Devotion and compassion toward one another, a core reason why many relationships these days work out and last a lifetime. Trusting someone is essential and basically the backbone to all relationships. Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust is a satirical novel that involves the story of Tony Last and his wife, Lady Brenda. Tony is more in love with his house, Hetton Abbey, than with his wife. Brenda, bored with Tony and his apparent desire to live in the past, being the lord of the manor type of person, that she turns her attention to John Beaver, a twenty-five year old socialite. The personalities and character traits of Tony and Brenda contributed to the end of their relationship. Pompousness, conceit and the actions motivated by these traits affected their lives in and outside of their marriage.
Tony seems to be empty of any passion except for Hetton Abbey, which is listed in the guidebook. "This, formerly one of the notable house of the country, was entirely rebuilt in 1864 in the Gothic style and is now devoid of interest" (Waugh 13). Nevertheless Hetton's grounds are open to the public and tours are available upon request. The intricate, but gloomy description of Hetton exemplifies the lack of interest to the public. Although, from Tony's perspective, Hetton is magnificent. The very involved description of Hetton, lists the aspects of it that Tony revels in. Aspects such as "the ecclesiastical gloom of the great hall
were a source of constant delight and great exultation to Tony; things of tender memory and proud possession" (Waugh 14). The contrary description of Hetton's guidebook and that of Tony's is obvious. Hetton's guidebook and the public basically mock the house while Tony praises it. Despite everyone's opposition Tony shows little or no care in what others think and justifies his neglect towards others including his wife Brenda.
Wiesel’s community at the beginning of the story is a little town in Transylvania where the Jews of Sighet are living. It’s called “The Jewish Community of Sighet”. This is where he spent his childhood. By day he studied Talmud and at night he ran to the synagogue to shed tears over the destruction of the Temple. His world is a place where Jews can live and practice Judaism. As a young boy who is thirteen at the beginning of the story, I am very impressed with his maturity. For someone who is so young at the time he is very observant of his surroundings and is very good at reading people. In the beginning he meets Moishe the Beadle. Moishe is someone who can do many different types of work but he isn’t considered qualified at any of those jobs in a Hasidic house of prayer (shtibl). For some reason, though young Elie is fascinated with him. He meets Moishe the Beadle in 1941. At the time Elie really wants to explore the studies of Kabbalah. One day he asks his father to find him a master so he can pursue this interest. But his father is very hesitant about this idea and thinks young E...
The chaos and destruction that the Nazi’s are causing are not changing the lives of only Jews, but also the lives of citizens in other countries. Between Night by Elie Wiesel and The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom, comradeship, faith, strength, and people of visions are crucial to the survival of principle characters. Ironically, in both stories there is a foreseen future, that both seemed to be ignored.
“A Worn Path” is a short story written by Eudora Welty. It is a story of an elderly black woman’s journey into town for her grandson’s medicine. Using lots of imagery throughout the story, the narrator tells us that the woman, Phoenix Jackson takes this dangerous journey out of love for her grandson who is in need of medicine. Throughout her journey, she encounters many people who are of great importance to the story.
Night is a memoir written by Elie Wiesel, a young Jewish boy, who tells of his experiences during the Holocaust. Elie is a deeply religious boy whose favorite activities are studying the Talmud and spending time at the Temple with his spiritual mentor, Moshe the Beadle. At an early age, Elie has a naive, yet strong faith in God. But this faith is tested when the Nazi's moves him from his small town.
In “The Gilded Six-Bits,” Zora Neale Hurston uses several techniques to characterize Joe and Missy May, the main couple throughout the story. Hurston uses her own life experiences to characterize Joe and Missy May and their marriage. She also shows their character development through her writing styles and techniques, which show reactions and responses between Joe and Missy May to strengthen the development of their relationship. Hurston supports her character development through her writing style, her characters dialect, and includes experiences from her own life to portray a sense of reality to her character’s personalities.
Marriage is a concept that society takes extremely inaccurately. It is not something one can fall back from. Once someone enter it there is no way back. In Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “Sweat” she tells the story of Delia, a washerwoman whom Sykes, her husband, mistreats while he ventures around with other women and later attempts to kill Delia to open a way for a second marriage with one of his mistresses. By looking at “Sweat” through the feminist and historical lens Hurston illustrates the idea of a sexist society full of men exploiting and breaking down women until men dispose of them.
It was so much neater than a number of bundles lying around.” (Hurston 731). This quote shows that Delia is the clothes that are in the hamper because it was neater than the other bundles. We see that neatness being disrupted from the mess when Sykes antagonizes Delia because of her work. Hurston, yet again, breaks another gender role stereotype and shows that Sykes, the “man” of the relationship, is immature and most likely provides nothing to their relationship. Hurston shows readers that Sykes is not the breadwinner and he has a very rude and outlandish personality and leaches off of
Zora Neale Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama on January 7, 1891. Her family moved to Eatonville, Florida, when she was three years old. Eatonville, Florida was one of the very first all-black towns incorporated in the United State. Her parents were John and Lucy Ann Hurston. Her father was a Baptist preacher while her mother was a school teacher. Her mother passed away in 1904, her father remarried and her father and stepmother send her away to a boarding school in Jacksonville, Florida. Her father and stepmother stopped paying her tuition which resulted in her being expelled from school. She worked as a maid to a lead singer in a traveling Gilbert and Sullivan Theatrical company. She was offered a scholarship to attend the prestigious Barnard College, where she was the college’s first black student. She earned her B.A in Anthropology. The memories of her self-segregated community stayed close to her heart, which lead her to oppose segregation in schools in the 1950’s against the rising tide of the civil rights movement. Hurston wrote “The Gilded Six-Bits” after her first divorce, the story influenced her life greatly as an African American in the Harlem Renaissance. During the Harlem Renaissance black artists explored their culture and showed pride in their race, through music and literature. “The Gilded Six-Bits was a magazine story published in 1933 by Bertram Lippincott. In “The Gilded Six Bits” Hurston gave an insight into human nature: which suggest that if patient and forgiveness is learned in any relationship, it can lead to a rewarding life. The story have three main characters, they are Joe Banks, Missie May Banks and Otis Slemmons. Joe and Missie May Banks are newlywed couple who live in an all-black rural communi...
Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” is a distressing tale of human struggle as it relates to women. The story commences with a hardworking black washwoman named Delia contently and peacefully folds laundry in her quiet home. Her placidity doesn’t last long when her abusive husband, Sykes, emerges just in time to put her back in her ill-treated place. Delia has been taken by this abuse for some fifteen years. She has lived with relentless beatings, adultery, even six-foot long venomous snakes put in places she requires to get to. Her husband’s vindictive acts of torment and the way he has selfishly utilized her can only be defined as malignant. In the end of this leaves the hardworking woman no choice but to make the most arduous decision of her life. That is, to either stand up for herself and let her husband expire or to continue to serve as a victim. "Sweat,” reflects the plight of women during the 1920s through 30s, as the African American culture was undergoing a shift in domestic dynamics. In times of slavery, women generally led African American families and assumed the role as the adherent of the family, taking up domestic responsibilities. On the other hand, the males, slaves at the time, were emasculated by their obligations and treatment by white masters. Emancipation and Reconstruction brought change to these dynamics as African American men commenced working at paying jobs and women were abandoned at home. African American women were assimilated only on the most superficial of calibers into a subcategory of human existence defined by gender-predicated discrimination. (Chambliss) In accordance to this story, Delia was the bread victor fortifying herself and Sykes. Zora Neale Hurston’s 1926 “Sweat” demonstrates the vigor as wel...
How could one dieny that the mass murder of six million jews never happened? These revisionist, or deniers, like to believe that it never did. Even with the witnesses, photos, buildings and other artifacts left behind, they still believe that the Holocaust is a hoax. The Holocaust deniers are wrong because there are people who have survived that wrote books, there is proof that Jews were being killed, and other evidence and artifacts have been found.
What is in the spring of your life if the spring of a life refers to your first twenty years in your life? The Bell Jar, a semi-autobiographical novel by Silvia Plath, describes Esther Greenwood’s harsh spring of her life. Narrating in the first person, Esther tells her experience of a mental breakdown in a descriptive language, helping the readers visualize what she sees and feel her emotions. The novel takes place in New York City and Boston during the early 1950s when women’s roles were limited to domesticity. The repression of women’s roles in the American society during the 1950s and other influences such as her lack of confidence, her hesitance, her mother, and her feminist point of view seem to affect her mental breakdown.
On January 14th of 1963, Sylvia Plath had finally completed The Bell Jar after approximately two years of writing. This novel could have been considered a partial autobiography, because the main character Esther Greenwood eerily represents Sylvia Plath. There are a number of references to Plath’s real life throughout the book, too many for it to be considered a mere coincidence. Within the story, Esther Greenwood considers and attempts suicide quite frequently. Could this novel have been foreshadowing Sylvia’s death, which took place a little less than a month after?
In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, humanity is a theme seen throughout. Humanity can be defined in many ways. It can be the disposition to do good, or it can be the human race. In the Night, the theme of humanity is the disposition to do good. In the book, Elie loses and finds his humanity. At the end, he holds on to his humanity, but loses some of it after events like his father’s death. Elie succeeds in retaining his humanity because he holds on to his father, he feels sympathy for people at the camps, and he keeps faith. Elie retains his humanity in the end even though he loses it in the middle of the book.
In literature, the significant themes of a story can sometimes be developed within dramatic death scenes. With that being said, Zora Neale Hurston 's presents an unappreciated housewife and her high-class husband 's sinful ways which ultimately lead to the husband 's unplanned death, in her short story “Sweat”. The concluding death scene can best be described as illustrating the theme as “what goes around comes around”. Sykes was abusive and tried plotting his wife, Delia 's, death by using a rattlesnake, but his plan backfired and it was Sykes that was killed in the end.
“Spinster” by Sylvia Plath is a poem that consists of a persona, who in other words serves as a “second self” for the author and conveys her innermost feelings. The poem was written in 1956, the same year as Plath’s marriage to Ted Hughes, who was also a poet. The title suggests that the persona is one who is not fond of marriage and the normal rituals of courtship as a spinster is an unmarried woman, typically an older woman who is beyond the usual age of marriage and may never marry. The persona of the poem is a woman who dislikes disorder and chaos and finds relationships to be as unpredictable as the season of spring, in which there is no sense of uniformity. In this poem, Plath not only uses a persona to disclose her feelings, but also juxtaposes the seasons and their order (or lack thereof) and relates them to the order that comes with solitude and the disorder that is attributed with relationships. She accomplishes this through her use of formal diction, which ties into both the meticulous structure and develops the visual imagery.