In the novel Obasan by Joy Kogawa, Internal Conflict Faced by Obasan, another main character in the story, further proves how the unfortunate events of one's past can negatively influence them for the remainder of their lifetime. Situated in the present, Obasan, who is also Naomi's grandmother, begins to pray while mourning the death of Naomi's parents who had passed during the bombing of Nagasaki. According to the story, "Obasan's eyes are closed as she continues kneeling on the bed, her head bowed. Her lips move imperceptibly as she breathes her prayers” (Kogawa, 270). It is evident by the behavior of Obasan along with the way she is reacting to the memories of her loved ones passing away through such unfortunate means that they greatly …show more content…
Through this, it is apparent that painful memories resurfacing from one's past can haunt them forever and leave them scarred eternally. Kogawa's use of vivid descriptions within the story further helps convey how traumatizing memories can negatively affect an individual for the rest of their life. For example, when Naomi worries about her older brother, Stephen, finding out about her dark past, she claims: "If Stephen comes he will see my shame. He will know what I feel, and the knowing will flood the landscape. There will be nowhere to hide [...] I am Snow White in the forest, unable to run. He is the forest full of eyes and arms. He is the tree root that trips Snow White. He is the lightning flashing through the dark sky” (Kogawa, 69). Here, the author directly associates Naomi's inability to hide her shame to the helpless Snow White; unable to disguise herself in a forest where everything seems as if they are monitoring her. The author also assigns human values to the forest, such as it having eyes and arms to relate to Naomi's brother being able to see right through her and read what is on her
In the small, desolate town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, Ethan Frome lives a life of poverty. Not only does he live hopelessly, but “he was a prisoner for life” to the economy (Ammons 2). A young engineer from outside of town narrates the beginning of the story. He develops a curiosity towards Ethan Frome and the smash-up that he hears about in bits and pieces. Later, due to a terrible winter storm that caused the snow itself to seem like “a part of the thickening darkness, to be the winter night itself descending on us layer by layer” (Wharton 20), the narrator is forced to stay the night at Frome’s. As he enters the unfamiliar house, the story flashes back twenty-four years to Ethan Frome’s young life. Living out his life with Zenobia Frome, his hypochondriac of a wife whom he does not love, Ethan has nowhere to turn for a glance at happiness. But when Zenobia’s, or Zeena’s, young cousin, Mattie Silver, comes to care for her, Ethan falls in love with the young aid. Mattie is Ethan’s sole light in life and “she is in contrast to everything in Starkfield; her feelings bubble near the surface” (Bernard 2). All through the novella, the two young lovers hide their feelings towards each other. When they finally let out their true emotions to each other in the end, the consequence is an unforeseen one. Throughout Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton portrays a twisted fairy tale similar to the story of Snow White with the traditional characters, but without a happy ending to show that in a bleak and stark reality, the beautiful and enchanting maiden could become the witch.
This memory stays with me because it served as a guide throughout my childhood until I learned how to bike properly, and the same thing applies to the story. She remembers that winter because it was a time in her life where she was living her ideal life, but eventually everything came crashing down and made her realise how wrong and stupid it was. That specific winter holds much more significance and value to her because she realised what went wrong and how to prevent it from ever happening again in the future. In the story she also writes how her lover had completely different memories of the winter that were more baren and less dramatic. I think that this is important to the overall theme because it shows that the winter was truly an important step in her life, whereas he brushes it off and makes it seem like just another relationship.
As he slouches in bed, a description of the bare trees and an old woman gathering coal are given to convey to the reader an idea of the times and the author's situation. "All groves are bare," and "unmarried women (are) sorting slate from arthracite." This image operates to tell the reader that it is a time of poverty, or a "yellow-bearded winter of depression." No one in the town has much to live for during this time. "Cold trees" along with deadness, through the image of "graves," help illustrate the author's impression of winter. Wright seems to be hibernating from this hard time of winter, "dreaming of green butterflies searching for diamonds in coal seams." This conveys a more colorful and happy image showing what he wishes was happening; however he knows that diamonds are not in coal seams and is brought back to the reality of winter. He talks of "hills of fresh graves" while dreaming, relating back to the reality of what is "beyond the streaked trees of (his) window," a dreary, povern-strucken, and cold winter.
Misery, trauma, and isolation all have connections to the war time settings in “The Thing in the Forest.” In the short story, A.S. Byatt depicts elements captured from both fairy tale and horror genres in war times. During World War II, the two young girls Penny and Primrose endure the 1940s Blitz together but in different psychological ways. In their childhood, they learn how to use gas masks and carry their belongings in oversized suitcases. Both Penny and Primrose suffer psychologically effects by being isolated from their families’ before and after the war. Byatt depicts haunting effects in her short story by placing graphic details on the girls’ childhood experiences. Maria Margaronis, an author of a critical essay entitled “Where the Wild Things Are,” states that “Byatt’s tales of the supernatural depend on an almost hallucinatory precision for their haunting effects.” The hallucinatory details Byatt displays in her story have an almost unbelievable psychological reality for the girls. Penny and Primrose endure the psychological consequences and horrifying times during the Blitz along with the magical ideas they encounter as children. As adults they must return to the forest of their childhood and as individuals and take separate paths to confront the Thing, acknowledge its significance in their childhoods, and release themselves from the grip of the psychological trauma of war.
In the novel Segu, Maryse Conde beautifully constructs personal and in depth images of African history through the use of four main characters that depict the struggles and importance of family in what is now present day Mali. These four characters and also brothers, by the names of Tiekoro, Siga, Naba, and Malobali are faced with a world changing around their beloved city of Bambara with new customs of the Islamic religion and the developing ideas of European commerce and slave trade. These new expansions in Africa become stepping stones for the Troare brothers to face head on and they have brought both victory and heartache for them and their family. These four characters are centralized throughout this novel because they provide the reader with an inside account of what life is like during a time where traditional Africa begins to change due to the forceful injection of conquering settlers and religions. This creates a split between family members, a mixing of cultures, and the loss of one’s traditions in the Bambara society which is a reflection of the (WHAT ARE SOME CHANGES) changes that occur in societies across the world.
In Julie Otsuka’s novel When the Emperor was Divine, a mother and her two children are incarcerated during the time of World War II because of their Japanese ancestry, and are brought to a camp out in the deserts of Utah. The mother and children struggle with their ancestry and their heritage, as they are not American or Japanese, but one in the same. When reading through the novel, some might think the mother completely throws away the heritage of who she, and who her family really are; that they show disloyalty to country and to self. Sophocles, writer of Antigone, would likely concur. His strong, rebellious, and iconic female character, Antigone, defies the rules of her King in honoring the death of her “betraying” brother in standing firm
This creates sinister predators within her short stories through the use of empowering and dangerous women. in ‘The Snow Child’, the use of subversion turns the traditional fable of Snow White’s existence from maternal desire into a child who is the product of paternal desire and sexual fantasy. The original tale of Snow White explores a queen who is driven by her desire for beauty and youth, this is similar within ‘The Snow Child’ as the Countess becomes jealous of the child as the Count begins to favour her. The countess and the child are portrayed as binary opposites throughout the story; as one is clothed, the other is naked. This could reflect the importance of appearance within society, and explain the Countess’ antagonistic response to the child and acts of neglect due to her jealousy of the child’s beauty. Carter’s description of the Countess’ clothing leaves the reader with an idea of her dangerous nature; she wears “pelts of black foxes”, an association suggesting a predatory and cunning nature. She also wears “scarlet heels, and spurs” and it may be that the colour of the heels comes from the actions of the spurs, which adds to this idea of violence. We see this nature when she is threatened by the child regarding the Count’s affections, “wife” becoming “the Countess” in a shift emphasised by finally having her own thoughts and feelings in the
The setting takes place mostly in the woods around Andy’s house in Pennsylvania. The season is winter and snow has covered every inch of the woods and Andy’s favorite place to be in, “They had been in her dreams, and she had never lost' sight of them…woods always stayed the same.” (327). While the woods manage to continually stay the same, Andy wants to stay the same too because she is scared of growing up. The woods are where she can do manly activities such as hunting, fishing and camping with her father. According to Andy, she thinks of the woods as peaceful and relaxing, even when the snow hits the grounds making the woods sparkle and shimmer. When they got to the campsite, they immediately started heading out to hunt for a doe. Andy describes the woods as always being the same, but she claims that “If they weren't there, everything would be quieter, and the woods would be the same as before. But they are here and so it's all different.” (329) By them being in the woods, everything is different, and Andy hates different. The authors use of literary elements contributes to the effect of the theme by explaining what the setting means to Andy. The woods make Andy happy and she wants to be there all the time, but meanwhile the woods give Andy a realization that she must grow up. Even though the woods change she must change as
In the novel Life of a Sensuous Woman, Ihara Saikaku depicts the journey of a woman who, due to voraciously indulging in the ever-seeking pleasure of the Ukiyo lifestyle, finds herself in an inexorable decline in social status and life fulfillment. Saikaku, utilizing characters, plot, and water imagery, transforms Life of a Sensuous Woman into a satirically critical commentary of the Ukiyo lifestyle: proposing that it creates a superficial, unequal, and hypocritical society.
" The melting snow began to turn to mist and the mist was filled with rabbits and Rowena and his father and his mother and the whole of his past life—birth and death and childhood. He could breathe them in and breathe them out." (Findley, 14)
Roses are red, violets are blue, Snow White has changed, everything’s new. This is a different beginning than the original story of Little Snow White by the Grimm Brothers and retold by the director Rupert Sanders, in the movie Snow White and the Huntsman. The original story portrays Snow White as a beautiful, but naive, young woman, leading up to her eating a poisoned apple from the evil queen. The evil queen has been jealous of Snow White after she has grown up and become more beautiful. Although in both the story and the movie, Snow White eats a poisoned apple, Snow White in Snow White and the Huntsman is portrayed as more brave and courageous, even after she wakes up from the poisoned apple. In the end, both the story and the movie show that Snow White’s triumphs out rules all, no matter what is thrown at her, but the difference is in how. While there are many common motifs across the story and the movie; Gender roles have changed over time, as shown in the
For those who know this, they may see this story in a literal way. Creating stories with fictional characters like Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel and many other imaginary creatures. This approach to the short story would cause one to see the little boy as a ghost after he dies. This would mean that the mother’s body is not responding to a traumatic event and having a mental confrontation with her own self. Instead, she is physically seeing the ghost of her deceased child and not only in her head. The Brothers show their side of fantasy almost immediately in this story by stating “THERE was once a mother..” This is a classical statement used in a broad range of fairy tales. Even when people create their own fairy tales, spoken or written, they often begin with the words “Once Upon A Time” which is similar to how this story is started. It brings creativity to the mind and makes one wonder how the story might continue on to be. This style of writing is a signature for the Grimm Brothers considering it is what they are most widely known for. This particular piece brings a part of reality that readers can relate to and turns it into a fairy tale and nightmare all in one. It describes one of a parent’s worst fears and ways they may actually react and
Over the years, Snow White’s story has been told in numerous different versions then its original version in 1812 by the Grimm Brothers. The main basis of the story has remained the same. Only a few minor tweaks to the story have changed. The three versions of the story that are going to be analyzed are the original story “Little Snow White” by the Brothers Grimm, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” by Disney, and “Mirror, Mirror” by Disney also. They each were created in very different times and the original story has changed over the years to appeal to the audience of that time. No matter how many versions there are Snow White is considered, one of the most cherished fairy tales of all time. They each use different methods to get their story across by using different colors, word usage, and scenes.
Neil Gaiman’s “Snow, Glass, Apples” is far from the modern day fairy tale. It is a dark and twisted version of the classic tale, Snow White. His retelling is intriguing and unexpected, coming from the point of view of the stepmother rather than Snow White. By doing this, Gaiman changes the entire meaning of the story by switching perspectives and motivations of the characters. This sinister tale has more purpose than to frighten its readers, but to convey a deeper, hidden message. His message in “Snow, Glass, Apples” is that villains may not always be villains, but rather victims.
Summary/Main Idea: Jealous of Snow White's beauty, the wicked queen orders the murder of her innocent stepdaughter, but later discovers that Snow White is still alive and hiding in a cottage with seven friendly little miners. Disguising herself as a hag, the queen brings a poisoned apple to Snow White, who falls into a death-like sleep that can be broken only by a kiss from the prince.