The shawl itself evokes the single most powerful theme of the story: the magical provision of safety, nourishment, and succor within a hostile environment. Magda is seen as special, a child to be saved from the Holocaust. She is protected by a "magic shawl" that shields her from the Nazis, and nourishes her when her mother's breasts stop providing milk for her to live off of. It is a shawl that keeps Magda quiet when she must hide during roll call and protects her from the "bad wind with pieces of black in it, that made Stella's and Rosa's eyes tear". While they all carry heavy physical loads, they also all carry heavy emotional loads of grief, terror, love, and longing.
While reading the novel My Sister’s Keeper it took me back to the year my mom died, just like Kate she too needed a kidney but wasn’t as fortunate to live long enough for it to happen. More depth into the book I began to put myself in all of the characters shoes, Kate and Anna were both brave. Anna was brave because she kept undergoing surgery for her sister donating stem cells, bone marrow, and blood which were all not easily done. Kate is also brave because she never once complained; she loved her sister more than herself and she already knew her fate was decided. ”My sister’s the one who’s always had to imagine life without me”.
Without knowing how to read and write the world just passes you by as if nothing had a meaning. Knowing how to read is a very critical asset in your life. For instance, in the story Kozol reads a letter to the mother from the hospital about her child having lead poisoning. The mom does not know how to read, and if no one would have read it to her the paper would of just been another addition to her unread mail. As you can see what is the point of the hospital sending her very important news about her kid’s health if she could not read the letter (Kozol 257)?
Nanny felt by marrying Janie off to Logan, Janie would live to be free and Nanny would not have to worry so much and knew she would be well taken care of. Nanny is protecting Janie from getting a reputation like her mother, Leafy. Nanny goes on to explain what happened to Leafy: “Dat school teacher had done hid her in de woods all night long, and he had done raped mah baby and run on off just before day” (Hurston 19). Leafy became a drinker and would be out all hours of the night after Janie was born; therefore, Nanny is trying to keep Janie safe. Furthermore, Logan Killicks was also trying to protect Janie by listening to Nanny and wanted Janie to be happy and have a good reputation with what he had to offer.
Although free will plays into some aspects of the lives of the characters, it is chance and especially inopportune deaths in the novel that dictate a life’s trajectory. Some may argue that the death of Mercy Goodwill and the motherless life of Daisy was a result of free will suggesting, that Mercy willingly chose not to investigate her ailments with Dr. Spears. Although this opposition offers valuable consideration, one must consider who Mercy Stone-Goodwill really was. Brought up in an orphanage from the time she was a baby, “[Mercy] grew up, cloistered as any nun” (28), she was a woman who lacked common knowledge on the issues of womanhood, conception and intimate marital relations. Secondly, Mercy was obese, “by age ten she
Aibileen works for Elizabeth, so Aibileen has to take care of her daughter, Mae Mobley. Aibileen and Mae Mobley have a different relationship than other babies she has taken care of. It is a different relationship because Aibileen has a seed of bitterness planted inside her after Treelore, her son, died. In an article by Jackie Crosby, it mentions the love Aibileen had for her babies, “There's Aibileen, the wise and gentle soul whose heart breaks every time one of the white babies she loves so much grows up to ‘become just like they mama’” (Crosby). So she teaches Mae Mobley something she has never taught any of her other children because she wants to avoid Mae Mobley turning out like her mother, Elizabeth.
Food, eating, cooking and feeding are in fact are the most natural activities associated with women. In a way, it is a universal symbol of women’s life. Similarly Dadi’s devotional acts - from prayer to ritual sacrifice of goat, her ‘berating of the Devil’ and Ramadan mastications are routine events of every Pakistani household. It could easily be argued that Dadi is a heroine of sorts in “Excellent Things in Women.” Suleri quotes her grandmother’s wise remarks and admires from a distance her strength. Yet, toward the end of the chapter Dadi is shunned from the family’s daily life and dies alone.
Florence Nightingale was a very nurturing nurse. When she was younger, she claimed she got a call from God asking if she would do well for him alone and not for the fame, she obliged to the commitment (Aller). Her obliging shows how she didn’t want to become world-renowned. Nightingale just wanted to be a nurse for the health of others. While serving the Crimean War, she had beds made for sick soldiers who had to rest on the floor (Aller).
Her mother was very ill with asthma. Throughout their journey, her mother’s asthma worsened. I realized that Farah had patience and was very protective of her mother when she says “…I tried to shield her with my body, tried to keep the other passengers from pressing in on her so that she would have her own space to breathe out of…” (page 181). Abraham dreamed to become a minister someday. According to the documentary created by 60 Minutes, Abraham fulfilled his dream.
Towards the end of the play it is soon to be discovered that Oswald is sick with syphilis causing him to grow weaker every day. Mrs. Alving, being the caring mother she always wanted to be is there for her son in his time of need. Though Oswald, never had that feeling of motherly love as a child. Asks her to give him the morphine when the time is right. Mrs. Alving contemplates whether it is a wise choice to nurse her son for as long as she can because that is her motherly duty or to do what he has asked of her and let him go.