Nicole Krauss’s The History of Love is a fascinating tale of interwoven narratives compelling the reader to consider how axial developments in one’s life can both transform and hold one back. On the surface of this book, the plot follows a Polish Jewish locksmith named Leo who has come to America in search of Alma Merminski, an old love he met during his youth in Europe. These characters are connected by Zvi Litvinoff, a novelist who has published Leo’s writing under his own name by translating it from Yiddish to Spanish. The infinities the novel shares of heightened emotions will be explored as a way of portraying how the author discovers her own self-realization. The fact that Krauss, a young novelist with incredible intellectual veracity, …show more content…
As the reader learns of Charlotte, Alma’s mother, the theme of paralysis and misguided intentions comes to light. Eventually the reader learns that Charlotte is in complete paralysis, she is not moving on from the death of her husband, and can barely get out of bed let alone accomplish daily tasks. Though she is a secondary character in the book, she is nonetheless symbolic of wider thematic considerations. As such, Charlotte can be seen as a representation of how loneliness and despair can turn a person into a lifeless and depressive state. Although, we see her begin this process when she is working in the garden and planting flowers, the notion can be inferred that life and death is a constant cycle of change, metaphorically related to the fact that she is planting flowers, almost as if she is giving up on her own life by planting another. The themes of love, loss, despair and authenticity are therefore extremely contextually relevant to understanding The History of Love. As a result, the reader is left with an overwhelming sense of irony that love, loss and death are necessarily part of the same continuum, that is:
Derricotte’s conclusive paragraph begins with, “My mother helps me. She sends me signs: her African violet bloomed for the first time on my windowsill three years after her death, on the first day of her death month…I love my mother now in ways I could not have loved her when she was alive, fierce, terrifying, unpredictable, mad, shame-inducing, self-involved, relentless, and determined by any means necessary” (53). The timing of her love for her mother became insignificant. It wasn’t about when she finally reached the point of loving her mother but the mere fact that she loved her. The utilization of descriptive writing and the emotional implementation in “Beginning Dialogues” are a couple of ways Derricotte enraptures her readers in this short story. Regardless of a painful past or a traumatic childhood she allows herself to see that love truly conquers
Until one day when she finds a dead mean that had hanged himself, as it states in the passage, “ she noticed a raised mound, a ring, around the rose's root. It was the rotted remains of a noose, a bit of shredding plowline, now blending benignly into the soil. Around an overhanging limb of a great spreading oak clung another piece. Frayed, rotted, bleached, and frazzled--barely there--but spinning restlessly in the breeze. Myop laid down her flowers. And the summer was over.” This shows that when she saw the dead man she ended her prime, or the happiest part of her life when it says “And the summer was over.” This also shows her maturing and caring about the world around her because her seeing the dead man scarred her and made her sad when she was always happy. This ties into defining moments because the moment she saw the dead man, she saw that not every ones life is worth living and that she should be thankful, and that is what defines
Love waxes timeless. It is passionate and forbidden and a true head rush. Marriage, on the other hand, is practical, safe, a ride up the socioeconomic ladder. In "The Other Paris," Mavis Gallant weaves the tale of Carol and Howard, a fictional couple who stand on the verge of a loveless marriage, to symbolize the misguided actions of the men and women in the reality of the 1950s, the story's setting. By employing stereotypical, ignorant, and altogether uninteresting characters, Gallant highlights the distinction between reality and imagination and through the mishaps and lack of passion in their courtship mockingly comments on society?s views of love and marriage.
Her family life is depicted with contradictions of order and chaos, love and animosity, conventionality and avant-garde. Although the underlying story of her father’s dark secret was troubling, it lends itself to a better understanding of the family dynamics and what was normal for her family. The author doesn’t seem to suggest that her father’s behavior was acceptable or even tolerable. However, the ending of this excerpt leaves the reader with an undeniable sense that the author felt a connection to her father even if it wasn’t one that was desirable. This is best understood with her reaction to his suicide when she states, “But his absence resonated retroactively, echoing back through all the time I knew him. Maybe it was the converse of the way amputees feel pain in a missing limb.” (pg. 399)
Louise, the unfortunate spouse of Brently Mallard dies of a supposed “heart disease.” Upon the doctor’s diagnosis, it is the death of a “joy that kills.” This is a paradox of happiness resulting into a dreadful ending. Nevertheless, in reality it is actually the other way around. Of which, is the irony of Louise dying due to her suffering from a massive amount of depression knowing her husband is not dead, but alive. This is the prime example to show how women are unfairly treated. If it is logical enough for a wife to be this jovial about her husband’s mournful state of life then she must be in a marriage of never-ending nightmares. This shows how terribly the wife is being exploited due her gender in the relationship. As a result of a female being treated or perceived in such a manner, she will often times lose herself like the “girl
Stereotypes. Something that many women are subjected to in society and are forced to accept it like it is something that should happen. “What do women want”(Addonizio) examines the stereotypes most women face when wearing certain clothing, and the objectification of women, that is frowned upon but all women secretly want. It points out the objectification and stereotypes that women are subjected to, challenges them, and connects them to everyday life.
Before Mrs. Ames and the mother realize the restrictions of their old lives, their worlds have been full of disillusionment and ignorance. Mrs. Ames, for example, is oppressed by her husband’s silence and the search for love and tenderness from anyone, because she lives each day alone, ignored by her scornful husband. And, as a result of being left companionless, she does not mature, rather she longs for tenderness. In other words, Boyle explains her dysfunctional relationship with her husband, “The mystery and silence of her husband’s mind lay like a chiding finger of her lips. Her eyes were gray for the light had been extinguished in them” (57). That is, Mrs. Ames’ spirit remains oppressed by her husband who treats her as a child, and, in doing so, isolates her from his world.
This statement also emphasises much of Blanche’s own views on sorrow and explains how it has affected her life since she has made the comment from personal experience. To conclude, Tennessee Williams’ dramatic use of death and dying is an overarching theme in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire,’ from which everything about Blanche’s character has formed from. Without the death of Allan, Blanche would not have resorted to prostitution and the brief affairs with strangers, also the deaths of her family have driven Blanche to Stella’s where she is “not wanted” and “ashamed to be”. Therefore these dramatic deaths have lead to the past which comes back to haunt
In the short story, “The Story of an Hour,” author Kate Chopin presents the character of Mrs. Louis Mallard. She is an unhappy woman trapped in her discontented marriage. Unable to assert herself or extricate herself from the relationship, she endures it. The news of the presumed death of her husband comes as a great relief to her, and for a brief moment she experiences the joys of a liberated life from the repressed relationship with her husband. The relief, however, is short lived. The shock of seeing him alive is too much for her bear and she dies. The meaning of life and death take on opposite meaning for Mrs. Mallard in her marriage because she lacked the courage to stand up for herself.
Right from the moment Louise Mallard hears of her husband's death, Kate Chopin dives into a her vivid use of imagery. “When the storm of grief has spent itself” introduces a weather oriented theme (para.3). This imagery depicts a violent and dark setting that denotes death and grief. Her reaction to her husband's death ideally what society would expect. Her acute reaction instantly shows that she is an emotional, demonstrative woman. Even tho...
She would not have grieved over someone she did not love. Even in the heat of her passion, she thinks about her lost love. She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked safe with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. Her love may not have been the greatest love of all time, but it was still love. Marriage was not kind to Mrs. Mallard, her life was dull and not worth living, her face showed the years of repression.
Mrs. Mallard is an ill woman who is “afflicted with heart trouble” and had to be told very carefully by her sister and husband’s friend that her husband had died (1609). Her illness can be concluded to have been brought upon her by her marriage. She was under a great amount of stress from her unwillingness to be a part of the relationship. Before her marriage, she had a youthful glow, but now “there was a dull stare in her eyes” (1610). Being married to Mr. Mallard stifled the joy of life that she once had. When she realizes the implications of her husband’s death, she exclaims “Free! Body and soul free!” (1610). She feels as though a weight has been lifted off her shoulders and instead of grieving for him, she rejoices for herself. His death is seen as the beginn...
Any human has only those experiences and opinions which have been so deeply instilled into their blood that they make desperate choices to keep those things. For instance, in A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche searches for meaning after the death of Allan, her dead love, continually throwing herself into encounters looking to turn on again the “searchlight which had been turned on the world” when she had been with Allan (Williams 115). The searchlight over the world is compared to the intense love she felt in order to highlight their shared brilliance and all-encompassing nature. Blanche feels nothing but love - bewitching, illuminating love. When that love is lost, she tries desperately to find it and bounces to and from the men around her to, as she admits, find rest and comfort in a love she has no hope of finding (Williams 95).
Simone de Beauvoir, the author of the novel The Second Sex, was a writer and a philosopher as well as a political activist and feminist. She was born in 1908 in Paris, France to an upper-middle class family. Although as a child Beauvoir was extremely religious, mostly due to training from her mother as well as from her education, at the age of fourteen she decided that there was no God, and remained an atheist until she died. While attending her postgraduate school she met Jean Paul Sartre who encouraged her to write a book. In 1949 she wrote her most popular book, The Second Sex. This book would become a powerful guide for modern feminism. Before writing this book de Beauvoir did not believe herself to be a feminist. Originally she believed that “women were largely responsible for much of their own situation”. Eventually her views changed and she began to believe that people were in fact products of their upbringing. Simone de Beauvoir died in Paris in 1986 at the age of 78.
Although, I find the ending somewhat predictable, I would use Gordimer’s short story, “A Beneficiary,” to highlight how the author uses figurative language and rhetorical devices to develop characterization. Not only did I enjoy examining the protagonist’s journey to enlightenment, I also appreciated studying how Gordimer utilizes certain figures and strategic devices to bring the deceased mother to life. For instance, Charlotte notes that her mother, Laila “had baptized herself professionally” as an actress since she lied about her age, her name, and her marriage (568), suggesting that she worshipped the superficial and the artificial just like her career. This concept is reinforced as Charlotte and her friends clean out Laila’s apartment and one her carries on about “the