After five years of being raised and living with their grandmother whom they truly loved, the girls had a rude awakening. Their grandmother, Sylvia had passed away. “When after almost five years, my grandmother one winter morning eschewed awakening, Lily and Nona were fetched from Spokane and took up housekeeping in Fingerbone, just as my grandmother had wished” (Robinson 29). This was the final attempt that their grandmother had made in order for the girls to have a normal and traditional life. This is a solid example of how the sister’s lives are shaped by their family and their surroundings. Lucille’s ultimate concern in life is to conform to society and live a traditional life. She wishes to have a normal family and is sorrowful for all of the losses that she has experienced such as her mother’s and grandmother’s deaths. On the other hand, Ruthie, after spending more time with her future guardian, Aunt Sylvie, becomes quite the transient like her. A turning point in the story is when the true character of the two girls is acknowledged by the author. Ruthie’s feelings are revealed when she says, “Lily and Nona, I think, enjoyed nothing except habit and familiarity” (Robinson 32). She is beginning …show more content…
to disclose her longing for a more spontaneous and unscripted lifestyle, unlike the lifestyle that her family members have set up for her in previous years. We know this because she makes comments such as the above quote explaining how she disapproves of her great aunt’s viewpoints on life. The aunt’s enjoy routine in their life stating various times while conversing with each other that they would prefer to go back to their small apartment and leave Fingerbone. Once again, the concept of gender comes up in the story. According to Gilbert and Gubar, women are expected by society to be the primary caregivers of children, this is the case. Although, the majority of the women that are responsible for the children are unfit for the role. “They smiled nervously at us and looked at each other...But since Lily and None were not really angry, they could not really be mollified. They felt only alarm” (Robinson 35-36). Seeing as though the aunt’s were not exactly thrilled about being the caretakers of their nieces, Ruthie and Lucille picked up on their vibe. This made them feel as though they were unwanted. While Ruthie was not so much bothered by this because she prefered her independence, Lucille felt otherwise. Eventually, Lily and Nona decided to send for Ruthie and Lucille’s mother’s sister, Sylvie. Sylvie had been away from Fingerbone for many many years and had not even returned to attend her mother’s funeral. The girls, especially Lucille, were hopeful that their aunt Sylvie would become a stable guardian for them. But, basically as soon as Sylvie arrived Ruthie and Lucille’s insecurities returned. Their constant worry that they would be left again with no stable guardian is displayed when the author describes how the girls immediately jump on Sylvie’s case asking questions. “What did Sylvie see when she thought of my mother? A girl with braided hair, a girl with freckled arms, who liked to lie on the rug in the lamplight…” (Robinson 53). The girls are extremely curious about their mother, hoping to find out as much information about her as possible. After None and Lily leave the household and Fingerbone all together, Sylvie became the girl’s primary caretaker. She takes over the housekeeping, symbolically, by acting as a new stationary object for the girls, and literally, by the way she takes care of, or doesn’t take care of, the house. Shortly after taking over, a symbolic flood occurs in the town. The lower floor of the house becomes overtaken by rainwater and that part of the house is unusable. This is the first instance of an unstable household. This drives Lucille up the wall. This changes Lucille’s behavior because since she has no stability in her life due to an irresponsible guardian, she begins to develop truancy at school. In turn, this leads to Ruthie’s behavior changing, as well when she follows Lucille’s lead and takes on unexcused absences from school. Even when Sylvie finds them, she does nothing about the situation and continues to let it occur. Eventually, Lucille decides that she can no longer handle the inconsistent and unconventional lifestyle, whereas Ruthie begins to embrace it. The circumstance they are in with Sylvie as their guardian begins to take a serious toll. Sylvie is a transient, meaning that she doesn’t stay in one place for long and always does her own thing. “Lucille hated everything that had to do with transience” (Robinson 103). This is the main reason why Lucille decides to move in with her home economics teacher and gets adopted by her. Once again, instead of seeking a male figure in her life, another female influence enters the storyline, signifying Gilbert and Gubar’s persisting concept of gender. This is another instance as to why this story is an prime example of Gilman and Gubar’s theory of confining structures and feminist influences is that when the girls ask Sylvie where her husband is, she replies with “we’ve been out of touch for some time” (Robinson 102). This just goes to show that once again the family is lacking a male figure in their life. Just as the girls are missing their father, so is Sylvie and she is also lacking a husband. Eventually the girls start asking Sylvie what she knew about their father whom they never got the chance to know. “He was tall. Not bad-looking. Awfully quiet, though. I think he was kind of shy” (Robinson 51). The narrator states that they know barely anything about their father. They live in a world where all they have ever had is female influences, and not very strong influences at that. Since there father deserted them and their grandfather’s tragic death, their lives have been nothing but inconsistent. It is only when Ruthie decides to let her aunt Sylvie’s personality meld into her own that she becomes independent and finds her true self.
In turn, Ruthie loses touch with Lucille who now lives with her teacher while seeking a more traditional family lifestyle. On the other hand, Ruthie becomes more and more like Sylvie, transient. This encompasses the angel and monster concept by Gilman and Gubar because Lucille is more so the “angel” or the sisters and Ruthie is the “monster.” Lucille is more conventional and follows the rules made by society. Ruthie lives life much more “by the seat of her own pants” and is much more eccentric like Sylvie. She goes against society's rules of living in a stable household with a regular normal family instead living outside the
norms. Therefore, Ruth and Lucille’s lives are deeply affected by the events that occurred during their lives and even before they were both born. Their father’s desertion, their mother’s suicide, the tragic death of their grandmother, their two great aunts abandoning them, and their aunt Sylvie’s atypical lifestyle are key sources for their changes in behavior. These events and their surroundings shaped the way Ruthie and Lucille decide to live their lives.
While Doris Goodwin’s mother and father were a very important part of her life growing up her sisters were just as important. She talks about how while Charlotte, her oldest sister was not around as much as her other older sister, Jeanne she was still very important to her. She goes into detail about a shopping trip that was taken with the oldest and youngest siblings and how after the shopping trip to Sa...
Quote 1: "I didn’t have the answers to those questions, but what I did know was that I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt in fire. It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes” (Walls 34).
Each of the characters comes across a point of darkness in their lives, forcing them to make a difficult decision. After leaving her home in the South, Ruth tries to make it on her own by working in Harlem and meets Rocky, who, unbeknownst to her, is a pimp. When she finally does realize this, she gets lost in the night life in an attempt to forget her past, and almost ruins her future. Ruth even says, "...a prostitute, which I almost did become." (McBride, Pg.172) She gets past this when she fesses up to Dennis McBride, and realizes her error when she sees how disappointed he is. Ruth then returns home to Bubeh, her grandmother living in New York, and gets a decent job at a diner. Jade Snow comes across a similar, yet different problem when she is unable to acquire the scholarship for a university. She starts to consider not going to college at all if she can't go to a university until her friend, Joe, says to her, " makes you so sure that junior college won't teach you anything.
Indicating between the middle and end as the story progresses towards its climax conflict regarding Ruth’s marital situation and the very subtle discrimination prevalent in the American South. As shown in part to Ruth’s unfortunate predicament within the story her husband being a continuous danger to her as he is on more than one occasion proves such. While at one point as Ruth is gathering her belongings and packing to leave with Idgie due to how her husband had been treating her he arrives confronting her angrily grabbing and pulling her as Idgie is left futily struggling to help to no avail. Eventually although able to leave after this confrontation in part to the aid of their friend Big George later on after the birth of Ruth’s child shortly following was the unpleasant reappearance of her husband Frank. As this time although he did so only to frighten her this reappearance of his however led harm to fall upon Big George at the hands of fellow unsavory discriminatory individuals. The next and last time as he is seen in the story is when on his own he sets out to take Ruth’s child only to be killed at the hands of Big George’s mother in self
Janie's Grandmother is the first bud on her tree. She raised Janie since she was a little girl. Her grandmother is in some respects a gardener pruning and shaping the future for her granddaughter. She tries to instill a strong belief in marriage. To her marriage is the only way that Janie will survive in life. What Nanny does not realize is that Janie has the potential to make her own path in the walk of life. This blinds nanny, because she is a victim of the horrible effects of slavery. She really tries to convey to Janie that she has her own voice but she forces her into a position where that voice is silenced and there for condemning all hopes of her Granddaughter become the woman that she is capable of being.
A second major similarity between the two women is their personality of being non-confrontational. Both women, in a sense, let others “walk over them”. Ruth is dominated by her husband, Walter, for the most part and Stella by her husband, Stanley, and sister Blanche. When situations are tense, both characters try to avoid the confrontational subject or shy away when it is brought up. For example, when Walter adamantly keeps trying to force Ruth into supporting his business ideals at breakfast-which she doesn’t agree with-she tries to change the subject by repeatedly telling Walter to eat his eggs (Hansberry 1.
The lack of support and affection protagonists, Sula Peace and Nel Wright, causes them to construct their lives on their own without a motherly figure. Toni Morrison’s novel, Sula, displays the development of Sula and Nel through childhood into adulthood. Before Sula and Nel enter the story, Morrison describes the history of the Peace and Wright family. The Peace family live abnormally to their town of Medallion, Ohio. Whereas the Wrights have a conventional life style, living up to society’s expectations.The importance of a healthy mother-daughter relationship is shown through the interactions of Eva and Hannah Peace, Hannah and Sula, and between Helene Wright and Nel. When Sula and Nel become friends they realize the improper parenting they
Cecilia was diagnosed with cancer while Ruth was in high school and the day before her daughter’s graduation, she passed away (Salokar & Volcansek, 1996). One of the greatest influences on Ruth’s life was her mother and the values she instilled in her from a young age. Two of the greatest lessons that Ruth learned from her mother was to be independent and to be a lady, and by that she meant not to respond in anger but to remain calm in situations (Reynolds, 2009).... ... middle of paper ... ...
Regretfully, though readers can see how Mama has had a difficult time in being a single mother and raising two daughters, Dee, the oldest daughter, refuses to acknowledge this. For she instead hold the misconception that heritage is simply material or rather artificial and does not lie in ones heart. However, from Mama’s narrations, readers are aware that this cultural tradition does lie within ones heart, especially those of Mama’s and Maggie’s, and that it is the pure foundation over any external definition.
She grew up feeling like an outsider because of her family, especially because of her mother’s suicide. Lucille and Ruthie most often felt “cruelly banished” (Robinson 81).As Lucille try to make friends with other students in school, Ruthie realizes how introverted she herself has become. Ruthie grows up feeling that she doesn’t belong and when this feeling is strengthened by the initial indifferent attitude of the townspeople, Ruthie makes the decision to follow Sylvie and become a transient. In Ruthie’s case, it was her age that affected her more than her gender. The neighbors were quick to come to make certain that Sylvie is stable enough to take care of Ruthie. Robinson writes that Lucille and Ruthie were scared when they first “heard of the interest of the state in the well-being of children”(68). The laws that were created to protect her, made her feel unsafe and that was what caused her to follow
Eva Tyne is a young, Irish violinist living in New York City. She is a talented and committed musician whose career seems to be kicking off. However, she soon finds herself in a hospital after collapsing in her solo debut with the New Amsterdam Chamber Orchestra. When discharged from the hospital; instead of returning home to her boyfriend, Kryštof, she slumbers at her best friend, Valentina’s, apartment. She subsequently meets a good-looking Latin American man named Daniel in the bar of a hotel and they spend the night together. Shortly after, she meets a dubious -looking Russian immigrant Alexander who offers to sell her a Stradivari violin. He suggests that she goes to his house to see it. She sceptically agrees, and though intoxicated,
Ruth Younger is a caring mother who feels internal conflicts when she feels strongly about something her husband does not agree with. Ruth lives in a small apartment with her extended family. She tries to be a good wife, supportive of her husband's decisions but she also longs for a better life for her family. Gladys Washington, literary reviewer, points out that Ruth, "seems to hold fairly traditional ideas about motherhood, but she finds herself, without the counsel of her husband, considering abortion as an alternative to bringing another child into the world" (Washington screen 3). She would sacrifice the life growing inside her to ensure her current family had a place to sleep. When her mother-in-law presents them with the opportunity to move from their small run down apartment to a home of their own Ruth is overjoyed, but sees that Walter is furious with his mother for spending so much money on a home in a white neighborhood. Ruth wants so badly to be excited that she urges her husband to see the good that would come from moving. She says, "Please, honey -- let me be glad... you be glad too"(Hansberry 998). She tells him they should, "say goodbye to these Goddamned cracking walls!--and these marching roaches!--and this cramped little closet which ain't now or never was no kitchen!"(Hansberry 999). After being offered money by their white neighbors not to move in, Walter decides to take the money and keep his family in their cramped apartment. Ruth is being torn to pieces at the thought of losing the home she dreamed of but she has done enough pleading. She had already rebelled and let her husband know how she felt about the new home. Finally right before Walter signs the papers to accept the white community's money, his wife and mother's pleas get through to him. He turns down the white man's money and Ruth finally gets a better life for her family.
Ruth encounters the injustice and discrimination tied with the package of a Jew living in the South, and later as a white woman living in the unforgiving all-black neighborhood during the black power movement. She experienced disparate degrees of this prejudice while living in Suffolk.
One of Colleen Hoover’s talents is writing in a male’s perspective and by doing so she is able to display the main character Owen as flawed yet passionate. Owen is expressed as flawed for several reasons. When Owen was 16 years old he was in a car crash with his mother, father, and brother. Owen was driving then and had just recently received his licenses. He was going through in intersection when a car ran a red light and collided into them. That car crash killed his mother and brother and now all Owen can do is blame himself. He states, “ I carried a lot of guilt for a long time over that accident, even though I know my father didn’t blame me” (Hoover 216). Ever since the car crash Owen’s dad Callahan became weak. Callahan becomes addicted
As an avid supporter of this mystery series, I have to say this is my favorite installment so far. In fact, I did not figure out who did it (although I should have), and the acting was extraordinary. I promise not to reveal who the murderer is--you will have to watch to obtain that information. But I would like to congratulate the actors, crew (including the director), writer, and anyone else who worked on this show. Clever story, outstanding costumes, and this is truly one of the most supportive casts around. As a side note, I also adore the music. Typically, I don't even notice the music in Hallmark films, but this is one where the music is unique and fits the film immeasurably well.