Beauty by Robin McKinley

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In the novel, Beauty by Robin Mc Kinley, the family of a wealthy merchant looses their wealth when the shipment boats get lost at sea. There are three daughters named Hope, Grace, and Honour, whom is nicknamed Beauty, and a father. The family is forced to move to the country and start a life more modest than accustomed. After the family adapts to country life, one of the older sisters gets married to an iron worker who used to work at the shipyard owned by the father. They have babies. Life goes on in the country. Three years after their arrival in the country the families receive notice that one of the lost boats has returned to port. The father leaves to the city to see if anything could be rescued and before leaving asks his daughters if there was anything they wished from the city for him to bring back. The older daughters make silly request but Beauty asks for rose seeds to plant a rose garden around the house. Upon returning home, the father is caught in a blizzard and stumbles upon a welcoming enchanted castle. The next morning, as he leaves the castle he breaks a rose of its stem and the Beast appears. Beast is angry with this intruder's thanklessness and tells the man that he will spare the man's life if he returns in a month to give him one of the daughters. The man returns home and tells the whole family of the enchanted castle and the promise made to the Beast. Beauty steps up as the daughter that will give up her freedom for her father. When the month is up, Beauty enters the castle to await her fate. The castle is as inviting to her as it had been to her father. The Beast is welcoming and not the ogre that she had originally thought he would be. Slowly as time goes by, they develop a bond of companionship... ... middle of paper ... ... need for hard labor but as they move to the country, Beauty has to learn to work alongside her future brother-in-law and do heavy work. She also moves away from her studies and turns to helping her family progress. After her year away from her family, she physically grows into a woman. She also finds herself dependant of the Beast rather than of her family as would a child. Inner Psyche of Beauty: Beauty is a bookworm who prides in her studies. She is strong mentally because she bares the absence of her family but finds her new situation more accommodating. She is thoughtful of her family especially of her father whom she gives up her freedom for. Point of View of Beauty: Beauty's point of view gives the reader a glimpse of how strong she truly was to go live with the Beast. Her view point draws the reader in the story deeper than the narrator's view point.

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