In “A New England Nun,” Mary E. Wilkins Freeman describes a young woman who battles her thoughts and feelings about her upcoming nuptials. The woman does not want to leave her simple solitary life that she has been content living, up until the moment her fiancé returns home to her after fourteen years. The main character, Louisa, is symbolized and or embodies that of her two pets. Her dog, Caesar, and her small yellow canary.…
Louisa and Joe begin talking about Lily Dyer’s taking such great care of his mother while he was away, then embarrassed he begins looking through the magazines on her table. However, when he put the album on top of the gift-book it bothered Louisa so much that she had to change their position. What difference did it make which book was on top? Were the books significant to Louisa’s life (206, M-B)? Apparently, Louisa had grown accustomed to her perfectly organized life. She was not used to the delicate balance of her things being disturbed. It also seems that she was not used to having guests. The organization of not only the books on the table, but of her entire house is a symbol of the life she has created for herself while Joe was away. She has not had to care for anyone except for her pets, and has grown quite comfortable living a peaceful little life.…
“SCARLET LETTER, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom. It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and inclosing her in a sphere…
In the book, Jeannette starts with a scene of her on her way to an event, worried about being over-dressed and sees her mother going through a dumpster. She feels guilty but shamed and gloom as well and realized she was socially privileged and skipped the party to embrace her comfortable home that showed individual influence. Due to this incident, she suddenly starts reminiscing her childhood and how her parents choices affected her.…
While not quite as well-known as her first work, Rachel Speght’s second work Mortalities Memorandum with a dreame prefixed continues to utilize biblical themes as well as being Speght’s strike in the war for gender equality. Speght’s second and last known work is a volume of two poems about the Christian view of death and an argument for the education of women. Mortalities Memorandum with a dreame prefixed, was published in 1621 when Rachel was just 24 years old. The works preface is addressed to Speght’s Godmother Mary Moundford where Speght addresses herself as “Your God daughter in dutie obliged.” (Speght) While not much this brief preface gives some insight to Rachel’s relationship with her Godmother. The inspiration for Mortalities Memorandum…
When Maria Teresa first receives her little book she addresses the fact that she now has a soul. She is concerned for it, and Maria Teresa expects changes in the coming times. It’s interesting that she now believes that she has a soul, because she writes about everything in her first little book, spilling her soul into it. Maria Teresa isn’t quite sure what it means to have a soul, and she is scared that her soul may end up like the one in the families picture of a valentine with measles. Maria Teresa writes in her little book and her soul becomes exactly as Minerva told her, a deep longing that she can never fill up. Maria Teresa writes her resolves in the little book, and she becomes more of who she is in the future, she is becoming more mature.…
On the eve of her son’s birth, she feels the pull of the knife and all that it represents, and it frightens and excites her. She wants her son to inherit her knife, Doll’s knife, for this is their legacy. Lila recognizes that the guilt and the shame of her past are not things that can abandon. She neither wishes to reject nor pity her past. Instead, Lila fully accepts her former life for what it was: a time of courageousness and a time of resourcefulness. Robinson writes, “That knife was the difference between her and anybody else in the world” (239). One can read the story of Lila’s life through the actions of that knife. Although part of this story is the shame and the guilt that she has experienced, the other part is the love and devotion of Doll, the freedom and bravery of wandering, and the purity and truth of nature. When Lila thinks about the future she will have with her son after Ames passes away, she imagines herself telling her baby boy “We’ll just wander a while. We’ll be nowhere, and it will be all right. I have friends there” (251). He too will experience the “great, sweet nowhere,” the “soul” of the world (242). As Lila was born into the world an orphan, so he was orphaned from her body at birth. And so, both belonging to nobody, together they will wander, brave and proud, carrying Doll’s…
In the first section of the story it is letting the reader imagine the trip to visit her manman in prison. She takes the Madonna that came from her great-great-great-grandmother that has been passed down from generation to generation. It just cried that morning before the author had visited her manman. On the way to the prison a woman stopped her and told her where…
Julia Alvarez once said, “I write to find out what I’m thinking. I write to find out who I am. I write to understand things.” Julia Alvarez, a world-renowned poet, has written many powerful poems through her life. She writes what she feels, what is on her mind, and what message she wants to get across. However, while writing her feelings down, she has connected and touched many people around the world. In Julia Alvarez’s poem, “Dusting,” she tells of a mother trying to shape her daughter, and a daughter trying to create herself. She writes of the external struggle between a mother and a daughter, along with a daily internal struggle the two of them face, and a young girl who is trying to create herself as an individual.…
Sheila, before her unfortunate turnout, was a kind spirited woman and was very optimistic about how her life was going. She was almost a sister to me and my family was often invited over to her house for dinner parties, with her and her husband. Sheila’s house was small but it sufficed for her family of two and it was very well decorated. She had paintings and pictures hung up on…
Two women and a small infant child dominate the frame and are all seated in a very idealistic outdoor, natural setting. St Anne is seated centrally, her body covered by the Virgin Mary who sits on her lap leaning to the left of the composition to see to her child, the baby Jesus, playing with a lamb. The baby straddles the lamb with his legs around Mary’s knee height. The figures all gaze at one another leading the viewer’s eye also around the composition. This begins with St Anne who looks softly toward Mary who’s eyes are fixated lovingly upon her child, the baby Jesus then returns this look with a faint smile to take the viewer back to Mary.…
Little Girl Lost is an autobiography of Drew Barrymore co-written with PEOPLE magazine's Todd Gold. Drew Barrymore, a twenty-five year old actress (ET, Never Been Kissed, to-be-released Charlie's Angels) has overcome an addiction, proven herself to be a competent, intelligent woman, and is a major influential role model among today's teenage girls. Her biography begins with her first blockbuster, ET, and her experiences while filming and during post-production, as well as the relationships that were made and have served as basis of support throughout her whole life (Steven Spielberg as her Godfather). From there Drew travels backwards, providing a brief background of her parents, of her role in continuing the Barrymore family legacy within film industry, and then of the Barrymore's tendency to indulge in drugs and alcohol. Drew confronts the tabloids and gossip columns regarding the attention she received at such a young age, acknowledging the belief by many that she was a victim of 'celebrity glamour and fame'. Drew argues that her addiction to mind-altering substances stemmed not from the high profile lifestyle, but from her insecurities as a young girl conquering adolescence. When she was not filming, Drew attempted a normal life by attending a public school, where she was isolated because of her erratic schedules and enormous amounts of public speculation. Unfortunately, Drew longed for a regular life with real friends and a family similar to those of her classmates. Because of her experiences filming, she was more mature than her peers, causing Drew to feel not only different, but giving her no one with which she could relate to. Her mother, Jaid, whom also served as Drew's manager, became the punching bag to Drew's frustrations. Entering her teenage years, Drew describes numerous incidents where she was offered a variety of drugs, depicting how easily available drugs were for her. What should have been parental and authoritative figures to Drew,…
Plot –As the poet (whoever) enters Anne Frank’s hideaway, the poem begins to reveal a mere fraction of the continuous dread and fear undergone by Anne because of her Jewish nationality. After describing the life she led confined to the narrow space behind the bookcase, the poet leaves; bearing in mind of all that he is blessed with, compared to Anne.…
In Jostein Gaarder’s, Sophie’s World, Ms. Gaarder is able to effectively combine two stories within a story to help us find the true meaning of our lives by studying the history of philosophy. I noticed that although the story is written as a textbook of philosophy, it really is a guide on how we as humans should approach our own lives. I was wondering throughout the book who was the main focus of the story. Was it Sophie or Hilde? But once I neared the end of the book, I realized that the book’s main character is a combination of the both, because Sophie and Hilde represent a direct translation to how we should react to philosophy and use it in our own lives, making us the real focus of the book. Gaarder uses so many symbols to convey the ideal philosopher and learner. We find out that Albert is the model for Alberto, and that Hilde is the model of Sophie. This reminded me of the many children stories that my mom used to read me as a kid that had the parent in the book reading a story to their kid about another set of parent and kid. When the book started, I was unsure of what to think. But once I had reached the middle of the story, the plot was revealed. Then, Gaarder throws the reader for another loop when the knowledge of Albert writing the book is thrown in, along with all the fictional characters. But in the end, I realized the confusing plot was all part of Gaarder’s plan to symbol the chaotic and stressful ordeals that we all have to go through in life. The point of Sophie’s World is to help us to question our own lives, and to help guide us through our own lives. I thought the book treated my intellectual side very well because of all the things I learned when the book described the philosophers. I have never considered myself a fully religious person, and when learning about all the…
The short story sets medias res on a cold day where a little girl, the main character, “pretends to be smoking, clamping imaginary cigarettes between her lips before exhaling with a billowy mist of breath”(Line 3). The girl and her family are on their way to church to celebrate Christmas. The girl, Violet, is little and curious. Even though she’s mute she is still interested and aware of the environment. She has a really lively imagination and when she walks in to the church her eyes catches a painting of a woman dressed in blue. The painting is surrounded by lots of candles, and is placed “higher than the rest of us”(line 28). At this time, she’s not aware that she’s looking at Virgin Mary – the holy mother of Jesus. She loves her. The relation and connection she feels talks to her in a way she does not know. This scene brings us to the whole conflict of the text and a big change in Violets life and mind. Because then, on a Sunday, she is drawing an imaginary painting with ballet dancer on an elephant’s back. Suddenly she sees the front page of her father’s newspaper with a great black and white photography of the woman in blue. “She must be quite famous”, Violet thinks, but something is different this time. In the arms of the woman in blue is a baby held. When she sees the baby, she feels jealous – probably for the first time:…