‘Flowers’ by Robin Jenkins is a short story about a young girl who has been evacuated to the Highlands during WW2 and dislikes it so much that she decides to break the rules. She rebels by going to the beach where the fighter jets practise bombing and finds a gruesome scene. This short story deals with a less pleasant side of life concerned with the consequences of war and the loneliness of the main character Margaret. In this essay I will show unpleasant life can be. Robin Jenkins first shows you how different the little girl is, “red eyed dissenter”.
In the Grimm’s version of Cinderella (628-633), the day of the wedding Ashputtle begs to go. Her stepmother dumps a bowlful of lentils in the ashes and says that she will be allowed to go if she can pick up the lentils from the ashes in two hours. Ashputtle asks two doves to help her pick up the lentils. They help her, but once she is done, the stepmother again throws lentils in the ashes. (629).
They looked like wig hair, damaged and knotted, but felt like duck feathers.” It is typical for a fiction story to describe surroundings with such detail, but since this was written as a letter to someone, the use of detail is used to emphasize the loneliness of the writer, since she probably has nobody else to listen to what she has to say. With jack being gone, the writer has nobody else to talk to at home, so during various parts of the letter, one can witness how the writer is constantly giving her cat human traits, such as: “We danced the visitor-gone dance, flinging our feet (and paws)…” further indicating her loneliness and longing for another person’s
Dee was consistently ungrateful and displeased with her life despite her mother's hard work. “I see her [Dee] standing off under the sweet gum tree she used to dig gum out of; a look of concentration on her face as she watched the last dingy gray board of the house fall in toward the red hot brick chimney. Why don't you do a dance around the ashes? I'd wanted to ask her. She had hated the house that much.” This shows just how much Dee cared about her lifestyle and the location of the house.
She is scared of the ocean and doesn't understand how her parents can be so comfortable in it. Also, Andy is a young girl, so when the author says “but Andy wouldn't go further than a few feet into the surf” (Kaplan 45). By this quote, the author could mean that Andy is only a young girl not ready to grow up, so she's only going to go a few feet into the ocean. Andy's mom's (who is farther out in the ocean) top comes off when she is out in the ocean, “Andy saw that her mother's swimsuit top had come off, so that her breasts swayed free” (45). After seeing her mother's breasts, Andy was embarrassed, so the author is probably implying that she is not ready to become a woman but she knows one day she will have to come to terms with it and be a woman just like
But according to the article, "Cinderella: Not So Morally Superior" by Elisabeth Panttaja, the author tells us that the sweet-tempered, motherless young woman that we read about as children was an imposter. Panttaja opens her article with Cinderella's mother on her death-bed, advising her that if she is "good and pious"1, that she, the mother; "shall look down from heaven and take care of you"1. She explains that this opening scene in Cinderella sets forth the central problem that she must overcome; which is that her mother is absent. The arrival of a strong stepmother and stepsisters', and their unification to subjugate her, makes Cinderella appear weak. And the stepsisters' power is manifested because the stepmother is present.
Addy was still weak from the efforts of her labour, and still sore and bleeding, but she knew she had to leave and she had to leave today" (Lansens 271). Then, when Addy loses Chick, she handles the situation in a better way: "She would not pass through the big oak doors though. Instead she climbed the fire escape stairs, stepping around Mr. Baldwin's winter wood and kindling, intent on keeping her memories at bay" (Lansens 472). Addy is able to overcome the feeling of hurt fast after the death of her second child because she already faces a similar dilemma with her first child. She leaves a whole country to conquer the feeling of loss of her first child whereas she simply decides to ignore the passage her family used to take together in her building after her second child dies.
While she is upset by this, she instead thinks about the things she can do such as, “writing, teaching, raising children and cats and plants and snakes, reading, speaking publicly about MS and depression, even playing bridge” (Mairs 48) In the essay Mairs talks about two women, both with MS, living completely different lives. One lives as though she’s not disabled, while the other suffers through it, almost giving up her life to MS. When she was on her way to California for a family trip, she experienced an exacerbation but went to California anyway because she wasn’t sure whether or not she’d ever be able to make it there again. Mairs refuses to give in to the negative thoughts because she doesn’t want to make any decisions for future Nancy because she doesn’t know what future Nancy
Choose one character introduced in chapter 2 and write 2 paragraphs on how Steinbeck presents them. Use language features and comment on the effect of these on the reader. In Of Mice and Men, chapter 2, Steinbeck presents Curley’s wife as a young flirtatious ‘girl’ who is trying to seek attention of all the men on the ranch through her physical appearance. This is seen through the use of invective language ‘well, I think Curley’s married … a tart’ by candy. The harsh use of word ‘tart’ for Curley’s wife before her introduction in the novella suggests that her actions are not praised by the men on the ranch .This also implies that Steinbeck wants to creates a false impression about Curley’s wife in the readers head which leads them to prejudice before meeting her.
reviewThe Secret Life Of Bees Drama South Carolina 1960s In South Carolina in 1964, this is the story of Lily Owens, a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her mother’s death. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily runs away with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by the loving and friendly Boatwright sisters, Lily finds comfort in their amazing world of beekeeping In the midst of the civil rights movement, Rosaleen finds herself in some trouble with the locals, inspiring Lily to flee with her to a South Carolina town that she believes holds the secret to her mother's past. In this town, they find refuge with the Boatwright sisters (Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys and Sophie Okonedo), who take them in on the strength of a story concocted by Lily. Through their cultured world, filled with beekeeping, a lucrative honey business, religious beliefs and love, Lily finds the security she has longed for and finds the answers to questions that haunted her for years.