Margaret Atwood’s short story “Lusus Naturae” makes for a suspenseful, thrilling read. The tricky name is no indication of the story’s stimulating and laid-back tone. The protagonist, or monster, in the story has turned from a human into something she hates. The plot establishes quickly, and the reader is thrown into this little girl’s hollow life. Though her exact appearance is never disclosed, the reader gets a curious take on how the protagonist sees herself. On the contrary, her family’s feelings are disclosed fairly quickly. The reader is swiftly aware that her family has left what love they have for her in the past and moved on to disownment. Because of all the changes that the protagonist is going through, she begins to develop dueling …show more content…
The monster that is taking over the protagonist doesn’t give up, even at the very end. It pushes its way out of this little girl until it has almost consumed her. The combination of her own appearance, the resentment of her family, and her struggle of turning into something she does not want to become all contribute to the protagonist’s confusion of her own identity. Although everyone possesses their own sense of what a monster would look like, Atwood makes a thought-provoking story by not revealing exactly what the protagonist looks like all at one time. Features are gradually disclosed throughout the story, but even at the end the audience is still piecing together her features. Atwood begins by portraying the protagonist as a confused little girl, whose family is speaking about her like she is not there. At first the reader has no indication of why the family has seemingly disowned the girl, but as the plot develops Atwood starts to give descriptions of the protagonist. One of the first things Atwood leaks about the …show more content…
When a person thinks of the idea of family, most of the time “love” would be one of the first words to come to mind, and it would be preceded by the word “unconditional.” Unfortunately, that is not the case for this protagonist. It seems her family is like any other when it comes to relationships. A mother, father, sister, and grandmother are all evident in the story. Even though the father and grandmother die half-way through the story, both are essential keys to the protagonist’s emotional state. Her father obviously cares for her enough to call a doctor from out of town to examine her, but the protagonist describes not being able to nuzzle in his arm anymore and that “his enforced distance pained [her]” (1). She obviously loves her father like any other little girl, but she is bewildered by the fact that her father does not return the feeling like he used to. The little girl’s mother encompasses the leading family role in the story, but the reader also feels mixed emotions for her. The reader senses compassion in this woman because she has stayed to take care of her daughter for many years, but the protagonist also mentions that her mother “resented [her] no matter how hard she tried to hide it” (3). All of this combined confuses the reader on what exactly the mother’s feelings towards her daughter are. Her mother is the only one who speaks to her after, her “death,” but makes no attempt
The Monster is a short story that was written by Toby Litt in 1968. From beginning to end, from a third person point of view, we learn bits and pieces of information about a ‘monster’ of sorts, living in a world full of questions. This monster does not know, or understand what, or who, he is, and neither does the reader. The audience is often left wondering just as much as the main character is, resulting in a story that keeps readers hooked. The monster is simply called a monster, and never told if it is, or is not so. The Monster is a short story in which Toby Litt uses experimental story structure, a unique voice, and an unusual theme to challenge conventional story telling.
Every individual has two lives, the life we live, and the life we live after that. Nobody is perfect, but if one works hard enough, he or she can stay away from failure. The Natural is a novel written by Bernard Malamud. It is Malamud’s first novel that initially received mixed reactions but afterwards, it was regarded as an outstanding piece of literature. It is a story about Roy Hobbs who after making mistakes in his life, he returns the bribery money and is left with self-hatred for mistakes he has done. Hobbs was a baseball player who aspired to be famous, but because of his carnal and materialistic desire, his quest for heroism failed, as he was left with nothing. In the modern world, the quest for heroism is a difficult struggle, and this can be seen through the protagonist in The Natural.
The setting of this story takes place on the planet Prelandra, also known as Venus. This planet consists of many floating islands. The islands are quite beautiful, the clouds are purple and the sky is a golden color, the seawater is green and drinkable, from the distance the water looks like glided glass. The islands are not very stable, and they can shake if water hits the mobile islands. All of the islands are mobile, except the main island, which remains stationary. Maledil, the people’s god, forbade them to spend the night on the main island; therefore the inhabitants of Perelandra stay on one of the mobile islands. There are many different types of inhabitants on Perelandra, dragons, exotic fish, possums, and unusual looking birds. Ransom, the books main character, mistook the birds for bat-winged reptiles when he first arrived on Perelandra. The tropical climate provides a pleasant atmosphere on Perelandra, thus allowing the inhabitants to move about freely, basking in the agreeable weather.
Many authors have different ways of building characters and how they look. It is up to the reader to build their perspective from the descriptions given by the author in order to understand books. Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, sculpts the readers’ perspective of her monster through powerful diction and emotional syntax. After Dr. Frankenstein finally accomplishes his goal of re-animating a lifeless human, Shelley uses her strong word choice to fully express the extent of horror that Frankenstein had felt, describing his monster as a “demonical corpse to which I had so miserably given life.” (Shelley 45). Frankenstein’s horror is shared with the reader simply from a well descripted sentence. The detail Shelley put into Victor Frankenstein’s perspective is gradually shaping our own, as the reader’s, perspective. Furthermore, the diction being used adds a more definitive appearance to the monster. It helps us imagine what the monster looks like and additionally, how Frankenstein feels about his success.
There is a special bond between parents and children, but there is always uncertainty, whether it’s with the parents having to let go or the children, now adults, reminiscing on the times they had with their parents. The poem “To a Daughter Leaving Home” by Linda Pastan is a very emotional poem about what you can assume: a daughter leaving home. Then the poem “Alzheimer 's" by Kelly Cherry is about the poet’s father, a former professional musician who develops the disease. These are only two examples that show the ambivalence between the parents and the children.
Some show love through words by saying the words “I love you” or saying how much they care about you like my parents or through actions The things your parents did, I will admit, made me confused. In the first couple of chapters I could not understand how your parents could treat you and your siblings the way they did, but as I continued to read I realized the motive. My parents have never done anything close to what your parents did. On the other hand, the more I thought about it, the more sense it made behind your parents reasoning. I don’t know much about the life of your parents outside this memoir and I do not know the details of their life growing up. However, I know enough to infer that they had hard ones especially when you revealed your dad’s life. Your parent’s intentions behind almost everything they did were good although the may have not been executed in a good way. They believed that they were teaching you a life lesson by preparing
In the novel, My Antonia, by Willa Cather, society seems to govern the lives of many people. But for the others, who see past society's stereotypical values, had enough strength to overcome this and allowed them to achieve their dreams. Throughout the book, everyone seems to be trying to pursue the American Dream. While they all have different ideas of just exactly what the American Dream is, they all know precisely what they want. For some, the American Dream sounds so enticing that they have traveled across the world to achieve their goal.
The theme of, mother daughter relationships can be hard but are always worth it in the end, is portrayed by Amy Tan in this novel. This theme is universal, still relevant today, and will be relevant for forever. Relationships are really important, especially with your mom. “ A mother is best. A mother knows what is inside you”
declares that he will improve the city (she) by his rulings. Creon describes how his
and in this essay I will explore who the monster is in the novel. The
When the monster was created, he was born in the world with innocence, as a defenseless being in the world. Even when Victor rejects him, the monster still seeks love from society and performs unselfish acts. He seeks the love of others. Longing for company, the monster stays in the cottage without revealing himself and watches the family that lives there. By watching them, he learned how to speak and read.
influence all her life and struggles to accept her true identity. Through the story you can
Memories are a stockpile of good and bad experiences that are retained of a people, places. How do you remember your childhood memories? Do certain people, places or things trigger these memories to the past? Does the knowledge of these experience still affect your life today? Throughout the novel My Antonia, Jim's nostalgia for the past is represented by nature, symbolic elements, and above all Antonia.
A monster can be characterized by an extreme deviation from the normal standards of society including an internal or external wickedness. In the case of Mary Shelley’s Creature, his appearance overwhelms those who lay eyes upon him. A mere glance can send a villager running for the hills. It was not until the Creature caught a glance of his own reflection that he understood why villagers were so afraid of him. The realization of his ghastly appearance began the monster’s journey into hopelessness. In Peter Brooks’ article he writes, “Self recognition as the ‘filthy type’ completes the mirror stage of the Monsters development.” (Brooks 377). Seeing oneself as ugly and slovenly can cast shadows on even the most compassionate of hearts.
Mrs. Marian Forrester strikes readers as an appealing character with the way she shifts as a person from the start of the novel, A Lost Lady, to the end of it. She signifies just more than a women that is married to an old man who has worked in the train business. She innovated a new type of women that has transitioned from the old world to new world. She is sought out to be a caring, vibrant, graceful, and kind young lady but then shifts into a gold-digging, adulterous, deceitful lady from the way she is interpreted throughout the book through the eyes of Niel Herbert. The way that the reader is able to construe the Willa Cather on how Mr. and Mrs. Forrester fell in love is a concept that leads the reader to believe that it is merely psychological based. As Mrs. Forrester goes through her experiences such as the death of her husband, the affairs that she took part in with Frank Ellinger, and so on, the reader witnesses a shift in her mentally and internally. Mrs. Forrester becomes a much more complicated women to the extent in which she struggles to find who really is and that is a women that wants to find love and be fructuous in wealth. A women of a multitude of blemishes, as a leading character it can be argued that Mrs. Forrester signifies a lady that is ultimately lost in her path of personal transitioning. She becomes lost because she cannot withstand herself unless she is treated well by a wealthy male in which causes her to act unalike the person she truly is.