How Far She Went by Mary Hood and Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield
Synopsis 1. One of the more interesting literary selections in Perrine's Story and Structure was " How far she went" by Mary Hood.
The setting in this story takes place in a rural american town. There is the girl, who's name is never revealed and the Grandma, who's name is never revealed as well. The girl is kept at her grandma's house against her will. Her father sent her out to her Grandma's not telling her that she would be staying for good. The Grandma is very critical of everything the girl does. She doesn't approve of any aspect of the girls character. The girl feels the same way about her Grandma. Neither two of the characters get along.
After an argument the girl runs off, disappointed with her surrounding circumstances. The Grandma continues to do her chores up the street of their large property when two bikers roared up with the girl clinching to the back of one of them.
After an argument the girl was forced back home with her grandma.
Later on as they were driving the two motorcyclists tormented their vehicle throwing bottles and shooting their guns. Eventually they crashed their car and had to run to the woods and hide out from the rowdy boys. They chose to hide under a dock. The dog would not be quiet so the Grandma had to drown him. The boys never found the girl and Grandma. The frightening experience strengthened the bond between the Grandma and girl ( Hood 121- 129).
Synopsis 2. One of the more interesting literary selections in Perrine's Story and Structure was " Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield.
In this story the interpretation of Miss Brill's character is revealed through her observation of other people. The story starts out as Miss Brill with Miss Brill describing the sensation of her fur coat upon her skin and how it made her feel. The setting takes place on a bustling Sunday afternoon in the center of a town. Miss Brill has made it a routine for her to go out on these Sunday afternoons dressed up at her finest, and go people watching.
She takes a seat where a live band is playing, and next to her is the same old couple who always sits their every Sunday, and never says a word.
Although this story is told in the third person, the reader’s eyes are strictly controlled by the meddling, ever-involved grandmother. She is never given a name; she is just a generic grandmother; she could belong to anyone. O’Connor portrays her as simply annoying, a thorn in her son’s side. As the little girl June Star rudely puts it, “She has to go everywhere we go. She wouldn’t stay at home to be queen for a day” (117-118). As June Star demonstrates, the family treats the grandmother with great reproach. Even as she is driving them all crazy with her constant comments and old-fashioned attitude, the reader is made to feel sorry for her. It is this constant stream of confliction that keeps the story boiling, and eventually overflows into the shocking conclusion. Of course the grandmother meant no harm, but who can help but to blame her? O’Connor puts her readers into a fit of rage as “the horrible thought” comes to the grandmother, “that the house she had remembered so vividly was not in Georgia but in Tennessee” (125).
Having been raised in the south has allowed her to believe that she must be catered to as a woman no matter how old she gets. The grandmother constantly refers to herself as a lady and has made herself a priority in her sons life and has a difficult time being considerate of other peoples feelings. At the beginning of the story she tries to convince her son Bailey to change the destination of their planned vacation to where she would like to go. In order for grandma to go see her old house in Tennessee she must convince Bailey that his family may be in danger after a
They may even often immolate the same exact thing they see or hear from an adult. However, O’Connor puts the focus on the grandmother’s bad behavior to highlight her fate at the end of the story. Readers think the grandmother is a good person character because they relate her to their own grandmother. The grandmother puts her hand on the Misfit at the end of the story because she wants to try one also time to beg for her life. When she went on about the Misfit being a good person she was also begging fir help because she knew she was
The Third Person-Point of View as used by Katherine Mansfield in “Miss Brill” Katherine Mansfield’s use of the third person, limited omniscient point of view in “Miss Brill” has the effect of letting the reader see the contrast between Miss Brill’s idea of her role in life and the reality of the small part she truly plays in world around her. In one short Sunday afternoon, the main character’s view of herself changes dramatically different changes. Until the end, the reader does not realize the view is like a mirror at a carnival, clear on the outside edges and distorted in the centre. Mansfield’s use of the story’s point of view causes her readers to look inside themselves to see if they also view life as Miss Brill does: as they wish it to be, not as it is. In the beginning, Miss Brill sees herself as an observer of life, somehow separate, but yet an integral part of life. From the first sentence, “Although it was so brilliantly fine--the blue sky powdered with gold and great spots of light like white wine splashed over the Jardins Publiques”(49), the reader is made aware of her wonderfully vivid imagination. She seems to notice everything. In addition, she paints it in such words that we see it also. As readers, we want to believe that Miss Brill really has a deep understanding of the world around her. Yet Miss Brill wishes to be a part of the world and not apart from it, so we see her view shift to include herself. Now we begin to wonder about her...
The protagonist is the grandmother. She is a stubborn old lady who is annoying and persuasive. She convinces Bailey to take a detour to a house, but when she realizes the house is in Tennessee and not Georgia, she freaks out and causes the car to crash.
The granny and the misfit are two completely opposite characters that possess two different beliefs. The grandmother puts herself on a high pedestal and the way she calls the misfit ‘a good person’ based upon his family background gives the reader an idea of what the grandmother acknowledges to be considered as ‘good’. Self absorbed as sh...
The grandmother shows throughout the short story that she is concerned for herself only. From the beginning, when she tries to make the family go up to Tennessee because she wanted to, until the end when she only stands up for herself against The Misfit. The grandmother, because she considered herself to be a lady, and few others to be good, saw herself above those around her. She saw something special in herself, which was why she insisted to The Misfit that, “You wouldn’t shoot a lady” (14). Even as her son is taken back into the woods to be shot, she remains still. This combined with the authority that she feels comes with her age and position in the family vault her importance far above that of her family that she is with. Her self-elevation, in turn, affects her morals, as she sees the flaws in others but not in herself, and views it as selfish when others get what they want. The grandmother’s narrow-minded egocentric behavior that she exhibits, along with he...
Miss Brill is very observant of what happens around her. However, she is not in tune with her own self. She has a disillusioned view of herself. She does not admit her feelings of dejection at the end. She seems not even to notice her sorrow. Miss Brill is concerned merely with the external events, and not with internal emotions. Furthermore, Miss Brill is proud. She has been very open about her thoughts. However, after the comments from the young lovers, her thoughts are silenced. She is too proud to admit her sorrow and dejection; she haughtily refuses to acknowledge that she is not important.
Through attention to detail, repeated comparison, shifting tone, and dialogue that gives the characters an opportunity to voice their feelings, Elizabeth Gaskell creates a divide between the poor working class and the rich higher class in Mary Barton. Gaskell places emphasis on the differences that separate both classes by describing the lavish, comfortable, and extravagant life that the wealthy enjoy and compares it to the impoverished and miserable life that the poor have to survive through. Though Gaskell displays the inequality that is present between both social classes, she also shows that there are similarities between them. The tone and diction change halfway through the novel to highlight the factors that unify the poor and rich. In the beginning of the story John Barton exclaims that, “The rich know nothing of the trials of the poor…” (11), showing that besides the amount of material possessions that one owns, what divides the two social classes is ability to feel and experience hardship. John Barton views those of the upper class as cold individuals incapable of experiencing pain and sorrow. Gaskell, however proves Barton wrong and demonstrates that though there are various differences that divide the two social classes, they are unified through their ability to feel emotions and to go through times of hardship. Gaskell’s novel reveals the problematic tension between the two social classes, but also offers a solution to this problem in the form of communication, which would allow both sides to speak of their concerns and worries as well as eliminate misunderstandings.
The grandmother thinks she recognizes the driver; then it hit her that he is the Misfit. She stood and made it known to him that she knew who he was. The Misfit said it would have been better if they had not recognized him. Bailey said something harsh enough to his mother that shocked everyone. Grandmother began to cry while the Misfit said not to get upset, because some men say things they don’t mean.
Memories are a stockpile of good and bad experiences that are retained of a people, places. How do you remember your childhood memories? Do certain people, places or things trigger these memories to the past? Does the knowledge of these experience still affect your life today? Throughout the novel My Antonia, Jim's nostalgia for the past is represented by nature, symbolic elements, and above all Antonia.
Abrams, M.H., The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition, Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Inc., 1993
The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition Volume1. Ed. M.H.Abrams. New York: W.W.Norton and Company, Inc., 1993.
A. “Reading Little Women.” Temple University Press (1984): 151-65. Rpt in Novels for Students. Ed. Elizabeth Thomason.
... Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. D. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2012. 1166-86. Print.