Beyond The Bayou Analysis

2.) In both stories the females did overcome their original convictions of the outside world for another. However, in “Beyond the Bayou,” La Folle did so for the sake of a child she deeply cared for. She overcame her own fear of the outside world and the representation she had believed it to be based on an event that happened when she was a little girl. Whereas in “Ma-ame Pelagie,” Ma-ame Pelagie did so for the sake of her sister and inadvertently her niece. She gave up her dream of seeing her family home restored to its former glory all for the sake of making her younger sister happy. Yet, she is still haunted by the past and the dream she gave up; La Folle on the other hand is facing the world beyond her little section of the Bayou with a

hope of a better tomorrow.
3.) In “Desiree’s Baby,” we find the connects between ourselves and the character Desiree for different reasons. First, is the way one takes to heart the way the ones we love feel. For example, if they are having a bad day, then we try to make it better. Or if they are hurting we end up hurting for them, the same goes for when they are happy as well. Secondly, is the feeling of betrayal. The betrayal and pain one feels by the actions of someone close to us. The way one reacts to us in the beginning but changes over time is one way a person ends up becoming hurt. Third, is the way Desiree’s husband is shocked by the truth he finds out at the end. Like the truth, we may find out about someone we ended up hurting. Yet, never realizing it was our fault or ignorance that caused the pain and loss to not only ourselves but the other party as well.
4.) The question I saw the Colonel struggling with in the story was family pride and his conscience.

The family pride stemmed from the belief that the family had to keep the houses they were given. The belief that without these structures and land they were not really a part of the family they had come from. Yet, when the Colonel was struggling with the balance of trying to satisfy his daughters wishes of living in town, he figured he could buy out his other relation. However, this was soon realized as not possible since his relative Charlie also had the same pride in him as well. Then, when the colonel was realizing his home would soon fall into the Mississippi, he decided to trade. Nevertheless, his conscience stopped the deal from happening just as Belles Demoiselles Mansion sunk into the river with the Colonel’s daughters inside. The question became more pronounced of his conscience when he sought an answer of not cheating Charlie on his deathbed.
5.) The foreshadowing in “Belles Demoiselles Plantation,” is present in how the land around the house is falling into the river. It shows in the phrase, “the “caving” became a forgotten misfortune” (pg.1). Then, it becomes present again when the Colonel discovers it one day and decides to trade homes with his relation. The irony is the way the Colonel goes against his conscience and pride with the realization of the house sinking into the sinking into the river, just to have him tell the truth and have the house fall into the river

at that moment in time right in front of him.
The reason for the author to use the literary devices that he did was to shock the reader and give a twist that one did not see coming. The months it should have taken for the house to fall into the river happened in a matter of days of his realization. The reasons behind his recent actions that made him go against his normal nature are lost in an instant. There is also the way that Charlie lied to give comfort to the Colonel when, the relation was known for being “unmerciful” (pg. 2).