How does one find the audacity to attain the impossible? In the historic fiction novel, Audacity, by Melanie Crowder, she addresses the Limlich’s orthodox Jewish values and their resistance to let Clara learn. Clara emulates a weak bird unable to fight against the strong wind and hides her books, only reading over the light from a candle. The family flee discrimination and their shtetl in Russia to voyage to America only to suppress Clara’s dreams of becoming an avid member of society. Subsequently, working in the sweatshops and being oppressed by bosses, Clara and the other girls with no voice to speak up with her, merit more. Her strength becomes vigorous, and she uses her inspiring words to influence men and woman at union meetings and …show more content…
strangers walking of the streets. Clara transforms into a young, advocating woman due to the many experiences she goes through that transform her from timid to indefatigable to triumphant. Initially, Clara is described as a timid young girl who hides her love to read from her family and does as she is told. Crowder writes, “Just because I am\..common as a wren\meek as a robin\..I cannot shake this feeling\that inside this little body\something stronger\is nesting\waiting\for a chance\to flex her talons\snap her wings\taunt\and glide\far away\from here (pages 5 and 6)” Clara notices that she does not belong in a world where she is muted for having a unique idea on life. She wants to be extraordinary and spread her wings like an indestructible falcon. Second, it is noted, “My brothers..\study Torah\Like Papa\..I am trained in\obedience\hard work\all the virtues\a good wife needs.\How can I tell Mama\who toils\sunup\to sundown\to be a..\good wife\that this life\is not enough for me,\that I dream instead\of words\ideas\a life that stretches far beyond\the bounds of this shtetl? (page 14)” Clara feels obligated to be honest with her mother that the destined and expected future of girls in their patriarchal society is not for her. She has difficulty putting it in a way that doesn’t make her sound as though she is disowning her culture or to disown her from her parents. She craves backing from her Mama and Papa to pursue her dreams. Soon after, Clara’s timidity vanishes when she arrives in America that is full of opportunities to parade her true self. Clara soon finds that in America, she has the freedom to explore the city and who she is.
It is written, “In any extra hour\I can steal\for myself\I walk outside\..I wonder\where are all the girls my age? (page 128)” Clara wanders the streets of her new home. As she tours, she observes that there are only men and young children filling the streets, cafes and synagogues. The next day, Clara learns of a free school across the Lower East Side. She is filled with bliss to have found a place that will fill her mind with endless knowledge. Presumed, her plans come to a halt when her father informs her that she needs a job to help support their family. Crowder writes, “the gloom\inside our apartment\seeps through my skin\weighing down\my limbs\pressing like an iron\filled with red-hot coal\against my chest. (page 133)” Her dreams crumble right in her hands as she is forced to work while her father and brother sit around all day and study Torah. This doesn’t stop her from standing up for herself. When she is treated wrongly in the workplace, she speaks up, risking of her job. Clara undergoes over 2 jobs just from speaking back to her bosses. Clara’s mother asks her why she doesn’t stay silent if she isn’t the one being touched. Why can’t she just be quiet and keep her job? Clara in pain that her moth doesn’t understand, responds with “would you have me stay silent\while those around me suffer? (page 186)” Her mother walks away defeated, unable to persuade her child’s mind. In the thick smoke of the cellar’s dank air, Clara hears the new world union uttered from the boss’s mouth in English, and is determined to learn what it means. To her mother’s astonishment, Clara uses her ambitious words to change the working lives of girls in the
future. Eventually, Clara builds up the strength to fight for what she believes in, no matter the cost. Crowder writes, “At ten o’clock\the bosses call in thugs\gorillas\who throw us to the ground\..swinging fists\and kicking like street fighters\..my head smacks against the pavement\a boot finds soft\tender spots\in my belly\and I scream.. (pages 262 and 263)” Clara and the other young women get pulverized by strong men, every day just for wanting better wages and shorter hours. Every day, they repeat the schedule. Picket, suffer defeat, get hauled to jail. The union ladies bail them out the next morning and they all return home to rest until the next day. It is written, “My head throbs\All I want is my bed\..we cannot afford a doctor\..selfish\..strike\..criminal\..let me sleep, Papa.\If you think I must be punished,\very well,\these bruises\have done your work\for you.\ (page 268)” After a long night in prison, Clara had to go home to a place to be resented for standing up for what she views. During the day, she stands at the picket line, cheering and making speeches to give rights to the working girls. Finally, there is an uprising, and her dreams come true. The hum of the revolution is now a roaring song. Ultimately, Clara attains the impossible, changing the lives of the future generations. In conclusion, Clara’s experiences transform her into the advocated woman the union admired. From being timid due to the shame of her family to being indefatigable and never giving in to the anti-protesting physical pain to being triumphant and making a difference for the future workers of America. Clara’s determined work to spark a revolution, inspired girls all over to find their voices and face the oppressive bosses. If Clara did not go against her parent’s wishes, the world wouldn’t be the place it is today.
“Standard English was imposed on children of immigrant parents, then the children were separated from native English speakers, then the children were labeled “inferior” and “ignorant” (Hughes 70) because they could not speak Standard English. In addition to feeling inferior about their second language skills, these students also felt inadequate in regard to speaking their own mother tongues” (qtd in Kanae)
They carry bundles of garments from the factories to the tenements, little beasts of burden, robbed of the school life that they may work for us.” By going into detail about what kinds of work the children do at work helps to open up the audience’s eyes to a perspective that is more personal and in-depth than Kelley merely lecturing them. In doing this, Kelley is able to invoke a sense of guilt that the audience members share. Consequently, the audience members thus feel the need to make change and rid themselves of the guilt they feel by allowing the continuation of children’s forced labor. By using such complex rhetorical strategies, Kelley toys with the audience’s emotions as well as motivates them to provide support for the reform of child labor laws.
The busy season for the shop she was working on came and the owner of the shop kept demanding for what we call overtime. She got fired after she said, “I only want to go home. I only want the evening to myself!.” Yezierska was regretful and bitter about what happened because she ended up in cold and hunger. After a while she became a trained worker and acquired a better shelter. An English class for foreigners began in the factory she was working for. She went to the teacher for advice in how to find what she wanted to do. The teacher advised her to join the Women’s Association, where a group of American women helps people find themselves. One of the women in the social club hit her with the reality that “America is no Utopia.” Yezierska felt so hopeless. She wondered what made Americans so far apart from her, so she began to read the American history. She learned the difference between her and the Pilgrims. When she found herself on the lonely, untrodden path, she lost heart and finally said that there’s no America. She was disappointed and depressed in the
The plot of the book, Speak is that Melinda Sordino, a freshman at Merryweather High went to an end of the summer party with some of her friends. Things take a turn for the worst when a senior named Andy Evans sexually assaults her at the party without her friends knowing about it. Melinda is frightened, afraid, and does not know what to do so she calls 911 busting the party, and causing her friends and everyone at that school to hate her, even if they don’t know her.
Courage is not simply about how well you deal with fear, how many noble deeds you accomplish, or how you overcome life threatening situations. Courage is the practice of determination and perseverance. Something like, an unwillingness to abandon a dream even when the pressures of society weigh down on your shoulders; society will make you feel tired, humiliated, broken, and confused. Actually, it can be effortlessly said that daily courage is more significant than bouts of great deeds. Since everybody undergoes demanding circumstances on a daily basis, and most of us will not be called to perform a great deed, courage comes from those daily struggles and successes. However, Kate Bornstein is one person who has been able to transform her everyday life into a brilliant deed of courage. She threw herself into an unknown abyss to discover truth that many others would never dare tread. Ingeniously combining criticism of socially defined boundaries, an intense sense of language, and a candid autobiography, Bornstein is able to change cultural attitudes about gender, insisting that it is a social construct rather than a regular occurrence, through here courageous writing.
Women have traditionally been known as the less dominant sex. Through history women have fought for equal rights and freedom. They have been stereotyped as being housewives, and bearers and nurturers of the children. Only recently with the push of the Equal Rights Amendment have women had a strong hold on the workplace alongside men. Many interesting characters in literature are conceived from the tension women have faced with men. This tension is derived from men; society, in general; and within a woman herself. Two interesting short stories, “The Yellow Wall-paper and “The Story of an Hour, “ focus on a woman’s plight near the turn of the 19th century. This era is especially interesting because it is a time in modern society when women were still treated as second class citizens. The two main characters in these stories show similarities, but they are also remarkably different in the ways they deal with their problems and life in general. These two characters will be examined to note the commonalities and differences. Although the two characters are similar in some ways, it will be shown that the woman in the “The Story of an Hour” is a stronger character based on the two important criteria of rationality and freedom.
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” are both centralized on the feministic views of women coming out to the world. Aside from the many differences within the two short stories, there is also similarities contained in Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” such as the same concept of the “rest treatment” was prescribed as medicine to help deal with their sickness, society’s views on the main character’s illness, and both stories parallel in the main character finding freedom in the locked rooms that they contain themselves in.
... the liberation of women everywhere. One can easily recognize, however, that times were not always so generous as now, and different women found their own ways of dealing with their individual situations. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s character created a twisted image of the world in her mind, and eventually became mentally insane. While most cases were not so extreme, this character was imperative in creating a realization of such a serious situation.
Writing based on their own experiences, had it not been for the works of Susan Glaspell, Kate Chopin, and similar feminist authors of their time, we may not have seen a reform movement to improve gender roles in a culture in which women had been overshadowed by men. In The Story of an Hour, the main character, Mrs. Louise Mallard, is a young woman with a heart condition who learns of her husband’s untimely death in a railroad disaster. Instinctively weeping, as any woman is expected to do upon learning of her husband’s death, she retires to her room to be left alone so she may collect her thoughts. However, the thoughts she collects are somewhat unexpected. Louise is conflicted with the feelings and emotions that are “approaching to possess her.”
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 ...
Sometimes trying to conform to society’s expectations becomes extremely overwhelming, especially if you’re a woman. Not until recent years have woman become much more independent and to some extent equalized to men. However going back to the 19th century, women were much more restrained. From the beginning we perceive the narrator as an imaginative woman, in tune with her surroundings. The narrator is undoubtedly a very intellectual woman. Conversely, she lives in a society which views women who demonstrate intellectual potential as eccentric, strange, or as in this situation, ill. She is made to believe by her husband and physician that she has “temporary nervous depression --a slight hysterical tendency” and should restrain herself from any intellectual exercises in order to get well (Gilman 487). The narrator was not allowed to write or in any way freely...
...ble to see that it actually incorporates themes of women’s rights. Gilman mainly used the setting to support her themes. This short story was written in 1892, at that time, there was only one women's suffrage law. Now, because of many determinant feminists, speakers, teachers, and writers, the women’s rights movement has grown increasing large and is still in progress today. This quite recent movement took over more then a century to grant women the rights they deserve to allow them to be seen as equals to men. This story was a creative and moving way to really show how life may have been as a woman in the nineteenth century.
In the book Audacity by Melanie Crowder, many themes are present throughout the whole story. There are a multitudinous number of strong coming-of-age themes in this book, such learning to have the courage to stand up and fight for what you believe in, growing into oneself, and being different from one's family. Struggle is a big theme in Audacity, and it connects to all of the aforementioned themes. Newly arrived in New York from Russia, Clara has to face many challenges and difficult decisions. In the book, Clara faced many struggles when fighting tenaciously for equal rights.
Home, in contemporary literature, often plays an integral role often symbolizing security, unison, and support; although, things were not always this way. “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicts the all-too-real struggle many women faced in the nineteenth century and earlier. This short passage portrays the narrative of female intellectual oppression – an examination of nineteenth century social mores. The passage voices the common practice of diagnosing women with “rest cure” who displayed symptoms of depression and anxiety with a supposed treatment of lying in bed for several weeks, allowing no more than twenty minutes of intellectual application per day. Women, at this time, were considered to be the second sex – weaker and more fragile, unable to grapple the same daily activities as men – and such the “rest cure” prevents women from using any form of thinking, trusting the notion that naturally the female mind is empty. Not even were
While the girl loved the work outside she hated to do the ‘woman’s work’ inside. She disliked her mother for making her do it, and believed that her mother only made her do it be...