The second half of The Infamous Rosalie provided an excited and unexpected ending to the narrative Lisette and gave the novel a powerful and symbolic conclusion. There were several important parts in this section that left me with several comments and questions.
One of the main questions I have has to do with the role of the mistresses, Clarisse and Gracieuse. Are the sexual interactions between Fayot and the mistresses, namely the more public ones such caressing at the dinner table, is that done in a sneaky manner or was it common to shamelessly do those things in front of his wife and family. Additionally, pointing to the anger Fayot had when Gracieuse was unable to have his child, due to her aborting them on purpose which led to her death,
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were the children the plantation owners had with their mistresses normally acknowledged/ taken care of by the owner, or was this more of a private situation as well? It seemed like with Fayots level of anger with Gracieuse over not being able to have his child, leading to his favor turning to Clarisse that he would’ve wanted to acknowledge the mulatto child as his own, but that conflicts with Lissette saying that he wanted to keep up with proper appearances to gain power in the colony. Another question that came up was again surrounding the debate on Lissette’s age. Just how old is she? I found it very surprising how many adult experiences she had for a girl we initially pegged as 16-18. She had already had a first love and sexual experience with Samuel before he passed, is currently in love with a much older man in Vincent and by the end of the novel, we find out that she is pregnant. I understand that we talked about how the lifespan for slaves in the colony was much shorter than anywhere else and therefore they had these experiences much quicker than you would today, but it is still crazy to picture a girl of 16 having all of this mature experience by such a young age. A final question that I have is that is Ma Augustine, Grandma Charlotte and Ma Victor throughout the novel told Lissette how much she reminded them of her Aunt Brigette, then why were they so reluctant to tell her about Brigette’s role as a midwife that aided abortions? It seemed like for those times, having an abortion was the honorable thing for a slave to do instead of birthing a child into depression and slavery. So why was the fact that Brigette aided so many slaves in having these abortions hidden from her? It seems like a gruesome act by today’s standards, but compared to all the other horrors that were occurring all around them, one can argue that what she did was truly heroic, particularly given the consequences we saw for the midwife that aided the abortion in the beginning of chapter 3. The ending of the novel was very intriguing and unexpected for me.
I thought that all of these events that were building during the course of the novel, with the poisonings and accelerating violence, would lead to the ending being more action packed. For example, I was expecting the ending to be a revolt or even just the start of a revolt, and the actual ending was much more intriguing because it was devoid of action but full of meaning. Having the novel end with Lissette pledging to keep her child and pledging for the child to grow up free was very impactful. It showed that while Lissette was not part of the revolution that she was a number of the growing population that provided that sentiment to fight captivity that eventually led to the revolution. Another interesting part was the juxtaposition between Lisette and her Aunt Briggette. Brigette chose to rebel against slavery by performing abortions for slaves and preventing children to be born into slavery, while Lisette pledged at the end to keep her child, but make sure it was born into freedom and not slavery, or she will not allow her to be born at all. Which to me seems more like Lisette will die for her freedom with the child as opposed to her getting an abortion. Overall, The Infamous Rosalie provided a unique view into Haitian slavery and was an excellent read that provided a very wide and complete view of the horrors and developments of slavery in the French colony, and provided the sentiment that were the seeds to the eventually successful revolution much later in
history.
"At the very end of the novel- what is represented as being important? Find two quotes to illustrate this".
The remaining story developments of both books detail further growth in the character development of the protagonists and the principle characters. And so it is with us and how we unravel the mysteries of symbolism in literary word puzzles, that we as readers can also grow like "blossoms blooming" through the eyes of Hurston and Fitzgerald.
...d longs for her elder sister and mother. Frances is a good person – at heart – and is always looking out for her younger sister. Moreover, even though she has different views that her father and will always do the opposite of what is expected of her, it is seen that this insecurity is caused by James indeed. Frances feels that in order to gain security in her life, she must perform these actions. She feels compelled to live her life the way she does. Frances’s naughty and mischievous behaviour can be viewed as a weakness she possesses, and she longs to correct these weaknesses by her actions. She is not a role model by any means, but she is by no means the Devil’s advocate. A sincere heart – compelled by circumstances – does its best to make the situation turn out for the better than the worse, and Frances, through her love for her mother, inevitably does just that.
This is not the only evidence that indicates a sign of stereotypical events that occurs in the novel. A great ind...
The book is significant in the sense that it gives even the current generation the knowledge of slavery, how it happened and the reason for slavery. It also shows us that whites and blacks are equal regardless of the skin colour. The point of equality is supported by the scene where Nat’s plans about freedom do not work but we understand that he had a lot of intelligence to plan that rebellion. This proves to us that blacks have equal intelligence as the whites since everyone being equal. The author tries to take us back to the ages of slavery and make us suffer with the slaves so as to feel how it was really like. The author succeeds in making us feel the pain and he succeeds in making us get that clear picture of what happened.
The book was enjoyable and the author was so descript. His detail in describing where the women came from, what they experienced day to day after coming to America, the social change of the time, followed by his detailed account of the tragedy really brought out emotion. I believe he may have spread it out a bit farther then needed by going into so much detail during the strike but in all the book was a fantastic read.
The story of Lucretia begins with men boasting about their wives, trying to determine who is the best of them all. It is clear to them that Lucretia is the winner when she is found “hard at work by lamplight upon her spinning” (Livy, 100). She then moves on to be a gracious host to all of these men, again showing success in her womanly duties. Later that night one of the visitors, Sextus Tarquinis, comes into her room, and forces himself upon her, telling her that if she does not comply he will make it look like she had an affair with on of the servants (Livy, 101). She yields to him because she does not want it to seem as if she had an affair and n...
The book is not very long and is organized in chapters, which makes the process of reading more comfortable. Despite being a historical piece of literature, the language is not formally harsh and the readers are given an opportunity to delve into the feelings and emotions that the main character, young slave Celia, has to go through in her daily life in slavery. In the introductory part of the book, McLaurin puts forward the purpose of
For starters, the title of the book, Chains, fits well with the topic of slavery and being held captive for reasons that we see unjustly now. I say unjustly reasons now because during this time period slavery was a normal service that a majority of people participated in. I think that Anderson perfectly wrote the book about a girl seeking freedom during a time in history where America as a whole was also seeking freedom, which also helped her argument. They both shared the common idea of fighting for freedom and how it pertained to both of them just in different scales. Anderson incorporated descriptions of the Revolutionary War as well as both sides of the Patriots and Loyalist of this war. Many pieces of history were scattered throughout the book, like the Quartering Act when several loyalist soldiers took shelter in the Lockton’s house. Anderson also managed not to hold back towards the graphic descriptions of what Isabel saw being done to other slaves as well as the severity of the cruel and heartbreaking punishments Isabel suffered over the years. Chains was written in the first person point of view of Isabel, which really helped me get a better sense of the emotions and feelings she felt during her slave years. All which helped put me in her shoes and period of time. At the very end of the book, Anderson offers several discussion questions to further engage the reader over the subject and their thoughts over the material they just read. Anderson also offers a plentiful number of historical facts and dates which all relate back to the book. By adding these historical facts, the credentials of the book go up. This also helped, clear any complications I had while reading the book, the extras at the end book basically helped piece the book and time period more clearly by providing me with the missing pieces of information I needed. Overall, I think the book, Chains, was accurate
The story begins with the Marquise de Merteuil corresponding with Vicomte de Valmont regarding a luscious new act of ‘revenge’, as she describes it, against the Comte de Gercourt. The young Cecile de Volanges has just come home from the convent and her marriage to Gercourt has been arranged. However, before he can wed the innocent child, Merteuil proposes Valmont ‘educate’ her, thus spoiling Gercourt’s fancy for untarnished convent girls. Valmont is uninterested in such an easy seduction and is far more aroused by the thought of lulling The Presidente’ de Tourvel, the very epitome of virtue, into submission. And so the tale unfolds.
Excluding the antecedent available princess and the lady in Marie’s version of “Lanval”, most of these beautiful women are married, and the knights who come to rescue them are technically adulterers. Marie chastises none of them, surprisingly. The only characters who are punished suffer pain or death not because of their adultery type affairs, but because their secret love provoked them to commit other actions, such as murder. Undeniably, Marie seems to approve of adultery that is composed of the “purest” love. When his lover’s jealous husband kills one of the flamboyant knights, his death is trumpet to a great extent “unjust”, and the son he helped conceive is doomed to avenge the truth. Clearly, Marie’s stories function in their own universe, where women trapped in unhappy marriages have the lawful right to furnish love elsewhere, which is quite different from the church’s view or the act of courtly love. Her writing was popular, popular enough that we are still reading her works a thousand years later. So apparently there was something in common and vibrant enough about this sequence of events that allowed it to appeal to such an expanded audience. Safe to say Marie’s goals have been satisfied and
St. Lucia, Achille, Helen, Philoctete, Plunkett, Ma Kilman, Maud, the narrator and we. the readers, gain our souls and become a part of the whole of humankind.
To me the most important sentence in the book comes from page 1. The sentence in itself shocks
In actuality, she was defiant, and ate macaroons secretly when her husband had forbidden her to do so. She was quite wise and resourceful. While her husband was gravely ill she forged her father’s signature and borrowed money without her father or husband’s permission to do so and then boastfully related the story of doing so to her friend, Mrs. Linde. She was proud of the sacrifices she made for her husband, but her perceptions of what her husband truly thought of her would become clear. She had realized that the childlike and submissive role she was playing for her husband was no longer a role she wanted to play. She defied the normal roles of the nineteenth century and chose to find her true self, leaving her husband and children
The unexplainable events that happen in the novel develop a gothic sense using its elements such as the unknown, which creates this fear of not knowing what’s going to happen or predict what’s going to happen next in the novel. Because of the ambiguity, the novel leads the readers to askin...