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criticsim of shirley jackson
criticsim of shirley jackson
criticsim of shirley jackson
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The Women of Shirley Jackson
Throughout her life, Shirley Jackson refused to fit into society's limited concept of a woman's role. Her works feature female protagonists who are punished for seeking a more substantial existence than that of the traditional wife or mother. In most cases, these characters are condemned as witches, ostracized by society, and even killed for their refusal to conform.
From her youth, Jackson was an outsider. Always self-conscious about her obesity and plain appearance, she preferred spending time alone in her room writing poetry to socializing with other children (Oppenheimer 16). As an adult, she struggled to fulfill her role as a mother without sacrificing her career as a writer. Kathleen Warnock writes:
[Jackson] served as chauffeur for her children and hostess for her husband's university colleagues at Bennington College [where he was a professor]. . . . But she also set aside time each day for her writing. "There was always the sound of typing," her children wrote, "pounding away into the night (10)."
Jackson's husband, writer and literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman, felt threatened by her talent and tried to discourage her by preoccupying her with housework. This, however, only made Jackson more determined. Her writing became a form of rebellion against her husband (who was allegedly unfaithful) and, ultimately, against a male-dominated society.
This element of rebellion in Jackson's works led to its poor reception by contemporary critics and readers alike. According to mythologian Barbara G. Walker, "Any unusual ability in a woman instantly raise[s] a charge of witchcraft" (1078). In the flood of mail that followed the publication of "The Lottery," Jackson was labeled "un-American, perverted, and modern" (Sullivan 71).
Rumors of supernatural events concerning Jackson began to circulate. According to David Gates, Jackson was "widely believed to have broken the leg of publisher Alfred Knopf by sticking pins into a voodoo doll" (67). Bennington College student Elizabeth Frank recalls "a rumor that. . . [Jackson] had turned a certain male faculty member into a pumpkin" (6). Jackson's extensive library of witchcraft as well as the mystique that arose from her agoraphobic tendencies added to this characterization. Her house became a cave, her small social circle a coven, and her many cats "familiars."
In the words of Jack Sullivan, "Jackson's real witchcraft is her fiction" (71).
She first started writing, when she came back home after the death of her father. She wrote about the Jackson social scene for the Memphis, Tennessee newspaper. She also was a publicity agent for the Works Progress Administration in rural Mississ...
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Growing up on the Mississippi River among six siblings, Mahalia Jackson knew what it was like to be racially secluded. She was reared by her father who was a minister and was singing in his choir at the age of five. In her early teen years she worked as a launderer and also as a housekeeper, but she dreamed of one day becoming a nurse ("New" 1). Mahalia began traveling throughout the Midwest to sing at different Baptist Churches. Her popularity began to soar, and she signed a record deal to become "the only Negro whom Negroes have made famous," as the African American press described her ("New" 2). She was inspired by Bessie Smith. When she worked as a servant, she said "when the old people weren’t home and I’d be scrubbin’ the floor, I’d turn on a Bessie Smith record to make the work go faster" ("New" 1). Mahalia would not stop at just being a famous gospel singer. She had her own radio program and television show that aired on CBS. She went on to manage several businesses and become involved in real estate. She preceded Dr. Martin Luther King in the civil rights movement before he gave his famous "I Have A Dream" speech.
Her children greatly shaped her life; she gave birth to eight children and loved them deeply. In, "In Reference to My Children", she writes about neutering her children: “great was my pain when I you bread, great was my care when you I feed" (Bradstreet 55). She recorded her struggles about being a mother in troubling times. In her poem, "Before the Birth of One of Her Children" she records the last moments before giving birth: "and when thy loss shall be with gains, look to my little babes, my dear remains."(Bradstreet 21), she writes this thinking it would be her last thinking that childbirth would kill her, proving that her love for her children is greater than any other love she has, and that she would die for them. Her husband also is a theme in her poems, she writes about her bond with him and that "if ever two were one, then surely we" (Bradstreet 1) in "To My Dear Loving Husband". Bradstreet Is constantly writing about her husband and her love for him when he is far telling the reader that she is close with her husband and that she loves him deeply. Not only does her poems reflect her husband but also the roll that women had in the 1600's. In "A Love Letter to Her Husband" she tells him to "post with double speed, mark what I say, by all our loves contour him not to stray" (Bradstreet 39). One of her most prominent themes would be her devotion to her religion and God. She
...iety that Shirley Jackson belonged to, and commented on in her writing, was one that depended on women for their work. It also demanded that a woman sacrifice herself and her ambitions, if they included anything besides raising a family, to the god of domesticity. Jackson starkly portrays the sacrifice that has been a part of the lives of all women.
An author’s contributions to the world of literature are many times welcomed as a brilliant piece of work or a genius accomplishment. However, during the life of Shirley Jackson, her stories were many times received poorly due to their dark nature or their pedestrian humor. Even her most famous work, “The Lottery”, was met with outrage and criticism by Americans and literary critics. During her time, horror and humor were seen as minor writings that no one took much notice of. In Janet M. Ball’s analysis of Shirley Jackson, she states that, “Because Jackson chose to handle unusual topics, such as psychosis and ghostly apparitions, some literary critics relegated her to minor status.” (1). Even though she was disregarded during her own time,
Ms. Angelou left her birth place as a young child after her parents had broken up. Ms. Angelou and her brother were sent to live with her fathers’ Mother in Stamps, Arkansas. Some may call Ms. Angelou’s 1969 autobiography ”I Know Why the Caged Bird Sing” her claim to fame, some may call her poetry her occupation, and more over there are still some that would like to call her Freelance writings Maya Angelou’s life’s work. Ms. Angelou was so much more. Ms. Angelou has been known for being a Civil Rights activist, a poet, a philosopher, a teacher, an Award-winning Author, an actress, a screenwriter and the
Shirley Jackson grew up in a home like any other normal middle-class family. She lived with both of her parents in Burlington, California. Growing up, Shirley had a lot of tense relations with her parents, but mostly with her mother. Leslie Jackson, Shirley’s mother, set high standards for Shirley by the ways she was perceived by society and social norms. Shirley always seemed to disappoint her mother. The emotionally tearing and psychologically damaging relationship with her mother escalated to the point where her mother even told her she wished she had aborted Shirley. Roberta Rubenstein makes a great point in her work: House Mothers and Haunted Daughters: Shirley Jackson and Female Gothic, of the mental stress her mother put on her as a child that carried on throughout her life. Rubenstein says, “Throughout her life, Shirley was distressed by her mother’s profound insensitivity to her actual personality, combined with persistent attempts to control her unconven...
At the age of 7, Maya Angelou was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. The boyfriend turned up dead later by hand of her uncle. Traumatized by what had happened, she thought her words had killed her rapist so she became mute so her words couldn’t harm anyone else. "Angelou maintained nearly complete silence for five years,"(Author Study: M. Angelou). She moved to Arkansas where she continued to stay mute. “During these years, she retreated to a sheltered world of writing in which her creative being spawned and flourished” (Gaines 1). She started to dig her head into the books and that is known to be the beginning of her writing. “She read black authors like Langston Hughes, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Paul Lawrence Dunbar, as well as canonical works by William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and Edgar Allan Poe”(Maya Angelou).
Though it ended abruptly, it was full of symbolism, irony and plot twists. I am sure many people of her time found the story inappropriate. Shirley Jackson showed many people how cruel humans can be and how blind we are when it comes to traditions. In this short story, you see fear, lack of free will, conformity, and the will to
I studied the graceful ballerinas that danced en pointe with ease. Although, holding my entire weight onto two toes is a task that requires stamina and dedication. My feet usually get used to the pain and pressure to some degree, but it doesn’t feels completely painless. There is always one blister constantly nagging me, or one cut that just slightly stings.
Over the years many critics have wrote articles on Shirley Jackson's numerous works. Many critics had much to say about Jackson's most famous short story, "The Lottery". Her insights and observations about man and society are disturbing; and in the case of "The Lottery," they are shocking. "The themes themselves are not new, evil cloaked in seeming good, prejudice and hypocrisy, loneliness and frustration, psychological studies of minds that have slipped the bonds of reality" (Friedman). Literary critic, Elizabeth Janeway wrote that, " 'The Lottery' makes its effect without having to state a moral about humanity's need to deflect the knowledge of its own death on a victim. That uneasy consciousness is waked in the reader himself by the impact of the story. Miss Jackson's great gift is not to create a world of fantasy and terror, but rather to discover the existence of the grotesque in the ordinary world. (Janeway).
In conclusion, Shirley Jackson used many literary devices throughout the entire story. In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson, uses symbolism, irony, and imagery to appeal to readers that read this story. Other literary devices such as characterization were identified in this story but the three that were elaborated on were the ones that stood out. The emphasis on religious traditions and symbols make “The Lottery” one the darkest and most mysterious
From poverty to stardom Louisa May Alcott has thrived through many trials and tribulations, but with her unremitting passion and determination, Alcott became a well-known author and role model. Alcott experienced many setbacks in her life. With these setbacks, she was able to create stories that portrayed her life experiences. Alcott’s writings captured the hearts of young children to grown adults. Although she lived for only fifty-five years, she showed her audacity to be support herself and her family.