The Mother is a static character who remains unchanged throughout the story. Olsen paints an image of herself as that of a strong and caring Mother with a lot of guilt. The conflict for the Mother is the remorse for neglecting her first born child even though the neglect could not be helped. Olsen states, “I will become engulfed with all I did or did not do, with what should have been and cannot be helped” (290). Emily is a minor character in the story and is the Mother’s first born child.
Her parents throughout the short story and the film did not have such a great relationship with her. They favored her younger sister over her because she was very calm and laid back. In the short story and the film Connie is an illusion to the everyday teenager in the United States who is low on their self esteem. Through characterization both the film and short story put specific details to identify what Arnold Friend is really like and who he puts danger in Connie’s
Due to his mother’s stern moral beliefs, he does not have much interest in sexual relations and has negative views on it. The third problem is Dunstan’s fear of being manipulated in a relationship because, of his mothers firm control over his father. Thus due to the hostile childhood his mother creates, Dunstan can never form a successful relationship in adulthood and this leads to a life of loneliness. Having trust is a major aspect in keeping a continuous relationship. Being trustful though, is a characteristic Dunstan Ramsay lacks and this results in weakened relationships.
In her short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, Joyce Carol Oates emphasizes the theme that appearances are not everything through the development and fate of her characters Connie and Arnold Friend. Connie prides herself on her beauty; “she [knows] she [is] pretty and that [is] everything” (427). She believes that her plain, simple family is inferior to her; she views her sister Jane as “plain and chunky and steady” (427) and she does not pay any attention to her mother, who is “simple and kindly enough to believe” (429) anything Connie tells her, be it the truth or a lie— “everything about [Connie has] two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that [is] not home” (428). When she is away from home, Connie projects a mature, lascivious persona that is trapped inside her, waiting to be set free, but the only place Connie can satisfy her desires is when she goes to the shopping plaza with her best friend. At home, Connie’s mind is “filled with trashy daydream” (428), always “thinking, [and] dreaming, about the boys she met” (429).
He does not know what he should do or say. Jealous of the former relationship between his wife and Robert, he is suspicious. He knows that his wife has told Robert about him and has probably complained about his faults. This makes him feel guilty and insecure. He later says how "I was not enthusiastic about his visit.... A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to” (100).
As Hannah becomes a mother herself and a mother being the first model of love that the children experiences, she emotionally detaches herself from Sula as she was detached from her mother. Sula is able to shape her ego and separate herself from her family after she overhears her mother’s conversation: "You love her, like I love Sula. I just don't like her". Hannah not representing an admirable empathetic mother figure makes Sula assert control over her identity through the inability of connecting with other people as an adult. She is able to find her autonomy and independence denying responsibilities and attachment to anything.
She is of the type that nobody can really tell her anything, as she already knew it to begin with. She has two daughters, Carramae and Glynese, who are very normal girls. She has a strange fascination for Hulga’s wooden leg as well as “a special fondness for the details of secret infections, hidden deformities, assaults upon children. Of diseases , she preferred the lingering or incurable.” She is considered to be a simpleton by Mrs. Hopewell. Mrs. Hopewell is the farm owner and mother to Joy, also know as Hulga.
Calvin and his son Conrad find is hard or next to impossible to communicate with Beth. If Beth had agreed to seek professional help by a third-party, which in the movie she had no intentions would have helped her in many ways. Beth was very unwilling to share her feelings with anyone. For this reason Beth found it very hard to open up to anyone in comfort, which is caused by her denial and suppression. To conclude, it is
They believed that a person’s appearance did not matter as much as a person’s behavior. The way the Pueblo people looked at life was from the heart and soul. They believed that there was no good or bad in people, so comparing one to another was silly to them. Silko quoted in her essay “In the old days, Pueblo people educated their children in this manner: adults took time out to talk to and teach young people. Everyone was a teacher and every activity had the potential to teach the child (398).The author gains strength from the stories told by her grandmother as it shapes her identity.
“If Mr. Finch doesn’t wear you out, I will.” (278) Calpurnia isn’t scared to give the kids a spanking. She has been around them long enough that she is comfortable to discipline them. And this quote tells exactly that. She is practically a mother figure to the kids. With just these few examples of the way Harper Lee addresses “Family” in To Kill a Mockingbird, it is noticeable that family matters a lot in this book.