“The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.” –Mother Teresa A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris is a novel about Native American, narrated by three generations of Indian women; Ida the grandmother, Christine the mother, and Rayona. The stories of three people, “twisting and tying and blending,” fabricate the braid of their relationship. Each of three strands is a complicated composition of hairlines. There is a hairline that all strands have in common and shape this braid: loneliness. Through the story, loneliness played a crucial part in every character’s life. It is the important cause of characters’ action. It shapes the relationship between mother and daughter. Ultimately, one’s loneliness shapes not only that character, but also affects and causes the loneliness in the next generation. The first character who tells her story is Rayona. Being the last generation, she is in the bottom of the well of loneliness. After her parents separated, Rayona lives with Christine, her mother, who habitually changes her job and moves to the new place. Consequently, she never stays in any schools long enough to make some friends. Her life with Christine is also bitter. In Rayona’s opinion, Christine does not take care of her much. She said “I try to recall what Mom says when she’s sentimental and lonesome: how he was the best one, the only one, because he left her me. How I’m her sterling silver lining, the one who’ll never leave her like he did. Like she did me.” (64) She is disappointed by Christine’s care that exists only in her speech. Lacking of both friends and warm family, Rayona suffered from loneliness. When she goes back to the reservation with Christine to stay with Aunt Ida, Chris... ... middle of paper ... ... ease her with the warmth of my body, to support her with the strength of my arms. But she did not expect this from me, and I did not give it.” The loneliness of mother is the unwanted gift. From generation to generation, the hairlines of loneliness twist and tie the braid of this family. It obstructs the hairline of love. It obstructs the hairline of care. It leads the braid of this family to nowhere. Loneliness is a cell that imprisons mother’s love from reaching the daughter, leaves them feeling unloved, and became lonely. This baneful hairline will continuously distort the braid until they realize. Until they realize that the solution is turning back to face the reality, holding hands and let the truth comes out, then, the three-generation-long loneliness will disappear. The braid will be set in the right shape and tie the family members together with love.
The story ‘Norma’ is written by Sonia Sanchez, who describes in the story that how she used to look up to another girl in her school named Norma. Norma was intelligent, attractive, and everything that made a person perfect. But then as they grew up, Norma started doing drugs, and got pregnant while she was still in high school. She got kicked out of school, and wasn’t seen for a long time. Then after a few years, Sonia and Norma met again, and agreed to get together often. After leaving, Sonia vows to herself to never agree again, as she did not accept Norma as her role model anymore.
As a teen, Rayona is in a confusing period of life. The gradual breakdown of her family life places an addition burden on her conscience. Without others for support, Rayona must find a way to handle her hardships. At first, she attempts to avoid these obstacles in her life, by lying, and by not voicing her opinions. Though when confronting them, she learns to feel better about herself and to understand others.
Although their relationships are not exactly what the Native American women would consider ideal, it is enforced with love. Ida, Christine, and Rayona each struggle with something different because they have different personalities. But through their differences comes a similarity, love, which ultimately bonds these three women as a whole. They are three Native American women whose lives braid into each other that create this bond that is absolutely beautiful.
The story begins with Titas birth prematurely when Mama Elena was chopping onions. Tita grows up with Nacha the most dominant figure in her life, and follows Mama Elenas routine of cooking, cleaning and sewing. At every incident she can, Mama Elena criticizes Tita and even beats her if she tries to speak up. One day Tita tells her mother that Pedro wants to come and ask for her hand, but according to the family tradition she cannot marry because she is the youngest daughter. Mama Elena tells Pedro he can marry Rosaura- one of her older daughters, and Pedro agrees to the arrangement just to be closer to his true love- Tita.
The story follows three girls- Jeanette, the oldest in the pack, Claudette, the narrator and middle child, and the youngest, Mirabella- as they go through the various stages of becoming civilized people. Each girl is an example of the different reactions to being placed in an unfamiliar environment and retrained. Jeanette adapts quickly, becoming the first in the pack to assimilate to the new way of life. She accepts her education and rejects her previous life with few relapses. Claudette understands the education being presented to her but resists adapting fully, her hatred turning into apathy as she quietly accepts her fate. Mirabella either does not comprehend her education, or fully ignores it, as she continually breaks the rules and boundaries set around her, eventually resulting in her removal from the school.
The narrator has two daughters, Dee and Maggie. Dee was this cute girl who was super intelligent and sophisticated. She often saw herself as being above her mother and sister and would often make them feel stupid and bad about themselves. "She used to read to us without pity, forcing words, lies, other folks' habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice". She shows that Dee enjoyed making her mother and younger sister feel dumb about themselves because it made her feel superior. Her whole life Dee detested her family and where she came from and couldn’t wait to get away. But, still her mother worked her booty off to provide her with high education and a good life. Dee goes away to college and when she returns she is a completely different person, suddenly interested in her family; photographing them upon arrival. With her guest, new "Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo", invades her mothers house taking everything in like it’s a cute display for her. Finally, when Wangero (Dee) demands that her mother give her some quilts, her mum can not take anymore. She tells Dee that Maggie, not her, will be receiving the quilts and she snaps. "I did something I never had done before: hugged Maggie to me, then dragged her on into the room, snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangero's hands, and dumped them into Maggie's lap. Maggie just sat
She normally keeps to herself. Nobody understands her or takes out time to get to know her. The old woman is also not given the chance by people because of her looks and age, she is as lonely as Myra. Myra is not lonely by choice, she has her little brother who is shy always with her and he makes others think she’s weird, so she doesn’t get the opportunity to make friends do to something she has no power over. The old woman, who is also not lonely by choice but because of her wrinkled face, the man of her dreams is blinded by his fears, and does not recognized she is the woman he has been so longing
One of the biggest challenges Francie faces while growing up is loneliness. As a young child living in a Brooklyn slum, Francie has no friends her age. The other children either find her too quiet or shun her for being different because of her extensive vocabulary. Betty Smith describes how most of Francie's childhood days are spent: "in the warm summer days the lonesome child sat on her stoop and pretended disdain for the group of children playing on the sidewalk. Francie played with her imaginary companions and made believe they were better than real children. But all the while her heart beat in rhythm to the poignant sadness of the song the children sang while walking around in a ring with hands joined." (106). Francie is lonely, and longs to be included. As Francie matures, she begins to experience a different kind of loneliness. Betty Smith portrays her feelings as she observes her neighborhood: "spring came early that year and the sweet warm nights made her restless. She walked up and down the streets and through the park. And wherever she went, she saw a boy and a girl together, walking arm-in-arm, sitting on a park bench with their arms around each other, standing closely and in silence in a vestibule. Everyone in the world but Francie had a sweetheart or a friend she seemed to be the only lonely one in Brooklyn without a friend." (403). Loneliness is a constant challenge for Francie but it is through her loneliness that she finds a new companion in her books. Francie reads as an alternative for her lack of friends and companions. It is through her love of reading that Francie develops her extensive, sophisticated vocabulary. Her books lead her into maturity and help her learn to be independent and overcome her many hardships.
In the age of industrialization when rural life gradually was destroyed, the author as a girl who spent most of her life in countryside could not help writing about it and what she focuses on in her story - femininity and masculinity, which themselves contain the symbolic meanings - come as no surprise.
influence all her life and struggles to accept her true identity. Through the story you can
Near the beginning of the movie her brother dies from falling out of a third story window and she is forced to buy a coffin for him because her parents are unable to communicate this is largely because of the lack of accommodations that were available during the time. As the movie progresses and she faces more of lives hardships she starts to realize that she is the connection between the hearing and non-hearing worlds for her parents. For her graduation her father makes a kind jester of purchasing a hearing aid, which was one of the early models. Unfortunately her misunderstanding led to he feeling embarrassed of her parents although, it is unfair that she hid away her parents from her social life in the first place. One of the main characters that really kept her grounded was Mr. Petrakis. A kind elderly man who runs a pawnshop down the street. He also tends to be her way of venting because she doesn’t know how to tell her parents how upset she is. After her graduation she starts as a secretary where she meets her eventual husband William Anglin who repeatedly asks her out, but is unable to up until he is leaving for basic training for WWII. After they date are dating for a while ...
“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.” - Mother Teresa
Well known author Gretchen Rubin once said, “Keep in mind that to avoid loneliness, many people need both a social circle and an intimate attachment. Having just one of two may still leave you feeling lonely.” In the novel Of Mice And Men written during the Great Depression by author John Steinbeck loneliness is one of the main themes throughout the story. In this essay I will be writing about how loneliness affects three of the characters, George, Crooks, and Curley's unnamed wife.
basis of the plot and themes of this novel. The fond memories she possessed of her mother and the harsh ones of her father are reflected in the thoughts and
tragedies that befell her. She is an example of a melancholic character that is not able to let go of her loss and therefore lets it t...