The Student's Wife Analysis

699 Words2 Pages

The next style element that Carver portrays many times in his writing is dialogue, which he uses to develop the characters in the story. There are two ways Carver instills the use of dialogue in his story “The Student’s Wife.” Nan says, “Please, God, let me sleep” (“The Student’s Wife” 201). Nan is not actually talking here, but the dialogue is in her thoughts. This type of dialogue says that Nan is a holy person because she is having some problems, but instead of talking with others she is talking to God. Nan questions, “God, will you help us, god?” (“The Student’s Wife” 202). Right here Nan is not talking in her thoughts, but aloud to herself. Again, the reader can tell that Nan is a holy person by the way she is talking, but she is also …show more content…

Declarative syntax is used in the story “The Student’s Wife.” It states in the story, “Please, God, let me sleep. She tried to sleep” (“The Student’s Wife” 201). Carver structures his stories to not have a lot of exclamation, but straightforward sentences. He also uses short sentences with four to five words, which makes his stories choppy and broken down. The narrator exclaims, “She closed the robe at her throat. The air was wet and cold” (“The Student’s Wife” 202). This is another example of how Carver uses declarative syntax. He wants to get his point across to the reader, so he uses short, easy to comprehend sentences to help the reader understand what is going on. Second, in the story “Cathedral”, declarative syntax is also used. In the story it says, “She was still wearing a smile. Just amazing” (“Cathedral” 205). Once again, Carver uses short, simple sentences to help the reader comprehend the story. The reader can tell by the sentence structure that the character is happy, but the reader can understand the sarcasticness of the second sentence. The two separate sentences can make it easier to see the different types of points the narrator is trying to get across. Robert says, “The news program ended. I set up and changed the channel” (“Cathedral” 208). Carver uses declarative syntax and simple, broken down sentences here to send the message that Robert is bored. He is just trying to pass the time with the blind man. The reader can tell by the sentence structure that it is a boring statement, which can conclude that Robert is bored and does not want to be where he is at. Declarative syntax is one of the many elements Carver uses to contribute to his

Show More
Related

  • Religion, Family and Feminism in Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible

    1329 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kingsolver uses short sentences to add emphasis in her writings. In doing so, she limits the amount of distractions, because her sentences are short enriching the details in them. At the first page of Orleanna’s episode, her second paragraph already enthuses the level of surprises suspense toward her readers: “First, picture the forest...sucking life out of death” (5). For example, Orleanna begins personifying forest as “forest [eating] itself” (5), and using simile to add human characteristics to animals: “brindled bark like muscular animals overgrown” (5). Kingsolver, however, also contribute many powerful use of literary devices to create the setting, such as the use of metaphors. The constant reference to green mamba snake alludes to Adam and Eve, where Kingsolver disintegrate the purity of Ruth May. Through the ranges of the novel, Kingsolver specifically creates Leah with more to say, which means there are more paragraphs in her perspective. From the start of the novel, Kingsolver structures Adah’s sentences differently and unique from the other protagonist, because Kingsolver uses Adah’s condition to evolve in a much stronger diction. For example, one of her first paragraph begins with “SUNRISE TANTALIZE, evil eyes hypnotize: that is the morning, Congo pink...the shinny black-line clipped into pieces” (30). Although Adah’s powerful diction emphasizes Congo, Rachel’s malapropism constructs the limited knowledge she actually has for the real world, which also causes to mature slower: “They are Episopotamians” (167). In doing so, the use of short sentences create imagery, which Kingsolver inputs the tension and the diction while in each episode. With that being said, Kingsolver uses structure to carry out her literary techniques to unfoil the significance of Congo’s Independence, while demonstrating the effect of multiple narrations in the

    Read More

  • Literary Devices in Carver's Cathedral

    1505 Words  | 4 Pages

    Carver tells the story in first person of a narrator married to his wife. Problems occur when she wants a friend of hers, an old blind man, to visit for a while because his wife has died. The narrator's wife used to work for the blind man in Seattle when the couple was financial insecure and needed extra money. The setting here is important, because Seattle is associated with rain, and rain symbolically represents a cleansing or change. This alludes to the drastic change in the narrator in the end of the story. The wife and blind man kept in touch over the years by sending each other tape recordings of their voices which the narrator refers it to being his wife's "chief means or recreation" (pg 581).

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Defining A Doctor And His Marriage And Hers

    1018 Words  | 3 Pages

    As we are growing up, everyone experience different ways to express themselves as a person especially how to express our emotions to others. Depending on how we are raised, usually we stereotype as boys to be strong and sturdy while girls are gentle and sweet. In both of the articles “Defining a Doctor” and “His Marriage and Hers: Childhood Roots” Zuger and Goleman compares and contrasts the different ways how each gender showcases their behavior or emotion to others. In “Defining a Doctor” Zuger observers two interns and notes how differently they approach their patients by emotion while in “His Marriage and Hers” Goleman defines the separate emotional worlds between boys and girls and their roots are the source of why they handle their feeling

    Read More

  • Marriage Case Study

    1534 Words  | 4 Pages

    Jane and Charlize is a homosexual monogamous couple who have been together for almost three years. The couple has been married for two years and a half. They were dating six months before deciding to get married. Jane is a 33 years-old white Christian female who was born in Alaska. Jane is currently working as a teacher at an elementary school. Jane was previously in a heterosexual marriage, lasting seven years before divorce. Jane stated that her relationship with Charlize is her first homosexual relationship. Meanwhile, Charlize is a 24 years-old mixed race female who was born in the state of Washington. Charlize is currently a full time university student pursuing an Astrology degree. Charlize stated that she previously identified as a polyamorous. Charlize’s relationship with Jane is her first monogamous relationship. Jane and Charlize have sought therapy because of reported distress and conflict in their marriage. This paper will introduce the couple’s presenting problem, relevant clinical factors, hypnotized etiology, and countertransference issues related to the case. This assessment would serve to build the base for an effective therapeutic treatment with the couple.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Daddy's Roommate

    122 Words  | 1 Pages

    Daddy's Roommate a children's book was written by Michael Willhoite and published in 1991 by Alyson Books. The main ideal of the book is to portray homosexuality in a positive manner. Its tells the story of a young boy whose divorced dad now lives with his life partner. Willhoite targeted the story toward young children who had homosexual parents. Daddy's roommate was viewed as controversial because it show homosexuality relastions as okay. Parents and community members would check the book from libraries and claim to lose it, in order to prevent it from reaching the hands of a child. In the end the book was un-banned and even won an award ( Lambda Literary Award for Gay Men's Small Press Book Award).

    Read More

  • A Mother Filled With Worries: Oppression of Women

    615 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the story Kincaid uses a series of long sentences to convey both the tone of the text and the theme of it as well. The tone of the text comes right from the mother who we clearly see is strict and obedient. The mother preaches to her daughter explaining how to do certain household chores and how to act. The long sentences symbolize the many orders that the mother gives to her daughter. The text flows as a stream of consciousness with the ideas coming right from the mother. This style shows the reader how repressive the mother’s demands are to a modern women that we wou...

    Read More

  • Marital Conflict Essay

    874 Words  | 2 Pages

    Most studies in marital conflict pertain to three particular dimensions of communication. The first dimension is affect which refers to messages that express positive or negative feelings about another person, such as supportiveness, hostility, confirmation, coercion, sarcasm, or global positiveness or negativeness (e.g., Gottman, 1979 and Sillars and Wilmot, 1994). The second dimension to characterize conflict behaviors is whether they are constructive or destructive for the parties’ relationship. Research in the United States indicates that exiting from the relationship and neglecting the partner are destructive problem-solving responses and are more powerfully predictive of couple distress than giving voice to problems and being passive loyal (e.g., Rusbult, Johnson, & Morrow, 1986). The third dimension to characterize conflict management is engagement versus avoidance (e.g., Hocker and Wilmot, 1991 and Sillars and Wilmot, 1994). Engagement is reflected in direct, overt verbal confrontation of conflict issues, while conflict avoidance is reflected in withdrawal and aversion to dealing directly with conflict issues (Canary, Cupach, & Messman, 1995) and includes circumscribed, irrelevant, or ambiguous communication. Since the purpose of this study is to examine the effect of culture on marital conflict strategies and marital satisfaction, the discussion will be limited to the third dimension of marital conflict, engagement–avoidance, along with Rahim's styles of conflict.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of When Brothers Share A Wife By Melvyn C. Goldstein

    1283 Words  | 3 Pages

    “When Brothers Share a Wife” is a writing piece by Melvyn C. Goldstein. The beginning of the article starts off with Dorje, who is traveling over a 17,000-foot mountain pass to join his two brothers, Pema and Sonam, in a joint marriage to a woman in another village. Dorje, Pema, and Sonam live in Limi which is located in the northwest corner of Nepal. After learning about who the brothers are the article says that the brothers are entering a fraternal polyandry, type of marriage. This type of marriage is “one of the rarest forms of marriage but is not common in Tibetan society, where it has been practiced from time immemorial” (“When Brother Share a Wife”). Fraternal polyandry is where more than one brothers marry a woman together then live

    Read More

  • Case Analysis: A Quiet Fight To Marry

    824 Words  | 2 Pages

    The case “A Quiet Fight To Marry” is talking about a gay couple named Carol and Jean. This case is written by Coker. Basically what happened here is this gay couple is fighting for their rights. The authors strongest argument is that the People of Alabama consider gay or more like these lesbian couple degenerates. They sometimes get their basic rights denied. This couple has been waiting for years so that the government would take same sex marriage into consideration and they could legally get married but the government does not change any rule and still remains the same.

    Read More

  • Marriage And Cohabitation Essay

    795 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the years, societies view on marriage and cohabitation has been changing, especially from the 1950s up until now. Marriage and cohabitation are in relation to social location, education, immigration and social class. In addition, these changes are influenced through socialization and their surrounding environments as people’s beliefs and expectations vary from what a defined family really is. Same-sex couples are now getting married and the divorce rate is on the rise, including non-married couples raising children. Most importantly, each individual determines who they marry or whom they share their love with through conditioning or in the course of shared similarities. People have dissimilar values, beliefs and attitudes and throughout the life course may change again, including the future generations. This paper reviews why marriage is on the decline and cohabitation is now the accepted social norm, including other aspects such as specific rights that couples have over others in the past. Religion is a powerful tool that alters minds of those who are affiliated with it. As a result, their beliefs are conditioned and marriage is valued differently than those who are not married. All in all this paper will further explain the change, continuity and

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Modern Family

    1863 Words  | 4 Pages

    The television sitcom Modern Family produced by Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd shows the many different types of a modern American family. According to Andrew Hampp, “The show is among the most-viewed scripted programs in prime time in its second season, averaging 11 million viewers during original airings and often ranked as the most DVRed program most weeks” (2). The television show is a frequently watched show and is liked by many viewers. Modern Family's storyline helps the families of viewers by being an influential and relatable show to different types of families. The show is about the lives of three different families that are all related. In the show there are Jay and Gloria, an intergenerational couple with two sons-- Manny (from Gloria’s previous relationship) and Joe, their new baby. Jay’s adult son Cameron is married to his gay partner Mitchell, and they adopted Lily from Vietnam. Finally, Jay’s daughter Claire is married to her heterosexual partner named Phil and they have three children. The show is influential to our culture today because it shows these different types of families and addresses controversial themes such as gay adoption, the different family connections and communications, intergenerational coupling, and acceptance of diversity within an extended family. The family is easy to relate to while watching because it is based off of real family situations.

    Read More

  • Marriage Case Analysis

    944 Words  | 2 Pages

    Today in society there are many young people that are in relationships and often times they want to engage in marriage. In this case with Sarah and Dave, the outcome of that might not look so good between the couple because I believe that they won’t make it. Today, I’ll be discussing in my opinion that they couple aren’t right for each other for marriage and they are not they’re right for each other for long term. According to this passage, when things are tough, Dave tends to turn his stress on Sarah and become critical whereas Sarah tends to withdraw and avoid. In that scenario I would assume that Dave would take his anger out on Sarah and could be abusive verbally and or physically and Sarah would just turn away and do nothing about it.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Marriage A La Mode

    932 Words  | 2 Pages

    Marriage a la Mode, by John Dryden, is an ode to the concept of marriage and love within the period of Restoration England. Dryden, presumably, presents two pairs of couples, Rhodophil and Doralice, as well as Melantha and Palamede, in a way that expresses an imperative tone towards marital relations. Throughout the playwright, he uses these couples and their mistresses to allocate the issue of broken, miserable, thorny marriages. Although marriage was common, there was a strong presence of moral emancipation, which Dryden presents through these relationships. These themes of dissatisfaction and obligation towards the concept of marriage are noted throughout the playwright, as Dryden uncovers how each character feels.

    Read More

  • Essay On Successful Marriage In Society

    1207 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Rereading Americas Chapter Harmony at Home: The Myth of the Modern Family, the ideas of both past and present meanings of what a family truly is, are brought to light with some staggering statistics. “Among Millennials those born after 1980- only 30% say having a successful marriage is “one of the most important things in life””. An in depth look at this statistic raises questions about the mindset of this new generation and the role of marriage in the development of future generations. Today’s modern view of traditional marriage is one that most affiliate with in a new, constantly changing society, an almost ancient idea from 1950’s American homes. Gender roles have also changed as women become more relevant in today’s work force making an extreme impact on the consecrated relationship of marriage. This inevitably changes parenting and the way children are raised.

    Read More

  • Essay On Marital Satisfaction

    1169 Words  | 3 Pages

    So it seems that it is not simply being married that offers benefits and marital stability, but it is what people do in marriage that offers benefits and maintains the marriage (actively doing behaviors to maintain the marriage–being committed beyond being satisfied). Marital satisfaction being a catalyst for marital stability is beneficial to the extent that marital satisfaction does not decline, but this is problematic considering marital satisfaction is inconsistent throughout marriage. It is vital then to examine commitment and marriage, as commitment seems to be a more reliable factor that buffers against divorce and supports marital stability according to the literature.

    Read More

More about The Student's Wife Analysis

Open Document