Savannah Fraser
Lumsden
ENG4U60
May 22, 2014
ISU Comparative Essay
“Lust is temporary… Without love, lust and romance will always be short-lived” (Steel). In Lolita written by Vladimir Nabokov, the protagonist and middle-aged professor, Humbert Humbert, becomes sexually involved with 12 year old and step-daughter, Dolores Haze, also known as Lolita. In Terry McMillan’s novel Waiting to Exhale, four middle-aged women are viewed at various points in their lives that all share one aspiration: finding romance. Impermanent sexual desires are exemplified in both irreconcilable novels. The protagonists are subjected to a misconception of true love through sexual obsession and the pains of a new society in the 20th century.
The male characters in the novels quest for romance through the use of dominance. In Lolita, the protagonist Humbert Humbert, believes that marriage will “...help [him], if not to purge [himself] of [his] degrading and dangerous desires, at least to keep [his women] under pacific control” (Nabokov 24). This shows that Humbert uses marriage as a mechanism not only to keep himself from pursuing nymphets but to control the women he has sexual relations with. In Waiting to Exhale, after eleven years of marriage, the protagonist, Bernadine, referred to her husband as a “selfish egomaniac” because he never allowed her to pursue anything of interest to her, which, also shows his controlling nature (McMillan 226). In Lolita Humbert becomes angry because his wife cheats on him. The cause of his anger is that a man could so easily take what he controlled and possessed for his own “comfort and fate” (Nabokov 28). Humbert felt like his territory was being violated and this exudes ignorance. This is also exemplified when Bernadin...
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...ist, Savannah, moves from Denver to Phoenix and experiences the social struggle of being a “successful black [woman]” (McMillan 28) in a white-dominated area
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan thoroughly demonstrate that the fallacy of romance is enhanced by dominant possession, sexual obsession, and societal standards of the previous century. What one can learn from the themes of Lolita is to increase the protection of children under the care of parents or social workers to prevent pedophilia, because whether or not Humbert was in love with Lolita or not, it was still morally wrong. Generally, a lesson can be taken from both novels to be careful in all aspects when it comes to acting upon feelings for a significant other because it can result negatively as it did for the some of the main characters in the second novel discussed.
The black women’s interaction with her oppressive environment during Revolutionary period or the antebellum America was the only way of her survival. Playing her role, and being part of her community that is not always pleasant takes a lot of courage, and optimism for better tomorrow. The autonomy of a slave women still existed even if most of her natural rights were taken. As opposed to her counterparts
The transition of being a black man in a time just after slavery was a hard one. A black man had to prove himself at the same time had to come to terms with the fact that he would never amount to much in a white dominated country. Some young black men did actually make it but it was a long and bitter road. Most young men fell into the same trappings as the narrator’s brother. Times were hard and most young boys growing up in Harlem were swept off their feet by the onslaught of change. For American blacks in the middle of the twentieth century, racism is another of the dark forces of destruction and meaninglessness which must be endured. Beauty, joy, triumph, security, suffering, and sorrow are all creations of community, especially of family and family-like groups. They are temporary havens from the world''s trouble, and they are also the meanings of human life.
Throughout history, the black woman has always had a multitude of responsibilities thrust upon her shoulders. This was never truer than for southern black women in the period between 1865 and 1885. In this span of twenty years, these women were responsible for their children, their husbands, supporting their families, their fight for freedom as black citizens and as women, their sexual freedom, and various other issues that impacted their lives. All of these aspects of the black woman’s life defined who she was. Each of her experiences and battles shaped the life that she lived, and the way she was perceived by the outside world.
"Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while." This quote summarizes Catherine and Henry's love for each other. Even though Catherine died, Henry had a huge space of emptiness left in his heart. Marriages in today's society are very serious relationships although some people don't seem to take them so seriously. Take for example Dennis Rodman, who married Carmen Electra and they divorced a week later. This shows how men are sometimes over powered by looks. My essay contrasts the relationships in Hemingway's Farewell to Arms to the relationships in Steinbeck's East of Eden. E. Hemingway displays a sense of respect for couples whereas J. Steinbeck portrays that women are venerable can't hold a steady relationship. Abra gradually fell in love with Cal and eventually cheated on Aron with his brother Caleb. Cal slowly tries to ruin Aron. Cal influences Abra's thought of Aron by saying sweet things to her. Adam smiled at her. "You're pink as a rose," he said. (590) The passage shows that Cal is trying to romance Abra. He knows Abra is venerable because Aron is away in the army and she misses him. By Aron absent, Abra needs a man and she turns to Cal.
To the modern white women who grew up in comfort and did not have to work until she graduated from high school, the life of Anne Moody reads as shocking, and almost too bad to be true. Indeed, white women of the modern age have grown accustomed to a certain standard of living that lies lightyears away from the experience of growing up black in the rural south. Anne Moody mystifies the reader in her gripping and beautifully written memoir, Coming of Age in Mississippi, while paralleling her own life to the evolution of the Civil Rights movement. This is done throughout major turning points in the author’s life, and a detailed explanation of what had to be endured in the name of equality.
This novel also looks at social norms overseeing gender in the southern states around the 1960's. White women in the book are valued by the amount of children they can reproduce for the black women to raise. Even though getting a job is difficult for these black woman, the white women have a hard time seeking out a job as well. But these black women sacrifice their lives to be major workhorses surrendering their own families to work for white employers. Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter confront the roles put upon them by society and receive fulfillmen...
Gates Jr., Henry Louis, and Nellie Y. McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company , Inc. , 2004. Print.
Growing up as the young child of sharecroppers in Mississippi, Essie Mae Moody experienced and observed the social and economic deprivation of Southern Blacks. As a young girl Essie Mae and her family struggled to survive, often by the table scraps of the white families her mother worked for. Knowing little other than the squalor of their living conditions, she realizes this disparity while living in a two-room house off the Johnson’s property, whom her mother worked for, watching the white children play, “Here they were playing in a house that was nicer than any house I could have dreamed of”(p. 33). Additionally, the segregated school she attends was a “one room rotten wood building.” (p. 14), but Essie Mae manages to get straight A’s while caring for her younger sibli...
Anton Chekhov and Ernest Hemingway both convey their ideas of love in their respective stories The Lady with the Pet Dog and Hills like White Elephants in different ways. However, their ideas are quite varying, and may be interpreted differently by each individual reader. In their own, unique way, both Chekhov and Hemingway evince what is; and what is not love. Upon proper contemplation, one may observe that Hemingway, although not stating explicitly what love is; the genius found in his story is that he gives a very robust example of what may be mistaken as love, although not being true love. On the other hand, Chekhov exposes love as a frame of mind that may only be achieved upon making the acquaintance of the “right person,” and not as an ideal that one may palpate at one instance, and at the another instance one may cease to feel; upon simple and conscious command of the brain. I agree with Hemingway’s view on love because it goes straight to the point of revealing some misconceptions of love.
In our society of today, there are many images that are portrayed through media and through personal experience that speak to the issues of black motherhood, marriage and the black family. Wherever one turns, there is the image of the black woman in the projects and very rarely the image of successful black women. Even when these positive images are portrayed, it is almost in a manner that speaks to the supposed inferiority of black women. Women, black women in particular, are placed into a society that marginalizes and controls many of the aspects of a black woman’s life. As a result, many black women do not see a source of opportunity, a way to escape the drudgery of their everyday existence. For example, if we were to ask black mother’s if they would change their situation if it became possible for them to do so, many would change, but others would say that it is not possible; This answer would be the result of living in a society that has conditioned black women to accept their lots in lives instead of fighting against the system of white and male dominated supremacy. In Ann Petry’s The Street, we are given a view of a black mother who is struggling to escape what the street symbolizes. In the end though, she becomes captive to the very thing she wishes to escape. Petry presents black motherhood, marriage and the black family as things that are marginalized according to the society in which they take place.
The principal characters from the short stories, ‘’The Lady with the Dog’’ by Chekhov, and ‘’Hills like White Elephants’’ by Ernest Hemingway are dishonest with the one they love and with themselves, they hide their real feelings about the person they are with, they are living an untruthful relationship, and as a couple they lie to each other. In ‘’The Lady with The Dog’’, Dmitri Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna, they are both unhappily married to other characters, and after a while they engage in an affair, hiding their feeling to each other, just because they do not want to break up their marriages, they do not want more responsibility of what they have with each other. The same matter happens in the ‘’Hills Like White Elephants’’, The American
Brown stresses the importance of recognizing that being a woman is not extractable from the context in which one is a woman. She examines how both black and white women’s lives are shaped by race and gender, and how these affect life choices. Historically, women of color have filled roles previously attributed to white women
...ng in their relationship, but cannot deny something that her newly awakened sexuality craves. It is her way of rebelling against society and fulfilling many suppressed wants and desires. It leaves her empty, however, as this passion did not come from love.
In the short story “The Cheater’s Guide to Love” by Junot Diaz, the author pinpoints on the Yunior’s life as a writer and college professor who is also struggling with his romantic relationships. The short story is filled with his experiences of using women for his beneficial needs and how it negatively affects him. It focuses on Yunior’s downfall through life after the destruction of his relationship with his fiance. The diction includes the narrator’s hateful consideration of women and a paradox of his own endeavors which prevent him from pursuing a meaningful relationship, but he grows to realize that he treats women awfully and his ex did the right thing by leaving him due to his untruthfulness.
Through the characters' dialogue, Hemingway explores the emptiness generated by pleasure-seeking actions. Throughout the beginning of the story, Hemingway describes the trivial topics that the two characters discuss. The debate about the life-changing issue of the woman's ...