In Sandra Benitez’s novel, A Place Where the Sea Remembers, we get to know the lives and struggles of the residents of a small town in Mexico. Each character faces a conflict that affects the course of his or her life. The conflict I chose was the conflict that Marta was with her child and how her anger about the child made her do things she wished she could take back. It all starts with Marta and her sister. Marta is pregnant and thinks she can't take care of the kid so she wants an abortion. Then once Choyo Marta’s sister husband found out he insisted to take the kid once he is born. So then Marta decided to take care of the baby until it was born but then after time went by the husband of Choyo said that he wouldn't be able to take the kid because he was already going to have a child with Choyo. Once Marta was told this she let her anger get the best of her which then lead her to …show more content…
go with a decision that she will regret after time passes on. The most important conflict in this novel is the conflict with Marta putting the curse on Choyos baby. The reason why the conflict between Choyo and Marta is the most important is because Marta is feeling many emotions at first.
She is experience at first anger after finding out that Choyos husband couldn't take her Martas baby anymore. The anger then lead her to a decision she'll regret. Now she is experiencing a whole new feeling which is regret. She is having regret feelings because she has put a curse on Choyo baby. Then the regret feeling grows even more after finding out that curse she put on the baby never left even after Marta told Remedius to take off the curse from the baby. Choyo child had to go through a tough time to get rid of a disease that he had because of the curse. Then Choyo child sooner finds out that the cause of the disease was from the curse that Marta put on him. Choyos child shunned Marta after finding out which then lead to a new feeling. Which is the last feeling, sadness. Marta is sad because now she has lost the trust from her sister's child even though she is very sorry but still Choyos child is being stubborn and still take her apologies for what she
did. Now the victims of the curse even though they were the good guys. The couple that were hard workers and barely living off of the husband's job. Candelero was Choyos husband. He was a very hardworking man. He at first only had one job but then got getting the boss mad. Then got a new job but after he found out that he is going to have a child with Choyo he then started to work two jobs to help pay for home bills and to help with the baby as well. Choyo were only the favorite family that people would go to for help or support as well. But because of that they were the victims of Martas curse. They are both very important to this conflict because without their help they tried to give to Marta, Marta would've never went for them talking about the kid at all. Remedius the witch. Remedius is the main person that made this conflict even happen. Only because of their selfishness. She did not want to get rid of the curse even after Marta begged her to take the curse off after finding out what she has just done to her sister. Remedius said she will take it off but later on in the book we find out that Remedius never did take out the curse. When Marta and Choyo were looking for Richard's body she wanted the body of Richards all for herself. She knew exactly where Richard's body will end up but still never told them. Not only was Remedius was selfish she also wanted everything for herself. The most important conflict in this story is with Marta, Choyos family, and Remedios. The problem all started with the anger that Marta had from finding out that Choyo and them will not take her baby so then she went to Remedius to put a curse on Choyos baby. Soon after Marta regrets her decision and tries to get Remedius to take back the curse. Remedios said she will but soon after in the book Marta and Choyo realize that the cause of Choyos child to have a certain disease is because of the curse that Remedius put on him. Then once Choyos child finds out about the curse he starts to be mean to Marta and trying his best to ignore her. He started to be very stubborn with her. The feelings in this book is the main reason most of these conflicts are happening. I had no connection with the novel at all.
In, A Place Where the Sea Remembers, several events take place to describe the little city of Santiago, Mexico. This town is just south of the border by El Paso, Texas. The book focuses around a lady known as the Remedios. She is a very old healer that helps people with their problems of love, hate, etc. She is the "good" in the book, whereas El Brujo, the warlock, is the bad man in the book. This book's other strong point is that it has several short narratives that focus on one, or a few citizens of Santiago. A few examples are, Candelario (the salad maker), Marta (16 year old that's pregnant), Fulgencio (the photographer that loses all of his equipment) and Don Justo Flores (left his wife and kids and now it haunts him when one of his daughters die). In these stories, these people go threw hardships and ordeals that teach us, the readers, how to or not to deal with life when it isn't looking UP.
It is influenced by her grandmother, Esperanza Ortega’s life story and her experience from when she fled from Mexico to California. While it may be a fictional story, it is personally inspired by a close family member who lived through similar challenges. In addition, I appreciate how the author has done extensive historically based social research to allow the story to be as authentic as possible. Moreover, I chose this novel because it takes place during the Great Depression period focusing on the agricultural labor camps. I have no previous knowledge specifically in this area, and would like to learn and understand how this certain place and era affected people’s lives, society, environment, and
In “Confetti Girl”, the narrator disagrees with her father and questions how much he cares about her and in “Tortilla Girl”, the narrator questions if her mother was taking her into account of her new plans. Tension is shown to be caused in the stories “Confetti Girl” and “Tortilla Sun” due to the parent and narrator not having the same point of view. In this story, a young girl named Izzy lives alone with her mother. One day, the mother surprises her by explaining that she is going to Costa Rica to do some research, and that Izzy is going to her grandmother’s house while she is away.
The mother is a selfish and stubborn woman. Raised a certain way and never falters from it. She neglects help, oppresses education and persuades people to be what she wants or she will cut them out of her life completely. Her own morals out-weight every other family member’s wants and choices. Her influence and discipline brought every member of the family’s future to serious-danger to care to her wants. She is everything a good mother isn’t and is blind with her own morals. Her stubbornness towards change and education caused the families state of desperation. The realization shown through the story is the family would be better off without a mother to anchor them down.
From there on she continues to talk about her adolescence where she quickly learned about the threat of physical abuse and molestation towards young girls. She did not continue with school pat the age of 9 and in her small job of working in the local market she was confronted with true and absolute poverty on a daily basis. She got pregnant at age 15. At 16 she had her first fist fight with her abusive physically brother. And at 17 met the father of her other future children. While with this man, Rafael Canales, she learned first hand the hardships of poor domestic life. She also learned to assert herself even towards her own husband.
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness”-Desmond Tutu. In the novel, Salt to the Sea, by Ruta Sepetys the characters are faced with the problem of Nazi Germany. They are all trying to get on a boat to escape the hard times. Florian and Emilia are separated from their families and become each other's family by providing hope through hard times. Additionally, the shoemaker exhibits wisdom and fulfills the role of a grandfather to most of the characters. Certain members of the group are brought together because they are injured or without a family.
She informs the readers that Sethe wishes she could have died with her other siblings because the current life she is living is only filled with anguish and agony. Sethe remembers the story of Nan and her mother during the Middle Passage. According to Nan, Sethe’s mother “threw them all away but you,” (74). Sethe’s siblings are all thrown overboard, murdered. All except Sethe. Nan assures Sethe that she is special to her mother because “[she] put her arms around him. The others she did not,” (74). Her mother loves her father and because of that, Sethe is the only child her mother truly loves. Although this story is to make Sethe grateful for life, she only feels “unimpressed” and “angry,” (74). Sethe is the unlucky child from her mother. All her life, she has been enslaved and nothing good has come out from living. She has only experienced traumatic events, mainly from her time as a slave in Sweet Homes. One of the most disturbing memories Sethe has is when Schoolteacher categorizes the slaves’ characteristics. She happens to be passing by the building and hears that the men are putting “her human characteristics on the left; her animal ones on the right,” (228). Sethe is perturbed as to how her animalistic features are sorted out from her human characteristics. She is not seen to be a human being, but an animal. With her life as a slave, Sethe sees that there is not positive outcome from living. She only experiences pain for Halle goes insane, Sixo is burned alive, Paul A is hanged, Paul D is forced to wear a bit in his mouth, and Sethe is almost whipped to death. Her only wishes are that all these events had never happened and blames her mother for not having thrown her into the sea and causing all these memories. According to Freud, everybody has a death drive within themselves. Currently, Sethe’s death drive is causing her to have this desire of death.
John Cheever and F. Scott Fitzgerald are both 20th century writers whose story’s thematically reflected the despair and the emptiness of life. In both story’s “The Swimmer” and “Babylon Revisited” the main characters undergo similar problems, although they are presented differently in each story. The subject matter of both stories, pertain to the ultimate downfall of a man. “The Swimmer”, conveys the story of a man who swims his way into reality. He at first is very ignorant to his situation; however with the passing of time he becomes cognizant to the idea that he has lost everything. In “Babylon Revisited” the key character is a “recovering alcoholic”, who return to his homeland in hope to get his daughter back. However, problems from his past reemerge and deter his attempt to reunite. Ultimately, both stories share rather inconsolable endings with no direct resolution to their troubles.
For this paper I read the novel The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards, this novel is told in the span of 25 years, it is told by two characters David and Caroline, who have different lives but are connect through one past decision. The story starts in 1964, when a blizzard happens causing the main character, Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins. During the delivery the son named Paul is fine but the daughter named Phoebe has something wrong with her. The doctor realizes that the daughter has Down syndrome, he is shocked and age remembers his own childhood when his sister was always sick, her dyeing at an early and how that effected his mother. He didn’t want that to happen to his wife, so David told the nurse to bring Phoebe to an institution, so that his wife wouldn’t suffer. The nurse, Caroline didn’t think this was right, but brings Phoebe to the institution anyways. Once Caroline sees the institution in an awful state she leaves with the baby and
Lots of people different feelings about conflicts. In other words, we don't all have the same feelings. First, Esperanza describes her house as not a very good place to live, but other people might enjoy it. "The house on Mango St. is ours and we don't have to pay rent but even so, its not the house we thought we'd get" (3). "Everybody has to share a bedroom" (3). These quotes illustrate that Esperanza's house is small and unattractive which she doesn't like very much. Second, Rosa Vargas has a lot of kids and she doesn't know what to do. "Rosa Vargas' kids are too many and too much they are bad Vargases and how can they help it with only one mother who is tired who cries everyday for a man who left without even a dollar or a note explaining how come" (29).
Their family, specially Désirée, felt conflicted due to the color of her child’s skin and the divided country in which they were living in. Désirée was okay with her child’s skin, because she loved him unconditionally. Her husband was good at hiding it, but he eventually showed his true colors. And, even though her family didn’t show it, the child 's skin color bothered them significantly. So, tension was significant as well. The one who felt it the most was Désirée, because she was the one who gave birth to a black child. She felt rejection and hatred towards herself, specially from her husband. He thought she had African American blood running through her veins or that she had been unfaithful to him. Even if he did not think that was possible, he still saw her as impure and unclean because of his belief that African American blood ran through her
Looking back on the death of Larissa’s son, Zebedee Breeze, Lorraine examines Larissa’s response to the passing of her child. Lorraine says, “I never saw her cry that day or any other. She never mentioned her sons.” (Senior 311). This statement from Lorraine shows how even though Larissa was devastated by the news of her son’s passing, she had to keep going. Women in Larissa’s position did not have the luxury of stopping everything to grieve. While someone in Lorraine’s position could take time to grieve and recover from the loss of a loved one, Larissa was expected to keep working despite the grief she felt. One of the saddest things about Zebedee’s passing, was that Larissa had to leave him and was not able to stay with her family because she had to take care of other families. Not only did Larissa have the strength to move on and keep working after her son’s passing, Larissa and other women like her also had no choice but to leave their families in order to find a way to support them. As a child, Lorraine did not understand the strength Larissa must have had to leave her family to take care of someone else’s
Lola purposely display her emotional side to Briony for the young girl to feel compassion and pity for her cousin. Yet, she retrieves better: Briony reveals the content of the secret letter dedicated to Cecelia, her older sister. As Lola describes how her “brothers” afflicted th...
Different emotions and attitudes are between her father’s death and her first horse death. When she heard the news of her father’s death, she didn’t cry, but remained motionless, and then turned her head and looked at the painting on the wall next
Throughout history, there has been an inescapable struggle between instilling ancestral customs and following the path of progress through adaptation. Author Yukio Mishima experienced this struggle during the time he wrote the novel The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea as his political ideology leaned towards conservatism and preserving traditional Japanese beliefs such as the samurai lifestyle. Post World War II was a transitional period for Japan as it started embracing the Western mannerisms of the Allied countries. Mishima’s internal conflict between this dichotomy -- westernization and traditionality -- is represented in the novel through the character of Noboru. Noboru struggles between his immersion in traditional