In John Hassler’s novel Staggerford, a spotlight is shining on Miles Pruitt and Beverly Bingham. Beverly Bingham, Miles’ student, preyed on Miles until he fell to his knees. If Beverly had never shown interest in him, Miles would not have thought of her as anything but a student. She was relentless, and that is all it took for Miles to write, “Don’t tell me I’m falling in love with the Bonewoman’s daughter” (Hassler 112). Their growing scandal was based on convenience and not on love.
When being introduced to the characters, sometimes we learn about their appearance, personalities, profession, or history. Miles is a single man who does not have a successful love life. His first love, Carla Carpenter, was a distant girl (by choice) who ended up marrying Miles’ brother Dale. When Anna Thea Hayworth came along, Miles seems to fancy her but never did anything about it. He has nicknamed her Thanatopsis, but she married Wayne Workman, Staggerford’s principal. Miles does not get along with Wayne, probably due to his liking of Anna Thea. As for nonromantic relationships, Miles has is a friendship with the librarian Imogene Kite. Miles describes her as “too tall and bloodless to be attractive” (Hassler 29). On impulse, Miles kisses Imogene for no reason; this proves that Miles is desperate, lonely, and incapable of having clear feelings.
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I want to know why Beverly says, “Mr. Pruitt, is there any chance you’ll fall in love with me?” (Hassler 105)? The reason why this is so interesting is because she addresses is Miles as her teacher while asking an intimate, inappropriate question. If she wants to ask an intimate question, then she should be addressing Miles using his first name and not as his authority figure name. She does not think critically about what she wants, and this leads me to believe that she is a conniving person that uses those around her and does not have feelings to
Miles Pruitt is a thirty-five year old high school English teacher in the Staggerford, Minnesota. Throughout the book, Miles falls in love two times, but his choice to live life without taking any risks will quickly catch up with him.
hooks, bell. "Seduction and Betrayal." Writing as Re-Vision: A Student's Anthology. Ed. Beth Alvarado and Barbara Cully. Needham Heights: Simon & Schuster Custom Publishing, 1998. 108-111.
Alma Schmidt is described as “nothing but a common whore” (Jones 235) by Prewitt and is later referred to as a “professional whore” (Jones 671) throughout much of the novel. These objectify...
Sandy Wilson, the author of Daddy’s Apprentice: incest, corruption, and betrayal: a survivor’s story, was the victim of not only sexual abuse but physical and emotional abuse as well, in addition to being a product of incest. Sandy Wilson’s story began when she was about six years old when her birth father returns home from incarceration, and spans into her late teens. Her father returning home from prison was her first time meeting him, as she was wondered what he looked like after hearing that he would be released (Wilson, 2000, p. 8). Not only was her relationship with her father non-existent, her relationship with her birth mother was as well since she was for most of her young life, cared for by her grandmother and grandfather. When she was told that her birth mother coming to visit she says, “…I wish my mother wouldn’t visit. I never know what to call her so I don’t all her anything. Not her name, Kristen. Not mother. Not anything (Wilson, 2000, p. 4).” This quote essentially demonstrated the relationship between Sandy and her mother as one that is nonexistent even though Sandy recognizes Kristen as her birth mother.
Gillis, Christina “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”: Seduction, Space, and A Fictional Mode.” Studies in Short Fiction. Vol. 18 Issue 1, (Winter 1981): 65 Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 November 2013.
Imagine that it is the late nineteenth to early twentieth century in the American South. Imagine a work environment where the only reward for hard labor and back breaking tasks is not being beaten that day. Imagine barely getting enough to meet even one’s most basic needs, and that the only way out of this cruel cycle is by death or an almost impossible escape. This is the world in which Marriah Hines lives. Luckily for her, she only witnesses such atrocities; she never has to endure them as most slaves did during her lifetime and for hundreds of years before her. How is this possible? The compassion of one man, her master, saves her from the worst aspects of slavery. Her master is not the stereotypically cruel slave owner that dominates
Carmen Sternwood is described with profoundness but in a different (less sexual) sense than her sister is. Marlowe encounters her on many occasions and is thorough in describing her--from her first flirtations to her continuous irritations. In t...
At that point Hollis leaves March angry while Huffman knows that love must not be built on the jealous rampage of one man. March spends years waiting on Hollis with hopes that he will return to her,"...before she knew it the pane of glass had become her universe, the empty road her fate." (28). March goes on to become another person but she knows in her heart that she will always love Hollis. This dooms her character to a life of sadness and regret. Her family is always different. March will never truly love Richard, her husband, and this strains their marriage to the extreme as the novel continues on, "I'll never be in love with you.
as experessed through Stephen Gordon a rich eras who seeks social acceptance and compassion from her peers. that is expressed within social isolation of homosexuality, and heterosexual male power that is established through marriage. Indeed as Anna marries Sir Gordon , Angela marries Ralph, so as Mary will marry Martin. Hall questions that validity of heterosexual normativity as key to happiness and instead promotes through the character Stephen Gordon
James clearly resists historical interpretation which would fill in the blanks with knowledge on social groups. Yet, through analysis of the Governess and Mile’s relationship by placing their narration and dialogue in a socio-historic context the battle is revealed between desires and demands. Awareness of Victorian sexual commencement allows readers to trace the development of the two characters transformations from pupil and teacher to lover and mistress.
Evans, Robert C., Anne C. Little, and Barbara Wiedemann. Short Fiction: A Critical Companion. West Cornwall, CT: Locust Hill, 1997. 265-270.
In “The Passing of Grandison” by Charles Chestnut, various perceptions are examined. As Dick Owens wishes to fulfill the “heroic” image perceived by Charity Lomax, this motive transcends the plot of the story. Through his attempt to win her heart, Dick Owens devises a plan in order to help one of his father’s slaves escape. The slave, Grandison, is chosen due to the perception that he is more trustworthy and loyal than the other slaves. Despite these preconceptions, it is revealed at the conclusion of the story that Grandison's loyalty sided with his family.
“Hold up your chin there is always light at the end of the tunnel,” one might comment to a friend when they are stuck in a dilemma. Hester Prynne, commits adultery in the era of strict Puritans and sin, especially adultery, not being tolerable. Hawthorne’s rose bush in The Scarlet Letter not only exemplifies hope in the midst of calamity, but also incorporates a more in depth meaning to it; The people who surround Hester pry into her life not only because of the exquisite, luring “A” she created to sew on her bosom to serve as her punishment, but the way Hester carries herself with dignity.
A. “Reading Little Women.” Temple University Press (1984): 151-65. Rpt in Novels for Students. Ed. Elizabeth Thomason.
Carmen Gillespie’s article of Beloved emphasizes the obstacles of finding true identity that are undergone by former slaves who have gained their freedom but are “haunted by their memories of their earliest and formative experiences as someone else's property.” (Gillespie 1) The article first introduces the readers to Beloved’s representation in the novel of how she can be seen as “a personification of all the trauma and catastrophic human cost of the Middle Passage and slavery” (1) and what altered the urge to write this story, which was based on a true story of Margaret Garner, a slave who tried to kill her children in order to keep them from returning to slavery. In addition, to start off the critical commentary, Gillespie breaks down the title of the novel into three parts, the word be and love and the letter d. Through her description of the word be, one main question of the novel is highlighted, “what does it mean to be a human being and then, particularly, what does it mean to be a human being when one's primary humanity is denied.” (2) In the beginning of the novel, Sethe is faced with the decision to choose who she wants to be married to from the male slaves in Sweet Home and is expected to be