Driving with Elsie: Collected stories Driving the grandchildren around or going on a routine road trip with sisters is nothing that seems extraordinary or eventful. However the comfort and safety felt from such experiences is almost always shattered for Elsie Gertrude Ross. So much so that the loss of control of the steering wheel which is tightly gripped by her sweaty and desperate hands, along with the inevitable bashing of her datson, is an experience all too common to her. Sometimes it seems like her near fatal experiences trigger her time to slow down, so much so that it could almost stop. Although this time doesn't stop, and instead the misfortune of Elsie and her car continues. The beauty of the ‘Highway” The trip home from Wagga …show more content…
Ida visited her parents significantly less than Elsie did, however no such guilt struck her. Probably because although she could be described relaxed and easy going, her laid back attitude was mostly and correctly interpreted as ditzy. Nevertheless they continued their trek and dreamt of the glorious weekend that they would both have, anywhere but on the boring highway. But something about the way the decaying wheels of the iconic car rolled along the furbished road seemed unordinary to the two. The way the sunset in front of them was breathtaking and the straightness off the road seemed too good to be true. As though overnight a whole lifetime of this journey was morphed into something that might actually be enjoyable rather than seem like a chore. This feeling however, was short lived. Suddenly the beauty of this highway, the smoothness off the road, the extremely calm and ever so non existent traffic made sense to Elsie, and and the hope for a more enjoyable weekly experience diminished. This wasn't the highway she thought it was, it wasn't apart of their route home and it was certainly not somewhere they should be. It was the Albury airport runway, the place meant for planes and not Elsie and her …show more content…
The way her mother woke every morning without any complaints and walked her exhausted body to work was somewhat of an inspiration. However on this day Melissa sort of resented the fact that her mother was busy working, as this meant another dreaded lift was required from Elsie. Meaning another uncomfortable rest on those worn out and scratched seats, another struggle to move among the junk scattered among the floor of certainly another tense and sickening feeling brewing in the pit of her stomach. Nevertheless the dreaded journey was coming to an end and the routine sigh was yet again exhaled from Melissa's tense body as Elsie was pulling up to park at her workplace. However in this instance, her exhale of relief was premature and unbeknown to her at this moment, thing were about to get
Throughout this novel, the reader is left with the task of putting the pieces together to a highly complex puzzle. While solving this puzzle, the reader learns valuable information about Mrs. Ross’s harsh past, which greatly influences her entire life. The root of Mrs. Ross’s troubles ultimately lies within the shocking death of “Mrs. Ross’s only brother, a boy called Monty Miles who had been killed while walking home…A wayward trolley left the tracks to strike him down” ( ). According to the narrator “The mourning had gone on for years”() and this event truly traumatized Mrs. Ross as “the world was full of trolley cars and Mrs. Ross ...
Her ability to use incredibly graphic details poetically just enhance the experience for the reader. Her car ride is a solemn one, and readers are introduced to the disturbances inside of the car as well as outside. Olds is able to express to readers the issues her father has with drinking while associating it to the death outside of the car as well. She is able to bring readers into the dark car with her, witnessing the wreckage, the cars strewn over the highway, and most importantly the body of the woman. While the accident wasn’t any fault of the car she is riding in, she is up front with readers how her father is not quite sober, and just missed hitting someone himself. Olds is able to use the graphic imagery of the accident and the somber interior of the car to express the family struggles she endured as well. Sheltered by her mother from the scene outside, she is left reflecting on the life that is represented on the road. Readers can feel the dark turn of her thoughts as she compares the carnage on the road as “…glass, bone, metal, flesh, and the family” (Olds). It is this ending in which Olds allows readers to understand the complexity of feelings that were associated with the accident on the dark rain covered highway. Reflecting on the
“Car Crash While Hitchhiking” is told in the first person by a narrator who claims that he can perceive future events, the story jumps around in time. The story is primarily focused on an automobile accident and its aftermath. Under the influence of drugs and alcohol, the narrator maintains that during the thunderstorm he can distinctly identify every drop of rain, even going so far as to recognize each droplet by name. The line that captures this “I knew every raindrop by it’s’ name” (Johnson, 1992, p. 288) this magical heightened awareness is in part a side effect of the drugs he is on. Eventually a family a man and his wife, Janice, and their baby gives the narrator a ride, and he falls asleep. The family’s car is struck by a driver who has apparently fallen asleep at the wheel. Covered in blood and trying to carry the baby to safety, the narrator seeks help from a truck driver passing by. After telling the events of that night, the story moves several years ahead in the future where the narrator is admitted to a hospital for medical treatment of his substance abuse. At the time a nurse is injecting him with vitamins, and while hallucinating that he is in a rural back drop. Causing the narrator dis believe that he can help anyone, including the reader. Here is where the conclusion of this short story is reach leaving the reader with a bleak outlook on the
The movie Driving Miss Daisy displays some of the hardships and struggles of getting older. Driving Miss Daisy is about an elderly woman named Daisy who is having a hard time accepting the changes that are occurring in her life due to getting older in age. Her inclining age is taking a toll on her both mentally and physically, although in the movie it focuses on her memory. Losing many different abilities and skills, the movie displays how Daisy is affected by these life changes and how she manages to cope with the gradual loss of them. The movie also shows some of the side effects of having dementia.
“No thank you, sir,” Anne said, twisting out of his reach and hopping from the train. “There’s knack to holding it, if you don’t mind.” She glanced over the near empty platform. “It appears I’m to wait for my ride.” The thought wasn’t oppressive. Avonlea was a variable paradise. Gone were the wastelands of the outer provinces, replaced by lush grasses, strong and tall green trees, and a bright blue sky as far as the eye could see. Bees hummed and birds chirped amongst the treetops. Instead of recycled oxygen, here the air smelled of sunshine and warm apple pie. “Train’s early,” the stationmaster said. “Do you wish to go inside to the lady’s waiting room?” Hope lodged firmly in Anne’s heart. “I do believe I’ll wait outside. Right there on that bench.” She grinned. “So much more scope for the imagination, don’t you agree?” “I suppose…” the man muttered, but his doubt was lost on Anne, who’d already plunked down on the bench and was staring up into the heavens with unrestrained joy. She had done it. She’d left pain and terror behind and stepped into the light. Nothing would take this new world from her. No thing. And no one. A tremulous smile pulled at the corners of her mouth. Avonlea had a new protector. Lord save them
Ellis’ did not care much for this strike and describes it as a political move. She describes the Miners Union’s decision to join the strike as foolish and believes that the miners were coerced into joining. She wasn’t against strikes in general but didn’t like this one because of how it dragged out and hurt her financially. Following the strike her daughter Joy falls ill with diphtheria. The strikes financial effect, along with medical bills had forced her to start working. This was a particular stressful time in her life and it continued downhill. One day Ellis was getting ready for an upcoming social event and was reading a book to pass the time while her hair curled. Her daughter Joy, laying sick in bed, asked for a drink of water. Ellis tells her other daughter to get Joy a drink. Her other daughter is also reading a book and doesn’t move. Ellis hears a gurgle sound come from her daughters bed, but it was too late her daughter had
The first thing that becomes clear to the reader when reading this story is that the drover’s wife lives in a very harsh environment. It is described as being a dangerous and monotonous place to live, with the, “everlasting, maddening sameness of the stunted trees”. She looks out to, “bush with no horizon”. The environment’s hostility is further shown by her flashbacks which look at fires, floods and vicious animals that have come from the bush around her house. In this area she is also isolated from the rest of the world; it is nineteen miles from the nearest residence. This isolation means that she rarely sees other adults, with monthly visits from her brother in law often the only contact with the rest of the world. It is also evident that her house is primitive and she has very little. The house i...
The different tones that Zora Neale Hurston uses in the passage Dust Tracks on the Road is a content, upbeat, and safe feeling but shifts to a harsh and grim tone. As Hurston reminisces on what a pleasant childhood, she experienced, she also remembers her father's disapproval towards what he thought to be her disrespectful mouth. Through Hurston’s young eyes, she finds pleasure with her youth, but she wishes that she was more adaptable like her older sister. The author’s diction is very warm and peaceful at first, then it transforms into a much darker language.
The setting is rather an old one with more of a journey partaken by a family from a more peaceful area to turbulent zones. It is further characterized with the description of the exact localities involved in the story, which appear to mirror a consistent deterioration in the level of hopes throughout the text. Prior to setting for the journey, the misgivings and lack of definite settling on the precise route to take for a family vacation is evident. It is followed by the journey, which further seems boring for the characters. An example is “when there was nothing else to do they played a game by choosing a cloud and making the other two guess what shape it suggested” (223). It is evident that the children got jaded. At The Tower, the environment was relatedly expressionless, and the journey immediately before the accident was rather boring too. All these are crafts to the theme in the
...nd just as fast the memories came they went. Cringing her teeth, she begins to count. “One, two, three, four, five…” As she is about to reach six she begins to feel a warm rush invade my inner skin, instantly she feels relief. It no longer mattered to her that that woman came, or that the trash was overflowing with weeks of junk mail or that she had a thirty page thesis due tomorrow. All that mattered was getting on the phone and phoning her mother, Nancy. “Mom?” says Janine.
I’d thought something was required of me, but I hadn’t wanted to find out what it was” (9). The words “relieved” and “tearful” show a drastic contrast about how the narrator feels and at the same time even after knowing he is required or expected to do something he tries to circumvent it. This shows how he is at a battle with his own thoughts and isn’t able to decide what is needed of him at the moment. This makes the reader feel remorseful for the hitchhiker as they can recognize that he is a dilemma in his own mind. Moreover, when taken to the doctor, even though he had minor injuries when asked about how he was he replied, “There is nothing wrong with me” (11) and later that he was “surprised” that he let those words out. This erratic behaviour of the hitchhiker confounds the reader. Even though he needs help he denies it. This makes the reader sympathize with his situation as the narrator is clearing in a situation where he needs desperate help. This desolating and despairing tone evokes a sentimental mood for the reader and makes them sympathise with the
The small legs that whisked back and forth in the open space of the vehicle were full of energy. The young girl spent the day with the two people she admired the most. A bigger version of herself sat in the passenger seat with her husband driving next to her. They laughed over conversation. Every so often, the girl would stick thin fingers against her mother’s shoulder to receive her attention. She would say something trivial and obvious, but her mother would still entertain her. She absorbed every phrase her daughter said as if each filled her with a tremendous joy and was the greatest thing ever spoken. Her mother had selected a black dress for her today with a large white ribbon tied around her midsection. Her hair had been combed back in two braids so that the tips were touching her shoulder blades. They were coming home late from a Christmas party at church.
The place is not as she remembered, it’s lonely and abandoned “the lodge was uninhabited,” showing that the place was completely isolated again, “not the drive that we had known” showing this place is nothing like she remembered. The writer uses alliteration to describe the windows as abandoned, “little lattice windows gaped forlorn.” The drive way was mentioned a lot, “twisting and turning,” almost as if it was hiding all the secrets, unanswered questions of the house. She then goes on to reference the road again as a ribbon using the metaphor “the drive was a ribbon now” twisting and flowing, “as it had always done” however she continues to say that she had noticed a change come about, “narrow” and “unkept” small like a ribbon is, this adds to the whole sense of
Auto Wreck is an ominous, grim, and disturbing poem written by Karl Shapiro about death, fate, coincidence and the envisioning of reality. In this harsh poem Shapiro describes an awful car accident where many people ends up dead. He flawlessly employes a unique imagery and language that gives the reader a clear and true sensation of the terrible mishap. The author makes us feel as if we had seen and even experienced the car collision ourselves. Although it may see that the main focus in this poem is death, which is one of the most important, the poet also throws in the way he and everyone else saw everything after the accident, how their emotions changed, and how they envisioned reality afterward. Shapiro not only acknowledges and makes vivid the deaths that just occurred and how different people reacted to it, but he also discusses how much of an accident it really was, how someone had to be guilty and if anyone was really innocent at all.
She slammed the door behind her. Her face was hot as she grabbed her new perfume and flung it forcefully against the wall. That was the perfume that he had bought for her. She didn't want it anymore. His voice coaxed from the other side of the door. She shouted at him to get away. Throwing herself on the bed and covering her face with one of his shirts, she cried. His voice coaxed constantly, saying Carol, let me in. Let me explain.' She shouted out no!' Then cried some more. Time passed with each sob she made. When she caught herself, there was no sound on the other side of the door. A long silence stood between her and the door. Maybe she had been too hard on him, she thought. Maybe he really had a good explanation. She hesitated before she walked toward the door and twisted the handle. Her heart was crying out to her at this moment. He wasn't there. She called out his name. "Thomas!" Her cries were interrupted by the revving of an engine in the garage. She made it to the window in time to see his Volvo back out the yard. "Thomas! Thomas....wait!" Her cries vanished into thin air as the Volvo disappeared around the bend. Carol grew really angry all of a sudden. How could he leave? He'll sleep on the couch when he gets back. Those were her thoughts.