Throughout a person’s lifetime there are a few defining moments that determine the kind of person they become. In Margaret Atwood’s Weight marriage, careers, and children play significant roles in the lives of Molly and her friend the narrator. The narrator’s flashbacks provide insight into the highs and lows of her own life along with Molly’s. Weight is an enjoyable short story because the struggles and triumphs of the characters may resonate with the reader’s own life. Atwood’s Weight is an effective and thought provoking short story. A complex plot, point of view, setting, theme, and characterization deliver mechanisms to stimulate thoughts and feelings in the reader.
Weight opens with the narrator’s gloomy thoughts as she sits down for dinner with a rich man named Charles. “Some days, I think I’m not going to make it...This is what I’m thinking of as I look at the man” (Atwood 197). The narrator is meeting with Charles over dinner to discuss future funding on behalf of the company for a women’s shelter named Molly’s Place. Over the course of dinner the narrator reflects on Molly’s life along with her own life. “Molly and I had big ideas, then. We were going to change things…We wanted justice and fair play” (Atwood 182). As a lawyer Molly fought hard for battered women in the community. However, the narrator was financially motivated and sold herself out instead of following their dream to represent women legally. Ultimately, Molly lost her life to the cause she passionately and professionally stood for as she was gruesomely dismembered by her husband (Atwood 192). The development of the plot is consistent with a Freytag Pyramid. Rising action in the short story entails meeting Charles for dinner and the flashbacks experienc...
... middle of paper ...
...rrator explains where pieces of Molly’s body were found after her murder, “the arms and legs [were] hidden here and there around the province” (Atwood 180). However, it is never directly stated which province the setting takes place in. Although it is not mentioned Weight may have taken place in Ontario as it was published in Toronto. The microsetting is the restaurant where the narrator and Charles had dinner together to discuss Molly’s Place. Weight likely took place in the 1980’s based on the narrator’s age and how long she has been practicing law. “Twenty years ago, I was just out of law school; in another twenty, I’ll be retired and it will be the twenty-first century” (Atwood 186). The microsetting plays a major role in the construction of the story. The dinner date is the catalyst for the narrator’s flashbacks which are the backbone for the short story.
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, written by Chris Crutcher, is about being an outcast, friendship, and standing up for what is right. The main character Eric, or Moby, whose best friend is Sarah Byrnes, find themselves going through a series of events of dark secrets, violence, betrayal, and more. In the book, these two best friends learn that friendship and sacrifice are vital in order to help find themselves.
The Onion's "Girl Moved to Tears by Of Mice and Men Cliffs Notes" is an article with satirical and critical tone about a young communication major, Grace Weaver, who is emotional moved by reading the synopsis of the American classic Of Mice and Men over the original novel. In this article, the author describes Weaver's process and reaction to the assigned reading that aims to entertain an audience who has read the book. By using subtle satire and descriptions that let the reader understand the dangers of Weaver's shortcomings, the author is able to emphasize the importance of doing your own good work in a humorous and interesting manner.
Seven Pounds is a film about a man named Tim Thomas who is searching for a way to redeem himself after a car accident, which he caused by texting and driving, that killed seven people including his fiancé. Tim exhibits signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD throughout the movie which influences the choices he makes and the actions he takes during his life.
The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines the word "weight" as "a mass or quantity of something taken up and carried, conveyed, or transported." Tim O'Brien's war story The Things They Carried, published in 1990, explores the theme of weight and its importance to men at war in considerable depth. The opening chapter of this book, which was originally written as a short story, is comprised of a collection of lists. O'Brien details for his reader both the physical objects, such as cigarettes, C rations, and packets of Kool-Aid, and the more intangible things, such as fear and silent awe, that weigh these soldiers down. With the amount of space that the author gives to enumerating the weight of these objects, one might assume that these objects are what are really important to these soldiers, but in reality it is the incalculable weight of their spiritual burdens that truly weigh them down.
Obesity and opposition are the two main issues of this film. The issue of obesity, treated lightly in the beginning of the film and then severely by the end, reflects society’s approach to weight loss. To ...
Described within the vignette is a nineteen year old teenager named Brandy. Similar to girls her age, Brandy has difficulties dealing with her body image and self-esteem. For instance, she experiences hopelessness, isolation, sadness, and anxiety that all contribute to Brandy’s acknowledgement of her physical appearance. She completely overestimates her body size to the point of taking dieting pills then defaulting to purging. During the typical day, the meals are scarce but healthy compared to a bad day full of unhealthy snacking. Lastly, her family predicament is not a supportive one at that. Her mother was obese so she constantly dieted while Brandy’s father illustrated signs of sexual interest although he never physically touched her.
By doing this, Margaret receives empathy from the audience because the audience may recall a point in their lives where they were faced with similar challenges which were very difficult at the time but now they hold happy associations with those times. For example, Atwood begins her second paragraph with “The year as 1962…It was summer, and I was faced with the necessity of earning the difference between my scholarship for the next year and what it would cost me to live.” This excerpt from her essay is critical to establishing nostalgia because for most young adults, money is a problem and many people can relate to this and they believe that it is the end of the world for them if they cannot make ends meet. However, as one grows older, they come to realize that there will be many more serious problems in life and managing finances as a young adult are among the smallest of problems. Throughout the essay, Margaret continues to retell her challenges such as her uniform misunderstanding, her struggles with the cash register and being harassed by the Greek cook, but she fails to retell any of her successes such as earning enough money or any times when she had dealt with pleasant customers. This helps the author to achieve a nostalgic tone because it reminds the reader that
In Oceania, love is cast aside and adoration for Big Brother is put in its place. Two people, Winston and Julia, developed a love for one another that is distinct from relationships in Oceania. These lovers must meet in secret and pretend that they do not know one another while they are in public. Due to their circumstances, the two experience isolation from the other citizens as a result of their strong emotions. In 1984, the glass paperweight that contains the small coral represents the fragile relationship of Winston and Julia and their forbidden love life.
Kempe, Margery. "From The Book of Margery Kempe." The Norton Anthology of Literature By Women. 2nd ed. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996. 18-24.
Mrs. Mallard’s repressed married life is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern. This is clearly evident in the great care that her sister and husband’s friend Richard show to break the news of her husband’s tragic death as gently as they can. They think that she is so much in love with him that hearing the news of his death would aggravate her poor heart condition and lead to death. Little do they know that she did not love him dearly at all and in fact took the news in a very positive way, opening her arms to welcome a new life without her husband. This can be seen in the fact that when she storms into her room and her focus shifts drastically from that of her husband’s death to nature that is symbolic of new life and possibilities awaiting her. Her senses came to life; they come alive to the beauty in the nature. Her eyes could reach the vastness of the sky; she could smell the delicious breath of rain in the air; and ears became attentive to a song f...
At the outset, Atwood gives the reader an exceedingly basic outline of a story with characters John and Mary in plotline A. As we move along to the subsequent plots she adds more detail and depth to the characters and their stories, although she refers back with “If you want a happy ending, try A” (p.327), while alluding that other endings may not be as happy, although possibly not as dull and foreseeable as they were in plot A. Each successive plot is a new telling of the same basic story line; labeled alphabetically A-F; the different plots describe how the character’s lives are lived with all stories ending as they did in A. The stories tell of love gained or of love lost; love given but not reciprocated. The characters experience heartache, suicide, sadness, humiliation, crimes of passion, even happiness; ultimately all ending in death regardless of “the stretch in between”. (p.329)
Another aspect that can be derived from this poem is Atwood’s father’s obvious intentions to give her an awareness of the many adversities life can obtain. He has made sure she leads a life that doesn’t result from a spoiled childhood. He made her attentive of a hard days work, which is probably one of the best things a father can teach his child. It is absolutely essential that parents in general teach their children the many hardships life may behold. This gives the child a better direction in means of future obligations.
Ernest Hemingway discusses the theme of hunger throughout A moveable feast by exploring and describing the different types of hunger that he felt. He aims to explore this theme in the passage where he strolls with Hadley, and they stop to eat at the restaurant Michaud’s. Through repetition and use of unconventional detail and word choice, Hemingway shows that he has more than one type of hunger, and needs to differentiate between them. Hemingway strives to tell that hunger is a feeling that is deep within someone, that changes depending on the situation and varies in intensity and meaning.
One of the major issues throughout the novel was motherhood and the importance of motherly duties. At the end of the novel Stowe empowers women, in the role of mothers, t...
A challenge that I have faced over the past six years has been my weight. I was underweight until about fifth grade, that's when I started gaining lots of weight.