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Descriptive essays about loneliness
Descriptive essays about loneliness
Descriptive essays about loneliness
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"The Painted Door" by Sinclair Ross centers on a woman who finds herself unhappy living on the farm far away from any companionship. The story takes place in the early part of the 20th century in a rather desolate farming area in Canada during the most bitter part of the winter. In fact, during the story, a terrible blizzard breaks which becomes a major part of the story. The protagonist is Ann who has lived on the farm with her husband of seven years. Her life is tedious and lonely. Her nearest neighbor is Stephen, a bachelor living on a farm about two miles away. John, Ann’s husband, has little ambition other than make his farm work. He loves Ann and is very proud that she is his wife. On the other hand, Ann finds much that she is
unhappy about in her life. John needs to go to see his father who lives five miles away. The weather is so bad and the snow is so deep that he will not be able to take a wagon. He will have to walk. This means that he may not be back at night. Ann has never been alone on the farm. John promises her that he will stop by and tell Stephen to come over and keep her company until John gets back. Ann knows that John should not try to walk in the dark. He tells her that he always comes home to her. She will spend her day painting the inside of th
In today’s society, isolation often becomes both a physical and emotional influence on an individual who does not experience any social interactions. These influences can lead individuals to develop a need to distract themselves from their boredom through temptation. In Sinclair Ross’s short story, “The Painted Door”, Ann overcomes her isolation through her infidelity which ultimately cost her, her marriage. Ross develops the idea that isolation is crucial because internal conflicts and desires create temptation resulting in infidelity.
In “The Art Room,” by Shara McCallum, the author is telling a story about her childhood. McCallum and her sisters did not grow up with a lot of money so they had to make due with what they had. “Because we had not chalk or pastels, no toad, forest, or morning-grass slats of paper, we had no color for creatures. So we squatted and sprang, squatted and sprang.” They used their imagination and their bodies to create music and art. The tone of this poem is reminiscent and whimsical, the theme is about how even if you do not have a lot of money you can still have fun.
Tom is a very ambitious person when it comes to his work. He is caught up in getting a promotion from work by doing a project. Tom just focuses on the “big picture,” which is his future, rather than the “small picture,” which is what his wife is doing. This trait changes at the end when he decides to go to the movies with his wife. When the paper flew out the window for the second time, he realized that he can do the paper over again but he can never take back that one specific night he could have spent with his wife.
The protagonist is the husband, Leroy. His traits are that he is a loving husband willing to build them a house to live in and possible revert back before the loss of their child. At the same time another trait is that he is not aggressive in his approach to save his marriage. In the story is describes Norma Jean going to bodybuilding classes, changing her diet, and enrolling into classes and slowly becomes independent. He believes that building a house will save his marriage rather than his actions on a daily basis with his wife. He realizes late in the story “the real inner workings of
In the short story, “The Painted Door”, John and Ann are a married couple, who have been together for seven years, and yet despite this fact, they still have trouble communicating. Ann wishes, from the very beginning of the story, that John would stay at home with her rather than go to check on his father. However, rather than expressing these sentiments exactly, she acts very cold towards him and insists that she’ll be perfectly fine, trying to guilt him into staying. Though it works, as John offers to stay with her rather than visiting his father’s farm, Ann decides to instead push away her feelings of spite and loneliness and allows him to leave, despite worrying about his safety and how she’s going to cope while John is gone. This is the
Have you ever stressed out about something that turned out to be insignificant? Whether it be writing this English personal response, an interview with a future employer, or forgetting to bring your homework even though you've finished it? Most of us have experienced this stress, or source of unhappiness, caused by negative thoughts. I believe we all have bad imagination. We like to think about the worst possible situation and get used to it, which is why many of us worry and blame our sadness on others causing more unhappiness. In the story, “The Painted Door” by Sinclair Ross, the protagonist, Anne, is a very lonely individual that is very unhappy
Kerry Wade’s essay titled: “The Restoration of Voice in The Kitchen God’s Wife” is a literary criticism based upon Amy Tan’s fiction novel The Kitchen God’s Wife. She asserts that Winnie is able to escape the hardships of a patriarchal society and reshape her identity as she transitions from her past into her present life through the act of speaking up. Wade refutes this by first introducing Wen Fu’s dominance which acquaints Winnie’s oppressed silence, then by disclosing Winnie gaining a voice through Jimmie, and finally, by displaying what Pearl’s reaction is along with what she identifies her mother as after listening to the narration of her life story.
Ann and John, two characters from he short story "The Painted Door", do not have a very healthy relationship. John is a simple farmer who thinks the only way he can please his wife, Ann, is by working all day to earn money for her. However Ann would prefer him to spend more time with her. Their relationship is stressed even further when Ann is left at home alone with nothing to think about but their relationship because John has to go to his father’s house. The terrible snowstorm accentuates Ann’s feelings of loneliness and despair. John does not pay enough attention to Ann, and therefore creates a weak relationship.
Even when examining Anna’s early relationship with Jeff, when she arranges for him to come up on weekends with Chuck. He protests saying, “Jesus, I don’t even know the guy…why didn’t you call me first” (Wallace, 315). Her insecurity about whether or not Jeff would come up on weekends without this convenience allowed for a lack of communication of feelings between Jeff and Anna. However, of more importance is Anna’s lack of communication with Peter. A large part of what makes Anna herself is her ability and love of creating stories. When her husband does not share this, Anna finds this challenging, and lets it become a barrier for communication. “His face set in the pained expression he wears for conversations like this – “What ifs” speculations. When Jennifer and I sit in a restaurant making up stories about the people around us, he closes his eyes, just as he’s doing now” (Wallace, 317). Peters almost dismissal through the closing his eyes of Anna’s love for story making allows for a distancing and ultimately a deep seeded feeling of isolation and
In contrast to the powerful Robert Neville is the young and innocent, 16 year old Ann Burden. She too suffers from the reality that she may be the only person left alive on the face of the earth. Unlike Robert who lives in the city, Ann lives out on a small farm property in the countryside of America; which is a short distance from the local town, Ogdentown. It was to this town her family ventured in search of life and supplies, but never returned. Luckily Ann is self-sufficient and is able to run her f...
As the story begins, the character of the husband has a negative personality. He lacks compassion, is narrow-minded, and is jealous of his wife’s friendship with a blind man named Robert. His constantly complains that “a blind man in my house was not something [he looked] forward to” (362). The close outside friendship between the narrator’s wife and Robert provokes his insecurities. This friendship has lasted for ten years and during those years, they have exchanged countless tapes regarding experiences they have gone through. Because of this, her husband feels “she [has] told him everything or it so it seemed” (363) about their relationship.
The traditional values of a “Nuclear Family” that were set up in the 1960’s are a reoccurring theme throughout “The Country Husband” by John Cheever. Francis Weed demonstrates the strain of a domestic lifestyle, and his character communicates the chaos that pressure ensues. With changes in attitude, the struggles of a traditional suburban community, characterization of a middle-aged man who suffers with morality and the desperation for escape from reality, Francis Weeds finds himself in what would be identified as a “mid-life crisis.” In the short story, Francis portrays reckless behavior due to the adolescent yearnings. He wants to pursue an unattainable affair with the engaged babysitter that his wife hires. With his codependent characteristics, Francis is unable to escape his reality. When Julia, his wife, threatens to leave him due to his uncaring demeanor he persuades her to stay because he realizes that he is hopeless without her and he simply
At the beginning of the story, in plot “A”, John and Mary are introduced as a stereotypical happy couple with stereotypically happy lives of middle class folks. Words like “stimulating” and “challenging” are used repetitiously to describe events in thei...
The alienation of Ross’ characters in “The Painted Door” and “One’s a Heifer” , eventually leads to a form of drastic life changing event. In “The Painted Door”, Ann starts doubting her relationship with her husband, which leads to his death. When she sees Steven, a younger friend of John that he sent to keep her company till his return in the evening, she starts comparing them, and how he has “ features and smile that were different from John’s, from other men’s ... His hair was dark and trim, his young lips curved and soft and full” (Ross 297) . Ann cannot help but to be attracted to Steven, because he is all John is not. The repeated juxtaposition of John and Steven by Ann hints to her cheating on her husband, or a least, the wavering
Francis Weed, the main character in “The Country Husband,” has recently come back from surviving a plane crash. When he attempts to tell his story, no one listens, including his wife, Julia. The crash has changed him, and he feels held back by Julia. Because he feels restricted, Francis becomes enthralled with his children’s babysitter, Anne Murchison. She is still in highschool, but that doesn’t stop him from fantasizing