ENGL 210 February 12, 2009 Family Matters In Eudory Welty’s short story “Why I live at the P.O.,” the narrator, Sister, complains about her family not giving her the respect she wants. Hard working and very family oriented, Sister struggles to find her place within the circle of her family, but is unsuccessful. To make things worse, Sister’s sister, Stella-Rondo, returns to the home with a daughter. The conflict starts at the beginning with Sister and Stella-Rondo. The story states “ I was getting along find with Mama, Papa- Daddy, and Uncle Rondo until my sister Stella-Rondo just separated from her husband and came back home again.” Stella-Rondo has come home with a child who she claims is adopted.
Writers and storytellers would respond to the stoicism with fantasy. The fairy tales of the time reflect the need for some since of control over death. These stories act as sort of an antidote to daily gloom and doom, not only teaching children how to avoid death, but also giving readers a happy the happy ending, which most did not know in real life. To fulfill the need of the time fairy tale writers of 19th century, tell stories that teach lessons on how fragile life is, but end with the fantasy of parents having their children in a safe place. In “The Story of a Mother,” after having lost her child to illness, a mother goes through several obstacles in an attempt to reunite with her lost child.
But through the in-depth look of each woman’s story and concepts of role-reversal and greater understanding, these maternal connections progress as the novel does. The daughters, regardless of their past relationships with their mothers, find ways to return to their interwoven and complex paths. Throughout the novel, author Amy Tan depicts the intricacies of mother-daughter relationships and the lengths some women will go in order to break cultural barriers and mend generation gaps. In The Joy Luck Club, one of the major conflicts is the existence of cultural barriers, which is depicted through the mothers’ stories and their daughters’
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.
Additionally, the two poems are similar in that in Suicide Note, the college student is trying to please her family by getting perfect grades; she is working hard at school, and feels that she is not good enough, smart enough, or pretty enough (Mirikitani, 1417); the college student is under pressure to live up to her parent’s expectations. In Out, Out, the young boy is also hard at work, trying take care of the family. The poems are different in that in Suicide Note, the college girl has taken her life and writes her parents an apology note informing them why she is taking her life; in Out, Out, the child in the poem does not take his own life, but dies as a result of cutting his hand using a saw. In Out, Out, the young boy is cutting wood, and he becomes excited and cuts his hand on accident. The two poems are also different in that in Suicide Note, the young girl has time to think about and give reason as to why she is taking her life.
The book goes through three different time phrases from modern day California to the lives of Precious Auntie and Luling, and then transitions to Ruth understanding more about her mother and the wonderful person she didn’t see her for when she was growing up. When putting these three phases together it becomes clear that the true mystery behind this book is surrounding Luling and her attempts to remember the name that will bind her past to her future (“Bonesetter’s Daughter Review”). Memory appears to be the main issue of the novel, but in fact it turns out to be one of the most inspiring aspects of the novel. Ruth always saw her mother as difficult, oppressive and odd, with her talks of death, bad luck, ghosts and curses (“Bonesetter’s Daughter Review”) – typical of the Chinese culture that Luling saw herself very connected to. Growing up Ruth hated having to explain everything to her mother.
Hamlet Last week in class we talked about the scene in Hamlet where parental and brotherly advice was given. People, especially family members, love to give advice whether it's helpful or completely useless. In act one scene three Laertes and Polonius both offer advice to Ophelia which, in my opinion, was extremely valuable for a young woman but Ophelia is not the only one to receive advice. In the beginning of the scene, Laertes is telling Ophelia that all of his stuff in on the ship and that she should write to him while he’s away. He says that she most likely would not write to him because she will be too busy with Hamlet so Laertes decides to give her some advice.
Helen Burns is Jane’s her only friend at Lowood who she becomes increasingly close to. They educate each other about life and religion. Helen state “Jane you are too impulsive, you think too much of others”, this demonstrates to the reader Jane’s need to please and desire to sacrifice for what is good. Both Jane and Helen value the friendship they share, to show this Jane sacrifices herself in front of the whole school to save Helen from humiliation and
The main character suffers from depression. Her husband wants to help with her illness, but only helps make her worse by preventing her from enjoying what she loves the most. "There comes John, and I must put this away, he hates to have me write words. "(Gilman,Charlotte) John does not think that his wife should write, rather he wants her to rest everyday in the room with yellow wallpaper. The wallpaper however begins to take a toll on the woman’s life.
Her strength only grew as she was locked in the Red Room by her aunt. Her aunt’s lack of care led Jane to be happy when she was sent away from their home in Gateshead, and to the school Lowood Academy, where she could begin her quest for love. Jane was sent to the Lowood Institution, a school for orphans. Here at Lowood Jane found kindness and acceptance from Helen Burns, another student a few years older than Jane. Jane soon shows to Helen how much love truly means to her by telling her: If others don’t love me, I would rather die than live– I cannot bear to be solitary and hated, Helen.