James Joyce’s short story, “Clay”, uses the word “nice” twelve different times. Ten out of the twelve times refers to “nice” as being as what the Oxford Dictionary defines as “pleasant” or “agreeable”. The most significant use of “nice” not following this definition, is found in the following passage. After the women’s evening tea, Maria happily hurries to her room, where after getting dressed for the Hallow Eve party at the Donnelly’s:
She stood before the mirror, she thought of how she used to dress for mass on Sunday morning when she was a young girl; and she looked with quaint affection at the diminutive body which she had so often adorned, in spite of its years she found it a nice tidy little body.
The key in understanding this special definition of “nice” is found in noticing the order of how“nice” and “tidy” are beside
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Yet, Maria is able to cut the barmbrack loaf in equal portions and in a way that the loaf appears to be unaltered from afar. Maria received her own sentence specifying who cut the barmbrack to add extra emphasis and focus on this achievement that was done by Maria alone. This example of the barmbrack loafs begins to demonstrate Maria as being “refined in taste, strict, and precise” or “nice”.
Later in the exposition, Maria is continuing to prepare for the women’s tea when she begins to plan her time for the coming night’s festivities. Her mental schedule planned for:
The women would have their tea at six o’clock and she would be able to get away before seven. From Ballsbridge to the Pillar, twenty minutes; from the Pillar to Drumcondra, twenty minutes; and twenty minutes to buy the things. She would be there before eight.
Maria divides her time just as neatly and carefully as dividing the barmbrack. Her mind is still sharp and focused- even though she is later in years.
After the tea party, Maria goes and prepares for the Hallow Eve
“She grieved over the shabbiness of her apartment, the dinginess of the walls, the worn-out appearance of the chairs, the ugliness of the draperies. All these things, which another woman of her class would not even have noticed, gnawed at her and made her furious.”
I noticed how white and well-shaped his own hands were. They looked calm, somehow, and skilled. His eyes were melancholy, and were set back deep under his brow. His face was ruggedly formed, but it looked like ashes – like something from which all the warmth and light had dried out. Everything about this old man was in keeping with his dignified manner (24)
For example, Louisa spends a great amount of her time simply arranging her maiden possessions, such as her books, which are sorted in a specific order, as well as having all of her sewing tools in a specific place and order in her work-basket. A scholarly article analyzing the character of Louisa reaffirms this notion by stating, “Louisa had almost the enthusiasm of an artist over the mere order and cleanliness of her solitary home. She had throbs of genuine triumph at the sight of the window panes which she had polished until they shone like jewels. She gloated gently over her orderly bureau-drawers, with their exquisitely folded contents redolent with lavender and sweet clover and very pure” (Harris 27).
“It was a large, beautiful room, rich and picturesque in the soft, dim light which the maid had turned low. She went and stood at an open window and looked out upon the deep tangle of the garden below. All the mystery and witchery of the night seemed to have gathered there amid the perfumes and the dusky and tortuous outlines of flowers and foliage. She was seeking herself and finding herself in just such sweet half-darkness which met her moods. But the voices were not soothing that came to her from the darkness and the sky above and the stars. They jeered and sounded mourning notes without promise, devoid even of hope. She turned back into the room and began to walk to and fro, down its whole length, without stopping, without resting. She carried in her hands a thin handkerchief, which she tore into ribbons, rolled into a ball, and flung from her. Once she stopped, and taking off her wedding ring, flung it upon the carpet. When she saw it lying there she stamped her heel upon it, striving to crush it. But her small boot heel did not make an indenture, not a mark upon the glittering circlet.
In The Barbie Doll, the author writes about a girl' s life. The author starts off by describing her childhood. She was given dolls and toys like any other girl and she also wore hints of lipstick. This girl was healthy and rather intelligent. Even though she had possessed many good traits she was still looked at by others as "the girl with a big nose and fat legs". She exercised, dieted and smiled as much as possible to please those around her. She became tired of pleasing everyone else and decided to commit suicide. During her funeral those who she had tried to please in the past were the ones to comment about how beautiful she looked. Finally she had received the praise she was longing for.
But unlike to look upon, those ladies were, for if the one was fresh, the other was faded: bedecked in bright red was the body of one; flesh hung in folds on the face of the other; on one a high headdress, hung all in pearls; her bright throat and bosom fair to behold, fresh as the first snow fallen upon hills; a wimple the other one wore rounded her throat; her swart chin well swaddled swathed all in white; her forehead enfolded in flounces of silk that fraimed a fair fillet, of fashion ornate, and nothing bare beneath save the black brows, the two eyes and the nose, the naked lips, and they unsightly to see, and sorrily bleared. A beldame, by God, she may well be deemed of pride! (Norton 178)
which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress". Throughout the passage Dorothea's beauty
King, in introducing the little convent girl to the reader, goes to great lengths to present her as a dreary and uninteresting creature. She wore dark clothing, sat rigidly upright, secluded herself in her room, and displayed little zest for life. Therefor, when King uses the work "blac...
“...by ten o'clock. Not somewhere on Hollywood Boulevard, not on her way to the freeway, but actually on the freeway. if she was not she lost the day's rhythm, its precariously imposed momentum” (Didion, 9). Maria is depicted as careless here because she is only used to the same routine. She is also stuck in the same routine which can represent her lifestyle. If Maria attempts to switch her way of living she will get lost. “ Once she was on the freeway and had maneuvered her way to a fast lane...She drove the San Diego to the Harbor, the Harbor up to the Hollywood, the Hollywood to the Golden State, the Santa Monica the Santa Ana, the Pasadena, the Ventura” (9). At this point Maria has nowhere to stop. One slight maneuver she beings to lose it and drives off. Another great advocate of her distant relationship affects Maria. When Maria reveals her pregnancy to Carter, he becomes upset. Carter forces Maria to abort the baby, but her hesitation shows the reader a resemblance to her other daughter kate. This love for kate also reflects on the unborn child. The reader begins to analyze that Maria is scared to feel the same feeling for the baby and become attached to the baby. That prevents her from having the
What do little girls do with these dolls? They put on fresh makeup, change there fashionable clothing, and style there long luscious hair. This alone is creating a psychological change in a little girls brain, it is instilling that this is what is customary for a girl to do. Rather than fixing things you are to play princess, along with your easy bake oven. For centuries society has quietly driven a complex into the hearts and minds of young girls, that you have to be pretty to succeed. In our time today you rarely see unattractive; politicians, movie stars, musicians, officials or entertainers. Anybody who is somebody these days has attractive physical qualities.
It is a serious and quiet event. She sees the boys as "short men" gathering in the living room, not as children having fun. The children seem subdued to us, with "hands in pockets". It is almost as if they are waiting, as the readers are, for something of importance to take place.... ... middle of paper ...
She said "Ugly characters in kids’ books are generally horrible and their physical flaws are signs of other shortcomings. Villains have bad teeth, liars have long noses, zombies have thick skulls. The miserly are bony, the greedy, fat." We should fix that because not always the ugly is the evil and the beautiful are the heroes. And we can realize that when we look to the magaziens and sales; they usually used use an attractive people as models to make you look at their products. She also got a little nervous from her girl, because she refused to play with Eleanor Roosevelt doll, and on the other hand, she slept with her beautiful Barbie doll. But for me, we can't blame the little girl, because the girl judged the doll from its appearance. And that's the same thing that happens with the creator of the novel. When Safie, Agatha, and Felix return from their walk while the creature shows up to the old man, they hit him with cries of fear and panic because of the creature looks. And as we read, we going to see how the old man accepted the creature from his hear, and this one of the advantges of being blind, because if you are blind, you not going to be tricked with people's
The first stanza describes the Barbie Doll and her accessories. It is also stating how the girl was just a normal person, but at the end of the stanza, it shows how she is being tormented by one of her classmates. “Wee lipsticks” is some form of makeup that helps cover the flaws that one has; which are seen as perfection; such as not looking the way one sees as perfect. However, the iron is what helps ameliorate the clothes. The girl in this poem was technically raised to be perfect, she was surrounded by perfection. She was happy with the way she looked before until the classmate told her “you have a great big nose and fat legs” (6). Through the comments, the girl was forced to believe she was anything but prefect and fell short of the Barbie Doll image. The girls self-esteem begins to
A man already in decay, having given my best years to feed the hungry dream of knowledge,—what had I to do with youth and beauty like thine own! Misshapen from my birth-hour, how could I delude myself with the idea that intellectual gifts might veil physical deformity in a young girl’s fantasy! … Nay, from the moment when we came down the old church-steps together, a married pair, I might have beheld the bale-...
It was about seven o'clock, scarcely light in the cold bedroom. Whiston lay still and looked at his wife. She was a pretty little thing, with her fleecy, short black hair all tousled. He watched her as she dressed quickly, flicking her small, delightful limbs, throwing her clothes about her. Her slovenliness and untidiness did not trouble him. When she picked up the edge of her petticoat, ripped off a torn string of white lace, and flung it on the dressing-table, her careless abandon made his spirit glow. (238)