In March, by Geraldine Brooks, a mixed-race slave named Grace Clement is introduced after a young, aspiring Reverend March visits her manor to sell books and trinkets to women as a peddler. Grace Clement is a complex key character that is a controlling force in March and exhibits a symbol of idealistic freedom to Reverend March during the Civil War. Her complexity is revealed through her tumultous past, and her strong façade that allows her to be virtuous and graceful through hard times. The importance of Grace Clement as a key character in March begins to unravel when March becomes infatuated by her during their first meeting. March is invited to stay in the home Grace works since by the owner, Mr. Clement since they bond over a love of education …show more content…
and reading. As a somewhat unattainable girl since interracial relationships during this time period is not common, she is already very intriguing to March during his stay. More so, her gorgeousness, eloquence, and educated character taught by Mrs. Clement, are very unique characteristics for not only most young adults, but even more rare for slaves. Her strong, faithful, and loyal features are shown as she works as a nurse for the invalid Mrs. Clement, and even stays with Mr. Clement after their luck dissipates after March is banished from the manor. The fact that she is not only a loyal slave, but also the daughter of Mr. Clement, kept to satisfy his son who she killed for raping her shows how she has a dark past, but is able to make effective wise and moral decisions to make up for her guilt. Her graceful and calm personality allows her to save March and live contently. Grace Clement stands as a driving force in March as she controls March’s actions.
It is first seen when she convinces March to teach a young slave named Prudence, which is strictly prohibited by Mr. Clement and illegal. Although March fully understands that teaching slaves is not allowed, he tries to take the “heroic” path and do it anyways since it is the right thing under his principles. His idealistic views on life allow him take lofty and over-ambitious actions that ultimately lead to his misery, as shown when he watches Grace get whipped for his wrongdoing. When he meets Grace again after he is married with 4 children 30 years later, he allows himself almost cheat on Marmee to fulfill his desperate need for care. Her strong character stops him from doing so, leading them to only hug, but causes him to be forced out of the military unit and into a plantation where he educates freed slaves. After he is dangerously injured and ends up on the military ship, he meets Grace again as she tends to him and nurses him back to life. While doing so, she yet again catches his attention and love, seen by Marmee. When Marmee leaves and he decides whether to go back to his family, she tells him to pay more attention to real life: his wife, his sick daughter, Beth, and his duty to be reverend with his people in Concord. Grace’s character constantly tempts March, although she always tries to stop him from making rash
decisions. To March, Grace Clement is a symbol of his idealistic notions during the harsh, exhausting Civil War. While carrying the burdens of death, poverty, and guilt, Grace is a small light that shines on his life while drowning in guilt from letting Silas Stone die because he is too cowardly to risk his own life, and while contracting yellow fever and staying on the military ship. She is a symbol of hope and a freedom that he wants: to be heroic and maintain his pride, which contrasts from the freedom Marmee exhibits in poverty. Her complexity infatuates March every time they meet as she symbolizes what he always wants, but what he can never fully accomplish due to his rash goals, which leads to more trouble than good. Her spirit and personality is very opposite to Marmee’s and causes him to love her as a change from the poverty and guilt he suffers from. Grace Clement is a powerful character that has salient characteristics, which allow her to inadvertently control March’s decisions. Through her wisdom and unique characteristics, she constantly catches March’s attention and takes him on a journey away from his pains and sorrow. Her past as a mixed child kept and raised for Mr. Clement’s son, but ultimately used as a companion and second daughter to Mrs. Clement, further shows why she is an extraordinary visionary that turns March’s life around.
After reading the novel As I Lay Dying, I was able to gather some first impressions about Jewel Bundren. One of these impressions is that Jewel Bundren is aware that Anse Bundren is not his father,. One reason why this is evident is because when Jewel half brother, Darl, is questioning him about who his father is, Jewel doesn’t answer, meaning he might know that he isn’t related to Anse. Another reason this is evident is due to the way Jewel acts when he is talking to Anse, as he is continuously disrespectful to him. Even though it’s shown Jewel is aware that Anse is not his father, there is no indication in the novel that he is aware that Whitfield is really his father. Another first impression I was able to gather about Jewel
Throughout the book, Freak the Mighty, author Rodman Philbrick creates a valuable lesson for three main characters; Freak, Max, and Loretta Lee, that one should not judge another person based on appearance; looks can be deceiving. For example, Loretta Lee at the beginning of her introduction in the book she was judged as the old beer drinking lady and possibly scary. But in reality she came through and saved Max from Killer Kane, Max’s Father, from Freak the Mighty. Another example is, people will judge Freak on his appearance because his body structure is smaller than most humans and looks very weird. In addition, Max is judge by the people around him because he is very large in size and looks like a giant but is kind on the inside. One's
Jeanette Walls is the picture-perfect illustration of an individual who finds righteousness for herself. She is the protagonist in the book “The Glass Castle”, who has an unfair miserable childhood due to how her parents were. Walls stands out for her determination as she goes out to the real world to seek her own justice, with the ultimate goal of being stable for once, and take responsibility for herself, not for the whole family.
Elizabeth Lavenza (later Elizabeth Frankenstein) is one of the main characters in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. She is a beautiful young girl; fragile and perfect in the eyes of all. Her father was a nobleman from Milan, while her mother was of German descent. Before she was adopted by the wealthy Frankenstein family, she lived with a poor family. After Alphonose and Caroline Frankenstein adopt Elizabeth, they lovingly raise her alongside their biological son, Victor Frankenstein, in hopes that the two will eventually get married. When Victor goes off to Ingolstadt college, Elizabeth writes letters to him that later become a crucial part of the story. It weaves together every piece of the story, holding together each individual
There is no doubt that Miss. Strangeworth is not an easy person to deal with, let alone live with, and although her character is fictional, there are many people with the same personality. We can tell quite easily that she is a very meticulous woman, with a lot of perfectionist tendencies, a few of which are to nitpick people’s lives and make sure that even the most minute detail is up to her standards. I know of someone with these attributes and as difficult as they are to deal with, with their list of requirements to be met and their eagle-eye for detail in even the smallest things, they mean the best, and are always trying to help, despite the possible repercussions.
In Great Expectations, Pip is set up for heartbreak and failure by a woman he trusts, identical to Hamlet and Gertrude, but Pip is rescued by joe who pushes Pip to win the love of his life. Similar to Gertrude in Hamlet Miss Havisham becomes a bystander in Pip’s life as she initiates the play that leads to heartbreak several times and she watches Pip’s life crumble due to her teachings. The next quote shows Miss Havisham explaining to Pip the way she manipulated his love Estella to break his heart every time. “‘but as she grew, and promised to be very beautiful, I gradually did worse, and with my praises, and with my jewels, and with my teachings… I stole her heart away and put ice in its place’” (Dickens, 457). This quote makes it clear the Miss Havisham set Hamlet up for failure by making him fall for a woman he could never have.
The awakening is plenty of characters that describe in a very loyal way the society of the nineteenth century in America. Among the most important ones there are Edna Pontellier, Léonce Pontellier, Madame Lebrun, Robert Lebrun, Victor Lebrun, Alcée Arobin, Adéle Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz.
In the play “Poof” by Lynn Nottage , the author creates an overall message on how abuse in marriages are often overlooked. In the play the two main charters are loureen and Florence , they are both in abusive relationships with their husbands until loureen gets out her relationship by her husband just poofing in thin air.
“…we’ll both claim we want to die. But we’ll mean: Please someone convince us to stick around… Because last night, we stood on top of fourteen floors of suffering—from the maternity to the morgue. Hundreds of bed buckling beneath the weight of legitimate illness, thousands of plastic sacks of donated blood—we stood above all of it and did not leap” (38). The meaningful words of Eireann Corrigan speak volumes about her past experience growing up with an eating disorder. In her memoir she highlights many ideas of how she felt through not only her experiences, but also those of her boyfriend, Danny. The various poetic devices present within the story come together to create a deep and meaningful novel. Eireann Corrigan, author of the memoir, You
In Pearl Tull’s old age, she starts to lose her sight until she is completely unable to see. Pearl may be the only one within Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant who has gone literally blind, but many of the characters are just as blind emotionally. Throughout Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, many characters are too absorbed in their own problems and self-pity to notice the problems of the people around them. Almost all of the characters don’t realize how much their actions may have affected someone else, or are oblivious to the fact they did anything at all. When taking a closer look at the story, it could be said that Pearl Tull is the reason behind all of her family’s problems. Pearl is blind not only literally—in her old age—but metaphorically
The picture that I chose to draw, displays the emotions and guilt that the protagonist, Lily feels throughout the book and her life. In the story Lily accidentally shoots her Mom and kills her. Lily is so overwhelmed with guilt because now she has no Mother, a horrible father, and everything in her life is going down hill and it’s all her fault. “This is what I know about myself. She was all I wanted and I took her away.” (Pg.8) The quote displays that Lily’s mother is the only person who cared and loved her and that she brought upon this life she has now. Later throughout the book we find even more detail into how Lily feels. “The memory settled over me - My shoulders began to shake in a strange uncontrollable way - but I couldn’t stop shaking,
After beginning to read the novel, The Sun Also Rises, it is clear that the setting is in Paris, France. It has been said a few different times including when Robert Cohn was asking Jake Barnes to go to South America with him. Jake states “...Why don’t you start living your life in Paris?”(Hemingway 19) He he saying this because Robert wants to go to South America to start “living his life” but Jake says to start living his life here in Paris. This proves that they are in Paris during this portion of the book. A very important quote that I have came across is Jake saying to Robert on the same page, “Listen, Robert, going to another country doesn’t make any difference. I’ve tried all that. You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one
“Intensely selfish people are always very decided as to what they wish. They do not waste their energies in considering the good for others.” Throughout one’s journey of their pursuit of success, one can acquire selfishness. This quote by Robert Brault explains the results of one’s acquisition of greed. Selfishness is a trait that changes one’s personality and causes one to ignore the good for others. Greed has changed personalities of many people including Joe Keller in All My Sons by Arthur Miller, J.R. Simplot in Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, Steve Jobs in “The Tweaker" by Malcolm Gladwell, and Jerry in “Through the Tunnel” by Doris Lessing. They all fall to an extent, hurt their loved ones and society emotionally. Also, these people deny their failure as
“Veni, vidi, vinci.” I know you are probably wondering what that quote even means, or who even said it. Julius Caesar, a fairly known historic figure, said these words of “I came, I saw, I conquered” (“Bio.Com”). When you hear his name the first thing that comes to your mind would be his character in William Shakespeare's plays and novels. He was much more than words on a page. Julius Caesar was one of the most determined, intelligent, and powerful men in ancient Roman history.
“I would rather die than do something which I know to be a sin, or to be against God's will.”