The ideological values of the protagonist, Philomena Beviso, structure the text in the story. Philomena Beviso had the farsightedness of judging her future husband as a worthy man. She had the intelligence to foresee that Costanzo had something exceptional in him. This is proven by the fact that while Costanzo asked her to marry him two years later, Philomena had made up her mind the moment she laid her eyes on him. Another ideological value of the protagonist is the way she handled the issue of the ownership of the shoe store. After many years when Mr. Beviso did not return, Philomena had planned to own the shoe store after seeing her husband troubled because of this issue. Unfortunately, this was not possible because a relative of Mr. Beviso could only own the shoe store. At this point the protagonist, Philomena, came up with a plan to go to Italy for two months and while on their way back they would dispose of their passports in the sea. This allowed them to create new passports in which they wrote their surname as Beviso.…
During the American Civil War, the Massachusetts army engages Confederate forces in a bloody battle. Captain Robert Shaw is injured in the battle and assumed lost, but is found alive by a gravedigger named John Rawlins and sent to a field hospital. Shaw visits his family, and is introduced to Frederick Douglass. Shaw is offered a promotion to the rank of Colonel, and command of the first all-black regiment the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer army. He accepts the responsibility, and asks his childhood friend, Major Cabot Forbes to serve as his second in command. Their first volunteer soldier is another one of Shaw's friends, a bookish freeman named Thomas. Others soon follow, including Rawlins and Trip, an escaped slave who is mistrustful of Shaw. The black soldiers undergo a training regimen under the harsh supervision of Sgt. Mulcahy. Forbes and Shaw argue over the training. When Trip goes out and is caught, Shaw orders him to be whipped in front of the troops. While talking to Rawlins, Shaw finds out that Trip had left merely to find shoes to replace his own worn ones. Shaw realizes that supplies are being denied to his soldiers because of their race. He confronts Kendric, and finds out that the shoes and socks were in stock but had not been given to them. Shaw continues to respect the blacks when a pay dispute which the Federal government decided to pay black soldiers less than white soldiers. Once the 54th completes its training they go on their way to join the war in South Carolina, the 54th is ordered to destroy a Georgia town and burn it by Harker's second-in-command, Colonel Montgomery. After refusing, he obeys the order and the town is destroyed. Shaw invests Rawlins as a Sergeant Major and Rawlins begins the difficult task of earning respect from both the white and black soldiers. Shaw confronts Harker and threatens to report the smuggling he has discovered unless Harker orders the 54th into combat. In their first battle on James Island, early…
The stories in Chapters eight and nine not only provide a more concrete look into Chris’ sanity, but also allow us to more deeply understand his person and his purpose. In Chapters eight and nine when are introduced to the stories of Gene Rosellini, John Waterman, Carl McCunn, and Everett Ruess. Each man had a different story however obviously the same skeletal structure. Gene had began his journey into the wild as an experiment “in knowing if it was possible to be independent of modern technology” and revert to primitive lifestyles (Krakauer 74). Previously being a 4.0 GPA student and a star athlete, Gene eventually became overcome by his soon-to-be failed hypothesis “convinced that humans had devolved into progressively inferior beings” (Krakauer…
In the chapter 25, since America ended the World War II after they dropped the atomic bomb in Japanese continent, America confronted the communist, especially Soviet from 1946 to 1952. Through this confrontation between America and Soviet, the cold war begun around the world. Since the Soviets tried to reinforce opposing goals that were against American vision in Eastern Europe, the Soviets forced pressured Eastern Europe to make communism. However, fortunately, the Truman Doctrine helped those nations to stop being communism, and the Marshall Plan made the Truman Doctrine extended to all of Europe. In 1948, the cold war tension was accelerated by the Berlin Blockade. The soviet wanted West Germany to abandon the western part, but since the Berlin Airlift was succeeded, it brought huge victory for the U.S. In 1949, NATO was built to protect Western Europe from communism. In 1947, the United States legislated the National Security Act to prevent the communism all over the world. On the one hand, the U.S also tried to expand some interests in Latin America. Through the Rio Pact in 1947, Latin Americans got collective security from America. Since America didn’t have much oil for…
The novel opens with an unnamed narrator recounting a train trip through Iowa the previous summer with an old friend named Jim Burden, with whom the narrator grew up in a small Nebraska town. The narrator recalls talking with Jim about childhood on the prairie, and then notes that while they both live in New York, they don’t see each other much, since Jim is frequently away on business and since the narrator doesn’t really like Jim’s wife. The narrator resumes talking about the train trip with Jim through Iowa, adding that their discussion kept returning to a girl named Ántonia, with whom the narrator had lost touch but with whom Jim had renewed his friendship. The narrator recounts that Jim mentioned writing down his…
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God written by Zora Neale Hurston, the protagonist, Janie, and her husband for a respectable portion of her life, Jody Starks, seek courtship for entirely different reasons. Janie pursues sexual and emotional fulfillment as she journeys to the horizon and to a place of limitless possibility, while the male domineering Jody Starks seeks only after power, control, and a good place in society. These dramatic differences in ideals of love are the source of conflict between Janie and Jody and utterly shift Janie’s understanding of freedom and what it means to be free. Their different outlooks also lead to their downfall as a couple, and the downfall of Jody Starks as a man.…
Weatherall did not have an easy life. She was jilted at the altar, lost a child, and later on played the role of mother and father when her husband died. When she talks about herself she talks about all the hard work that usually corresponds to the man along with the typical responsibilities of a mother that she had to do. Even when lying on her deathbed, she tries to convince herself and those around her that she is in perfect health and makes plans for the following days. Miss Brill, on the other side, is an English teacher in France who lives an uneventful and routinary life, but maintains a panglossian attitude. She spends her days at the park eavesdropping and every once in a while she wears her old fur wrap with great pride. The only thing that makes Ms. Brill’s life better is finding an almond…
and in Venezuela their plantation agriculture had declined as well. The Ranching in Uruguay and…
Alvarez presents a series of ironic situations to make candid observations about how women are just as capable as men to do what society defines as “men’s” work. In The Time of the Butterflies is set in the era of Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, where the Mirabal sisters assist in organizing a rebellion against the regime and are soon known as the “Butterflies.” Despite the bravery they demonstrated, the Mirabal sisters were ordinary wives and mothers who did not take the passive role of a woman but instead rose above their titles. When the Mirabal sisters try to convince sister Dedé to join them in the revolution, Dedé expects charismatic and passionate Minerva to speak up but instead hears littlest sister Mate do so, the little sister…
Patria, one of the brave Mirabal sisters, goes through the most drastic life-changing battle. Patria struggles to overcome the tragedy of having a miscarriage and is overwhelmed with emptiness. Patria’s strong insecurities reveal themselves as she buries herself in sorrow and sadness struggling to come to terms with her loss. Patria still continues on but hides to protect herself. Although she loses her identity, she hides it from her community: “…a model Catholic wife and mother. I fooled them all! Yes, for a long time after losing my faith, I went on, making believe” (Alvarez 55). Still known in her community as a good Catholic wife and mother, Patria hides her loss of identity to others and projects toward society an image condoning her oppressive struggles, but inside she was “an empty house.” She goes on living the life expected of her, as she resumes her duties and puts on a good face over her broken heart. Patria represents the fears and insecurities we all portray when faced with challenges. She foreshadowed the rest of the people of the Dominican…
Here, the novel reveals the unequal friendship between Don Chipote and Pitacio by displaying Pitacio’s exploitment of his host’s generosity. For example, Don Chipote offers his friend hospitality along with food and shelter as a testament to his kindness. Instead of expressing appreciation for this gracious gesture, Pitacio takes advantage of the situation in order to benefit himself. The fact that he tells lies to his friend in order to receive food for the coming days makes matters worse since he intentionally misleads Don Chipote. This dishonesty damages the friendship between the two characters because one side is using the other person for personal gain. In this example, the text highlights the negative trait of dishonesty and manipulation that constitute a faulty and unequal friendship. In addition to the negative traits of dishonesty and manipulation, Pitacio exhibits unreliability in keeping his promises. One could argue that by Pitacio staying behind in Mexico to help Don Chipote’s family while Don Chipote is away, he exhibits good friend characteristics. However, the text undermines this opinion when it notes that “[g]ood buddy Pitacio was more than happy to do this—for the first few months” (Venegas 129). In this moment, the text…
She would be so much better off if she kept walking past her abusive household and to a place where “nobody could make [her] sad and nobody would think [she’s] strange because [she] likes to dream and dream”(83). Next, Marin, Esperanza’s neighbor, stands “under the streetlight…waiting for a car to stop, a star to fall, someone to change her life”(27) instead of going out into the world and making changes herself. The way the women of Mango Street live dissatisfies Esperanza. They have either accepted the way their lives played out, knowing that they cannot escape, or simply wait around for a miracle to take them out of their situations. Her own family is no exception. Her mother “could’ve been somebody” with her “velvety opera voice that speaks two languages” but instead, became a housewife after her “shame [kept her] down because [she] didn’t have nice clothes” (91). Her great grandmother, and namesake, was once a “wild horse of a woman” before her husband threw a sack over her head and “carried her off…as if she were a fancy chandelier”(11). Esperanza has inherited her relative’s name, but does not want to inherit her place by the window, where her great grandmother “sat her sadness on an elbow”(11) and looked out, watching her life pass her…
(Alleydog.com). When all her fantasies were not materializing into reality she begins to channel her resentment to Candido, her loving and innocent nature gives way to strong will and prideful trait which she exhibits in her way of communication; ‘What right did he have to tell her where she could go and what she could do, he could barely get up to pee on his own’ (America). Her rage towards his underachievement was evident as she believed her dreams was achievable because she sees the cars, the houses on daily basis so what was Candido excuse, she tried taking matters into her own hands by going out to work but when things get though the child in her arises yearning for a mothers love, touch and presence. Her contradicting behavior can be attributed to youthful exuberance and frustration which has pushed her to an intolerant…
Corazon takes on powerful responsibility by offering to take care of Manuel’s mother who is ill. She builds a strong loving bond with her. “Without comment Dona Serena had motioned Corazon over to her and had kissed the fearful child on the cheek” (57). Dona Serena welcomes Corazon with love and affection, something she needs and craves. During her early bonding month with Corazon’s new found mother, she experiences a terrible tragedy; she has a miscarriage, and is made aware that she would never be able to bring a baby to full term. Manuel without fail is by her side and is more loving and caring than ever before. Almost in the same…
In the article, The Empty Nest by Lillian Rubin discusses how middle aged women look at the idea and notion of their children leaving the home. The Empty Nest syndrome occurs during a transition phrase when a mother's child is coming of age and about to leave the dwelling. Studies now show that this "depression" was once thought to have the same wide spread negative effect, but recently has been viewed as the direct opposite. This article depicts how women of different social classes and marriage arrangements feel about the idea of their children leaving the home.…