Every genre has authors that dominate their field so completely that it only takes a vague hint of genre generalities to prompt the author's name to mind. Danielle Steel is one of these authors. Erin Fry, editor of the Romance Writers of America Association publications, stated that “In a romance, the lovers who risk and struggle for each other and their relationship are rewarded with emotional justice and unconditional love” (RWA Web). This stereotype has been both embraced and rejected by Steel in her writings, however in her novel No Greater Love, this does not seem to be the format that she follows while staying true to the accepted literary conventions of her genre. This essay will communicate certain storytelling elements of Steel’s No …show more content…
There are two working themes that are more prominent than any others; poetic justice and the power of familial love. Scott Forschler, author of “Revenge, poetic justice, resentment, and the Golden Rule”, defined Poetic Justice, as when, “injury coming to a wrongdoer that is both roughly equivalent to and caused by his wrongdoing, but in a way, that is neither anticipated by him, nor primarily inflicted on him by other persons as part of an intention to punish his wrongdoing” (Forschler 4). Malcolm through his interactions with the Winfield family demonstrates this perfectly. Familial love and the power it can possess is reiterated in every interaction between the Winfield siblings, and later the significant others that are brought into the close-knit family. This power is the driving force of every single decision Edwina makes from the moment she is promoted to the matriarch of her family after the tragic loss of her parents and fiancé, “But now she had so many responsibilities, she had to be so well informed when she went to meetings at the paper, and she felts as though she should be teaching the children something more than just baking cakes and how to plant daisies in the garden” (Steel 193). Edwina’s love for her siblings and her desire to provide for them has completely eclipsed any personal desires she ever had for
...e on her part. Throughout the story, the Mother is portrayed as the dominant figure, which resembled the amount of say that the father and children had on matters. Together, the Father, James, and David strived to maintain equality by helping with the chickens and taking care of Scott; however, despite the effort that they had put in, the Mother refused to be persuaded that Scott was of any value and therefore she felt that selling him would be most beneficial. The Mother’s persona is unsympathetic as she lacks respect and a heart towards her family members. Since the Mother never showed equality, her character had unraveled into the creation of a negative atmosphere in which her family is now cemented in. For the Father, David and James, it is only now the memories of Scott that will hold their bond together.
In Song of Solomon, through many different types of love, Ruth's incestuous love, Milkman and Hagar's romantic love, and Guitar's love for his race, Toni Morrison demonstrates not only the readiness with which love will turn into a devastating and destructive force, but also the immediacy with which it will do so. Morrison tackles the amorphous and resilient human emotion of love not to glorify the joyous feelings it can effect but to warn readers of love's volatile nature. Simultaneously, however, she gives the reader a clear sense of what love is not. Morrison explicitly states that true love is not destructive. In essence, she illustrates that if "love" is destructive, it is most likely, a mutation of love, something impure, because love is all that is pure and true.
Love and hope, together are a timeless literary thematic duo, which continue to inspire countless variations and sub-genres of romance literature. For the last many centuries, romance as a genre, is arguably the most popular of all narratives. However, the theme of love often takes presentences and overarches other thematic interpretation of stories. So why then are people seeking romance in the literature they ready? Suzanne Collins wrote The Hunger Games with the intent to introduce her young adult readership to a number of politically charged themes. Although Collins's work is acknowledged for successfully presenting themes of sacrifice, versions of reality, and power, her audience conversely identifies with the debatable sub-them of love. Social forums, such as the Official Hunger Games Facebook Website exposes an insider's perspective of sort, which reveals public perceptions and interpretations of Collins's work. Even though the purpose for the fan-website built around The Hunger games is to provide a discussion space. Participant's discussions however, unintentionally reveal a...
Lareau’s main argument in the text is that when children grow up in certain environments, parents are more likely to use specific methods of child rearing that may be different from other families in different social classes. In the text, Lareau describes how she went into the home of the McAllisters and the Williams, two black families leading completely different lives. Ms. McAllister lives in a low income apartment complex where she takes care of her two children as well as other nieces and nephews. Ms. McAllister never married the father of her two children and she relies on public assistance for income. She considers herself to be a woman highly capable of caring for all the children yet she still struggles to deal with the stress of everyday financial issues. The Williams on the other hand live in a wealthier neighborhood and only have one child. Mr. W...
“Like a river flows so surely to the sea darling, so it goes some things are meant to be.” In literature there have been a copious amount of works that can be attributed to the theme of love and marriage. These works convey the thoughts and actions in which we as people handle every day, and are meant to depict how both love and marriage can effect one’s life. This theme is evident in both “The Storm” by Kate Chopin and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman; both stories have the underlying theme of love and marriage, but are interpreted in different ways. Both in “The Storm” and in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the women are the main focus of the story. In “The Storm” you have Calixta, a seemingly happy married woman who cheats on her husband with an “old-time infatuation” during a storm, and then proceeds to go about the rest of her day as if nothing has happened when her husband and son return. Then you have “The Yellow Wallpaper” where the narrator—who remains nameless—is basically kept prisoner in her own house by her husband and eventually is driven to the point of insanity.
In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, love proves to be a dangerous and destructive force. Upon learning that Sethe killed her daughter, Beloved, Paul D warns Sethe “Your love is too thick” (193). Morrison proved this statement to be true, as Sethe’s intense passion for her children lead to the loss of her grasp on reality. Each word Morrison chose is deliberate, and each sentence is structured with meaning, which is especially evident in Paul D’s warning to Sethe. Morrison’s use of the phrase “too thick”, along with her short yet powerful sentence structure make this sentence the most prevalent and important in her novel. This sentence supports Paul D’s side on the bitter debate between Sethe and he regarding the theme of love. While Sethe asserts that the only way to love is to do so passionately, Paul D cites the danger in slaves loving too much. Morrison uses a metaphor comparing Paul D’s capacity to love to a tobacco tin rusted shut. This metaphor demonstrates how Paul D views love in a descriptive manner, its imagery allowing the reader to visualize and thus understand Paul D’s point of view. In this debate, Paul D proves to be right in that Sethe’s strong love eventually hurts her, yet Paul D ends up unable to survive alone. Thus, Morrison argues that love is necessary to the human condition, yet it is destructive and consuming in nature. She does so through the powerful diction and short syntax in Paul D’s warning, her use of the theme love, and a metaphor for Paul D’s heart.
Ladies should be depicted as strong, gracious, beautiful beings that every man needs and respects, although Meyers portrayal of this strays away from other novels based on vampires such as Bram Stokers’ Dracula. Stoker’s women are Independent and describe the perfect picture of a heroine which is defined as “‘a woman distinguish...
Gaitskill’s “Tiny, Smiling Daddy” focuses on the father and his downward spiral of feeling further disconnected with his family, especially his lesbian daughter, whose article on father-daughter relationships stands as the catalyst for the father’s realization that he’d wronged his daughter and destroyed their relationship. Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” focuses on Mel and his attempt to define, compare, and contrast romantic love, while leaving him drunk and confused as he was before. While both of my stories explore how afflicted love traumatizes the psyche and seem to agree that love poses the greatest dilemma in life, and at the same time that it’s the most valued prospect of life, the two stories differ in that frustrated familial love causes Gaitskill's protagonist to become understandable and consequently evokes sympathy from the reader, but on the other hand frustrated romantic love does nothing for Carver's Protagonist, except keep him disconnected from his wife and leaving him unchanged, remaining static as a character and overall unlikable. In comparing “Tiny, Smiling Daddy” and “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”, together they suggest that familial love is more important than romantic love, which we relentlessly strive to achieve often forgetting that we’ll forever feel alone without familial love, arguably the origin of love itself.
In both Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” and Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening”, we see that there are two types of women who arise from the demands of these expectations. The first is the obedient woman, the one who has buckled and succumbed to become an empty, emotionless shell. In men’s eyes, this type of woman was a sort of “angel” perfect in that she did and acted exactly as what was expected of her. The second type of woman is the “rebel”, the woman who is willing to fight in order to keep her creativity and passion. Patriarchal silencing inspires a bond between those women who are forced into submission and/or those who are too submissive to maintain their individuality, and those women who are able and willing to fight for the ability to be unique.
Storytelling has been a common pastime for centuries. Over the years it has evolved into different styles containing different themes. Kate Chopin, a well-known author of the 20th century, wrote stories about the secrets in women’s lives that no one dared to speak of. Her work was not always appreciated and even considered scandalous, but it opened up a world that others were too afraid to touch. In Chopin’s story “The Storm,” a woman has an affair that causes an unlikely effect. The story’s two themes are portrayed greatly through an abundance of imagery and symbolism, along with the two main characters themselves.
In this essay I would like to emphasize different ideas of how love is understood and discussed in literature. This topic has been immortal. One can notice that throughout the whole history writers have always been returning to this subject no matter what century people lived in or what their nationality was.
Fairytales and modern day movies project a stereotypical portrayal of love, idealizing it and ignoring the not so happy ever after when the prince and princess go back to their castle. Walker and Salinger in their respective novels present the idea of love with much more verisimilitude without the traditional symbols of castles and titles. Instead, opting for a warts and all exploration of love, focusing on its utopian and dystopian elements. Walker’s ‘The Color Purple’ is a tale of a black woman who is driven to lesbian love due to the abuse undertaken by men. J. D. Salinger’s ‘The Catcher in the Rye’, similarly speaks of a sexually frustrated young man not able to fulfill his desires due to societal constraints. Both the novels encapsulate realistic elements of love like the healing and harmful effects it can have on humans; we see all the pure forms of love as juxtaposed through the plot line with the absence of parental love, love between siblings and homosexual love. But, through all of the toils begotten by both Celie and Holden, love is a constant. ‘’Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres’’.
Danielle Steel, in her work of fiction, Mixed Blessings, has effectively used plot, setting, and theme as she weaves a powerful tale of three couples who face decisions about having children that will test, in unexpected ways, the ties that bind them as lovers, partners, and friends. Steel has used these elements to emphasize that there are people who have such a great need and love for children. In Mixed Blessings, she represents women radically and optimistically as shown by Diana Goode, Barbie Mason, and Pilar Graham, unlike the negative representation of womanhood in the movie version of her other novel, The Ring, where Kassandra feels that taking her own life would save her children and her husband from the shame of her unfaithfulness.
The novel explores the idea that domestic violence is a trait that is passed on from generation to generation but can be unlearned. Domestic Violence was one of the most important and most critical topics that were explained in The Color Purple. The book begins as Celie describes her initial family. Her father beats her mother and proceeds to rape Celie after her mother becomes too ill to satisfy her father’s sexual needs. She lives in constant fear of “him” and makes it her underlining goal to protect her sister Nettie from him at all costs. In the story her father states to Celie “You better never tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy” (Walker 1) making it clear that she is forced to comply with all his needs. Celie’s father impregnates her and when she is to give birth her father takes the infant away from her, and makes it seem like he has killed the baby in t...
Victor Hugo once said, “The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.” Whether in Shakespeare’s tragic play about lovers doomed by fate, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s sonnet describing love, “Sonnet 116”, or O. Henry’s age old The Gift of the Magi, love motivates the characters and authors to make decisions that have a weighty impact on their lives. Throughout these works of literature, authors use love’s power to drive the plot forward to create good events within the characters’ lives. Love is a force for good because it makes people willing to forgive each other, it brings the best out of people in bad situations, and it