Comparing Growing Up with Superman and Paula Brown's New Snowsuit
This essay will be a comparison of the story "Growing Up" with the
short story "Superman and Paula Brown's New Snowsuit". "Growing Up"
written by Joyce Cary is a story about the relationship between
fathers and their daughters and the way in which it develops and
changes. Also this story portrays this change of relationship in a
very negative and violent way with the climax being very aggressive.
As two young daughters turn against their father and violently attack
him. While "Superman and Paula Brown's New Snowsuit" written by Sylvia
Plath is about a child being unjustly punished and the way it
psychologically affects her and has an everlasting impression on the
rest of her life. This small event of her being falsely accused of
pushing a girl, Paula Brown into an oil-slick and ruining her new
snowsuit mentally makes an impact on the narrator for the rest of her
life.
"Superman and Paula Brown's New Snowsuit" conveys this idea of this
experience having an eternal effect on her from the beginning of the
story with its title, as it can be seen as a childish because of the
way she refers to the person by her first name and surname which is a
very childish and typical thing for a young child to do when they
speak of an event. Furthermore it can also represent the fact that
this memory is still very vivid because she can remember the full name
and uses it, "Paula Brown" instead of just using Paula and the use of
the adjective "new" also shows that the memory of this event is still
clear to the narrator. When the event occurs Plath uses many language
techniques to provi...
... middle of paper ...
...way things
actually are as well as how they will affect the future of the main
character. However they are also quite different in their own styles,
as "Superman and Paula Brown's New Snowsuit" is written in first
person narration and is clear visual memory which Plath tries to
describe as vividly as possible to the reader with the excessive use
of language features; metaphors, similes and colour vocabulary.
Whereas "Growing Up" is written in third person narration and has a
brief more abrupt involvement along with metaphors only really being
used at climatic points in the story. Both stories do use contrast to
build up an atmosphere and tension so that when the climax is reached
it is much more effective because when looking at the story in context
before the climax you shouldn't be expecting the incident that occurs.
As the writer gave freedom to her son, he tore a binder paper from the notebook, and he started writing about any story he wanted. Moreover, she was startled when she saw his story about The Boy In The Red Sox Shirt and Baggy Jeans. It was about a fourteen-year old girl, who
Wilson, Kathleen, ed. Short Stories for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context and Criticism on Commonly Studied Short Stories. Vol 2. Michigan: Gale Research, 1997.
The very first word of the entire article is the name of a person, and this is a
all lower case letters and never mixes them. This creates a style that she is
This story makes the reader wonder, why must parents do this to their children, what kinds of motifs do they have for essentially ruining their child’s life. I believe
This short story written by Richard Wright is a very well written, and has a very good plot and keeps the reader entertained throughout. From the dialogue to the characters, who inhabit the world crafted by Wright its very intriguing. On the surface it appears to be just a story about childhood disobedience in general, but the overall theme is much deeper than that.
Children are common group of people who are generally mislabeled by society. In the short story “Charles’’ by Shirley Jackson and ‘’The Open Window” by Saki showed examples of the labeling of children. In “Charles” the concept of parents labeling their children as being pure and sincere was shown. As in “The Open Window” by Saki “used the notion that girls were the most truthful sex and gives her a name that suggests truthfulness to make her tale less suspect.”(Wilson 178). According to Welsh “Because the fantasy is so bizarre and inventive and totally unexpected from a fifteen-year-old girl, the reader is momentarily duped.”(03). This showed that even we as the readers were a victim of misleading labels of society.
Short stories are temporary portals to another world; there is a plethora of knowledge to learn from the scenario, and lies on top of that knowledge are simple morals. Langston Hughes writes in “Thank You Ma’m” the timeline of a single night in a slum neighborhood of an anonymous city. This “timeline” tells of the unfolding generosities that begin when a teenage boy fails an attempted robbery of Mrs. Jones. An annoyed bachelor on a British train listens to three children their aunt converse rather obnoxiously in Saki’s tale, “The Storyteller”. After a failed story attempt, the bachelor tries his hand at storytelling and gives a wonderfully satisfying, inappropriate story. These stories are laden with humor, but have, like all other stories, an underlying theme. Both themes of these stories are “implied,” and provide an excellent stage to compare and contrast a story on.
...s intended for adult audiences who are capable of conceiving a subtle nuance as the story was told by innocent voices.
are based on embarrassing you. I think that these four stories show you how your
Growing up is a natural part of life. Everyone grows up. The loss of childish innocence and blind faith in what is said is one chief mark of growing up. Loss of innocence, however, presents itself in many forms, even to adults, and with it brings a greater understanding of the world at large. In literature, authors use the process to explore society and humanity. Through the characters’ loss of innocence, the authors of both To Kill A Mockingbird and Of Mice & Men discuss ideas of prejudice, family, and courage.
Instructor’s comment: This student’s essay performs the admirable trick of being both intensely personal and intelligently literary. While using children’s literature to reflect on what she lost in growing up, she shows in the grace of her language that she has gained something as well: an intelligent understanding of what in childhood is worth reclaiming. We all should make the effort to find our inner child
A Comparison of Little Red Riding Hood by Charles Perrault and Little Red Cap by the Brothers Grimm
which is the second theme of the story. He quickly grew from an innocent, young boy into a confused, disillusioned adolescent. The boy arrived ...
The title of the story represents irony when the true essence of the title is completely different from what the reader might think it to be.