In the beginning of The Secret Garden, Mary is the daughter of two wealth parents who are neglectful. Mary is surround by servants who comply to her every whim. Mary’s parents die from a sickness and leave her to live with her uncle and cousin. Her cousin Colin has a childhood similar to Mary. Colin’s mother dies shortly after he was born and his father became neglectful as well. Both of the children are physically ill due lack of physical activity and neglected. After both are introduced to each other, Mary and Collin start spending a significant amount of time in a garden, tending to the plants. While spending more time together, both Mary and Colin establish as friendship and begin to become healthier. The beginning of The Secret Garden
teach him. When the woman realized that, she did what she had to do. She
In A Thousand Acres, the eldest daughters, Rose and Ginny, were seen as corrupt, but they were actually the victims. They were seen as children who did not respect their father whatsoever and only wanted his land. While in King Lear, the eldest daughters, Goneril and Regan, treated their father terribly and was after his power. They had no respect for their father and did not care if he lived or died. The tragic heroes in each story differ, yet they are seen as wicked and selfish. These stories share a similar idea of tragedy or having a tragic hero, yet they are shown in different characters. A Thousand Acres illustrates that Rose and Ginny were the victims, or tragic heroes while King Lear showed Lear himself as the tragic hero.
At age sixteen, Janie is a beautiful young girl who is about to enter womanhood and experience the real world. Being joyous and unconcerned, she is thrown into an arranged marriage with Logan Killicks. He is apparently unromantic and unattractive. Logan is a widower and a successful farmer who desires a wife who would not have her own opinions. He is set on his own ways and is troubled by Janie, who forms her own opinions and refuses to work. He is unable to sexually appeal or satisfy Janie and therefore does not truly connect with her as husband and wife should. Janie's wild and young spirit is trapped within her and she plays the role of a silent and obeying wife. But her true identity cannot withhold itself for she has ambitions and she wills to see the world and find love. There was a lack of trust and communication between Logan and Janie. Because of the negative feelings Janie has towards Logan, she deems that this marriage is not what she desires it to be. The pear tree and the bees had a natural att...
Lily’s idea of home is having loving parent/mother figures who can help guide her in life. Because of this desire, she leaves T. Ray and begins to search for her true identity. This quest for acceptance leads her to meet the Calendar Sisters. This “home” that she finds brightly displays the ideas of identity and feminine society. Though Lily could not find these attributes with T. Ray at the peach house, she eventually learns the truth behind her identity at the pink house, where she discovers the locus of identity that resides within herself and among the feminine community there. Just like in any coming-of-age story, Lily uncovers the true meaning of womanhood and her true self, allowing her to blossom among the feminine influence that surrounds her at the pink house. Lily finds acceptance among the Daughters of Mary, highlighting the larger meaning of acceptance and identity in the novel.
Even though these books were written a little over a hundred years apart, there are several similarities and differences. Both de Vaca and Rowlandson went through similar struggles such as starvation and dehydration, different weather conditions and troubles with the Indians. God was a factor in keeping both of them uplifted in their treacherous journeys. They both mention numerous times how God aided them. One slight difference is in Mary Rowlandsons book religion is more evident. She had access to a Bible which enabled her give quotes unlike de Vaca who barely had clothes on his back.
The History of Mary Prince is the story of the first female British slave to escape slavery. The book is told by Mary herself, and was used to help the anti-slavery movement. This book is the main source of information on Mary’s life, but there is no way to ensure that all of it is authentic. One should be aware of who truly had the control over this book, and how it may have affected whether or not all of the stories Mary had to tell got in. Without following the standard expected of her, she may not have ever been able to share her experiences like this. Mary Prince was able to convey her story of slavery to others by following the expectations set by the Antislavery Society, such as emphasizing Christianity, only including likable character
In Flowers in the Attic, V.C Andrews creates a family tree that is doomed to repeat the sins of its past. The family name, Dollanganger, is a play on word of the word doppelganger, which means a double of a person. This doppelganger effect creates confusing doubles between Christopher Sr. and Christopher Jr., referred to as Chris, who look and act the same, and Corrine and Cathy, who are jealous of each other. The doppelganger effect causes confusion in the nuclear family relationships between the grandmother, Corrine, Cathy, Christopher, and Chris.
The book, The Murder of Mary Bean and Other Stories, written by Elizabeth A. De Wolfe, is composed of two parts. Part one, The Death of Berngera Caswell, analysis’s the social history of the mid 1800’s to explore a mill girl’s life. This text makes use of general trends and factual information to support and provide an explanation of the murder of Mary Bean. Part two is composed of two stories, Mary Bean, The Factory Girl and Life of George Hamilton. This text explores the cultural history of the mid 1800’s using fictional newspapers, articles, and novels as support. The Murder of Mary Bean does not only provide the reader with the gruesome detail of one murder, this book issues an understanding of the complications
Thomas Pringle wrote "The idea of Mary Prince's history was first suggested by herself. She wished it to be done, she said, that good people in England might hear from a slave what a slave had felt and suffered.” Mary Prince, was the first black woman to have her story published in Britain. Due to Mary Prince’s graphic detail, her anecdotes were sadistic to the extent that very few believed her . Mary Prince conveys that both slave owners and their slaves suffer physical and emotional effects of slavery, confirming Pringle’s write that "slavery is a curse to the oppressors scarcely less than the oppressed; it's natural tendency is to brutalize both.”
The Secret Garden is a film based on Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic children's book bearing the same title. This movie is about a young girl who is literally shipped off to her uncle's English castle after her parents are killed in an earthquake. The main character, Mary, is played by Kate Maberly. She is tossed into a world where sunlight and cheerful discourse seem as rare as the attention she receives from the sour-pussed housekeeper Medlock, played by Maggie Smith. She helps her crippled cousin to see past his hypochondria and into the wonders of a long forgotten garden hidden beyond the confines of Misselthwaite Manor. While one critic dislikes the slight deviations from the book, another is content to relish in the imagery and scenery of The Secret Garden.
In "The Flower Garden," Guterson continues his exploration of the fragility of a relationship between a man and a woman and again portrays this by drawing parallels with what is happening in nature. The relationship between Anna and the narrator is a very fragile one like the garden they ‘planted with nursery sets and fragile garden cuttings.’ The relationship and the garden are at the beginning of their being, and both are very fragile. Both have to be thought out, then nurtured carefully. Any mistake or misjudgment can have long and lasting consequences.
Although from very different times periods with very different stories, Mary Rowlandson, Cabeza de Vaca, and Olaudah Equiano have one thing in common. They were all captured and all lived to tell their accounts. Mary Rowlandson was born in 1636 in England. During the course of her life, she married Joseph Rowlandson and journeyed with him to the new world. There she was captured by the Native Americans and lived to tell about it in her memoir, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God. De Vaca was born in Spain around 1490. Very little is known about his life but it is known that he boarded an expedition to the new world in 1527. He encountered many obstacles during his exploration and tells his story in the narrative Cabeza de Vaca: The Narrative
Although imagery and symbolism does little to help prepare an expected ending in “The Flowers” by Alice Walker, setting is the singular element that clearly reasons out an ending that correlates with the predominant theme of how innocence disappears as a result of facing a grim realism from the cruel world. Despite the joyous atmosphere of an apparently beautiful world of abundant corn and cotton, death and hatred lies on in the woods just beyond the sharecropper cabin. Myop’s flowers are laid down as she blooms into maturity in the face of her fallen kinsman, and the life of summer dies along with her innocence. Grim realism has never been so cruel to the innocent children.
Elisa is a thirty-five year old “handsome” wife who lives on a ranch with her husband Harry. At the beginning of the story, little interaction is demonstrated between the couple, except for glances Elisa casts “across the yard [to see] Henry, her husband, [talk] to two men in business suits” he is trying to sell some property to without the knowledge of his wife (193). It is evident Elisa feels lonely so she channels all her time, energy and love towards raising her “chrysanthemums” in her “wire fence” garden. Not only does the “wire fence” protect Elisa’s “flower garden” from “cattle and dogs and chicken” but it also serves as a barrier between Elisa and Harry and removes every opportunity from the couple to...
On the opposite end of the spectrum, The Secret Garden seems to be written for girls. The Secret Garden’s main character is a young, orphaned girl named Mary. The story focuses on Mary finding friends, becoming a better person, and a family coming together at last. Frances Burnett seems to follow two literary patterns described by Nodleman. The first is that she seems to write more about domestic events rather than adventures. Although the garden is an adventure for Mary, planting, weeding, and tending to the garden are chores that many would associate with women. The other literary pattern she follows is how the plot is laid out. Nodelman describes plots of novels written by woman as having many less-intense climaxes rather than one.