a more contemporary version of society striving to leave their home and become successful. Dee inadvertently talked down to her mother and sister, reading to them on several occasion as if they were ignorant (121). Dee appeared to be very intimidating
Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is a story about a young girl named Connie who starts out being superficial and selfish and ends up in a horrifying situation she must accept unless she wants her family to be in the same horrifying situation. It is a terrible decision for a teenage girl to make, but she does, and she leaves with the mysterious Arnold Friend. There are many different explanations and theories as to why she left with Arnold, what happened when he was at her house, and who Arnold Friend truly was. Joyce Carol Oates left “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” with countless ideas about countless parts of the story. There are very heavy biblical theories about the nature of this story, and many thoughts on Connie’s teenage promiscuity and her assumed rape at the end of the story.
Compare the ways the poet presents ideas about relationships in Sister Maude and Farmers Bride. In Sister Maude Rossetti presents a quarrel between the two sisters. This is shown when she says ‘but sister Maude shall get no sleep’; this suggests that she thinks her sister will go to hell because of what she has done. The fact that she doesn’t use a personal pronoun for her sister suggests that she has disowned her and believes that she is no longer part of the family. The phrase ‘no sleep’ is a euphemism for death and suggests that she will pay for what she has done.
Blanche blames her sister for leaving her alone to take care of things herself in Belle Reeve which is emphasized by the short sentences used when she says ‘I let the place go! Where were you! In bed with your –Polack!’. The repeated exclamations also further reiterate her feelings of betrayal and loneliness caused by Stella’s absence in her life when she left their home. ‘Polak’ refers to Stanley and his mention here foreshadows the conflict soon to follow between Blanche and him.
Her dealing with these individuals has caused her to become very resentful, bitter and jealous. She was very jealous of her sister Stella-Rondo. In the text Sister stated “I was getting along fine with Mama, Papa-Daddy and Uncle Rondo until my sister Stella-Rondo just separated from her husband and came back home again” ( Welty, 367). This statement that Sister made insinuates that she does not want her sister around. And would be thankful if she went back to where she came from.
The narrator speaks in the “we” voice and appears to designate the people of the town. The first example of this occurrence happens during the flashback in the second section, when they are speaking of her sweetheart and the narrator incidentally says “the one we believed would marry her” (35). He or she recounts the story of Emily's life as a lonely woman left lonely by her father, who also drove away suitors from his overprotected daughter. The narrator gives his/her point of view on Emily’s entire life constructed by gossip, speculations and legends of the old town they live in. I believe the narrator voice is being compared to living in a small town, when the townspeople spread rumors and opinions of a person’s life as if they really know what is going on behind closed doors.