Everyone's future depends on their self-belief and how positively they look at the events that occur in their life. This is portrayed through Suzanne Buffam’s “Trying” and Alix Ohlin’s novel Inside. The speaker and Anne both face inner conflicts; the speaker gains faith in herself which helps her overcome her conflict and have a peaceful state of mind, whereas Anne loses faith in herself which leads to her failure in overcoming her conflict and losing her confidence. The speaker’s reassuring tone shows her peace of mind contrary to which Anne’s melancholic tone which shows her low self-esteem. Furthermore, the speaker’s use of allusion shows her inner peace which is the result of gaining faith in herself, whereas Anne’s use of diction shows the demolition of her self-esteem. Both the poem, and the novel show the importance of having faith in oneself; however the poem’s speaker gains faith through her struggles which leads to her peace of mind, and the novel’s character Anne loses her faith which results in the degradation of her self-esteem. The speaker and Anne both struggle with an inner conflict; the speaker’s faith in herself helps her overcome her conflict, whereas Anne’s loss of faith does not let her overcome her conflict. The speaker calls her husband, “cooperative” (Buffam), but then she says, “And yet sometimes I worry that it is his fault. That either he is not trying hard enough, or that he is trying too hard …” (Buffam). It is evident from this that the speaker’s inner conflict is that she is over thinking her problems and trying too hard to get pregnant. However, she gains faith in herself and understands her conflict as she says, “…Aristotle points out that it is exclusively the irrational upon which the wonderful ... ... middle of paper ... ...thinks she has no dignity as she is unable to become the perfect daughter her parents expect her to be. She thinks negatively only because she loses faith in herself. Anne loses her self-worth as she believes, “wholeheartedly in her shortcoming” (Ohlin 19). This shows that Anne believes that she deserved to be raped and she is worthless. Anne loses her faith and as a result she blames herself for the sexual assault. Anne’s negative tone shows degradation of her self- esteem. Contrary to the speaker who gains faith and achieves inner peace, Anne loses faith in herself and ends up losing her self-esteem. Works Cited Buffam, Suzanne. "Trying." The irrationalist. Toronto: Anansi Press, 2010. 63-67. Print. Ohlin, Alix. Inside. Toronto: Anansi Press, 2012. Print.
Previously, the narrator has intimated, “She had all her life long been accustomed to harbor thoughts and emotions which never voiced themselves. They had never taken the form of struggles. They belonged to her and were her own.” Her thoughts and emotions engulf her, but she does not “struggle” with them. They “belonged to her and were her own.” She does not have to share them with anyone; conversely, she must share her life and her money with her husband and children and with the many social organizations and functions her role demands.
Everyone has once been someone that they aren’t necessarily ashamed of, but something they aren’t anymore. When you’re in school, everyone is different; between the popular kids, the jocks, the cheerleader, the dorks, the Goths, and all the other “types” of people. In “Her Kind,” Anne Sexton shows that she has been a lot of different women, and she is not them now. In this paper we will be diving into the meanings behind the displaced “I,” the tone and reparation, and who Anne Sexton really is and how that affects what she is trying to let people see through this poem.
When individuals face obstacles in life, there is often two ways to respond to those hardships: some people choose to escape from the reality and live in an illusive world. Others choose to fight against the adversities and find a solution to solve the problems. These two ways may lead the individuals to a whole new perception. Those people who decide to escape may find themselves trapped into a worse or even disastrous situation and eventually lose all of their perceptions and hops to the world, and those who choose to fight against the obstacles may find themselves a good solution to the tragic world and turn their hopelessness into hopes. Margaret Laurence in her short story Horses of the Night discusses the idea of how individual’s responses
I chose to start this paper by quoting an entire poem of Anne Sexton's. Why? Because no one told the story of Anne Sexton's life as often or as well as Anne Sexton herself. Over and over she wrote, recounted, and recast her struggles with madness, her love affairs, her joys and griefs in parenting, and her religious quests. For example, "Rowing" touches upon the need for Anne to tell stories about herself, her longing for connection with others, her mental problems, and her searching for God - one could not ask for a better introduction to the world of Anne Sexton.
In the article Daydreams of What You’d Rather Be by Lance Morrow; a Harvard graduate who is a contributor to Time, proposes the idea that there is a distinct relationship in-between the self and the “anti-self”. He exposes this idea throughout by using different examples that involve numerous people, and also by using different comparisons to make his writing more relatable and more easily understood. The methods that Morrow uses to support the claims that he is making and to help uncover that message that is being emphasized in the article are essential to the meaning and the understanding. In Daydreams of What You’d Rather Be, Lance Morrow validates his main idea that underneath every person there is an “anti-self” that is just begging to be let out; by using examples of different people and situations, but also by using different comparisons and going as far as to explaining his true thoughts on this person that everyone has inside of them.
In the second stanza, Piercy describes the girl as healthy, intelligent, and strong (7-8). Yet these positive equalities alone, could not keep people from criticizing her, so the girl feels inferior. “She went to and fro apologizing,” which demonstrates her collapse of confidence with the people she is surrounded with, who kept putting her down (10). She gives in to the hurtful things people say about her: “Everyone [kept] seeing a fat nose on thick legs” (11). The girl thus lets people push her in the direction of society’s standard of beauty, instead of affirming her own unique beauty.
...al to peers, the world, and even one’s self. If one lies about their feeling towards another person, there is chance that person can find out. If they find out, he or she will be extremely angry and there is a chance that the friendship will be in ruins. Lying can ruin the world, as seen by the omission of the goddess Lilith and stereotypes. Finally, excessive lying can lead to a decreased self-value. Eventually you will begin to delude yourself, and find it nearly impossible to escape the never-ending cycle of lies. Ericsson incorporates these feelings of little to no self-value in the last section of her essay when she speaks of delusion and her conclusion. Her main argument is that little lies can turn into large lies, and can cause a sort of cultural cancer. She appeals to the audience through the use of self-worth in an effort to further appeal to her audience.
The daughter alludes to an idea that her mother was also judged harshly and made to feel ashamed. By the daughters ability to see through her mothers flaws and recognize that she was as wounded as the child was, there is sense of freedom for both when the daughter find her true self. Line such as “your nightmare of weakness,” and I learned from you to define myself through your denials,” present the idea that the mother was never able to defeat those that held her captive or she denied her chance to break free. The daughter moments of personal epiphany is a victory with the mother because it breaks a chain of self-loathing or hatred. There is pride and love for the women they truly were and is to be celebrated for mother and daughter.
she was pretty and that was everything” (225). This captivation with herself along with the constant looking in the mirrors and thinking her mother was only pestering her all the time because her mother’s own good looks were long gone by now (225) shows a sign of immaturity because she believes everything revolves around whether or not someo...
In the story “Two Kinds”, the author, Amy Tan, intends to make reader think of the meaning behind the story. She doesn’t speak out as an analyzer to illustrate what is the real problem between her and her mother. Instead, she uses her own point of view as a narrator to state what she has experienced and what she feels in her mind all along the story. She has not judged what is right or wrong based on her opinion. Instead of giving instruction of how to solve a family issue, the author chooses to write a narrative diary containing her true feeling toward events during her childhood, which offers reader not only a clear account, but insight on how the narrator feels frustrated due to failing her mother’s expectations which leads to a large conflict between the narrator and her mother.
The Literary theme that has captivated my interest and has moved me to research and understand the content which it describes or analyze , would be The Ambition of Self improvement. This theme can be related with psychoanalytic criticism. The story that has inspired me to study this theme comes from a short fiction story written by Amy Tan, named “Two Kinds”. This story has primary conflict between mother and daughter, with self improvement being the main theme identified in the text. Conflict that emerges between parents and children are still common factors current in society today. Personal experiences readers have had growing up can ignite an interest for readers to seek understanding of self improvement and the factors of Psychoanalytic criticism that adopt in them.
“Hope and fear are inseparable. There is no hope without fear, nor any fear without hope” (François de la Rochefoucauld). One of the many defining qualities of human existence is the ability to experience emotions. Among them, hope and fear may be two of the most commanding. The balance of the two and the influence they have on a person, as well as each other, is imperative to one’s personality, behavior, resolutions. Authors use the contrast of hope and fear to create a character out of thin air. By applying these to emotions to a flat character, he or she is sculpted into a complexly depicted person. Both Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Sandra Cisneros use this technique to create their main characters. The narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper and
The poem "Her Kind" by Anne Sexton displays an aspect of the author’s life in a more emotional state. In the poem Sexton describes her journey of life as a woman; she remembers all the hardships she has been challenged with and emphasizes that her path through life was not all in sunshine. Throughout, the poem she uses incredible language to describe her hardships that she faced. She overall connects this to the fact that she is a woman. Anne is not angry at the fact that she has to face all the hardships as a woman but instead agrees that she is a brave woman. Although, her journey through life has made her feel constantly criticized as well as an outcast in the female world, she believed that she is just one of a kind.
Rejection and denial of one’s situation often hinders improvement. Conversely, acceptance allows improvement to occur; this is demonstrated by Rukmani, the protagonist of Kamala Markandaya’s novel, Nectar in a Sieve, who survives a stream of misfortunes by accepting, rather than denying, her situation. When she accepts misfortune as having occurred, she is able to seek for improvement. Through Rukmani’s plight and struggles, it is shown that in order to survive through periods of struggle and hardship, one must accept one’s situation to be able to improve from it.
The persuasive attempts in both literary works produce different results. The effectiveness of the mother’s guidance to her daughter is questioned since the girl cannot recognize the essence of her mother’s lesson. Despite that, the mother’s beneficial instruction serves as a standard for the daughter to reflect her future behaviors in order to live up to the community’s expectations. On the other hand, Anne’s value of candid expression and lasting relationship dissuades her from obliging to her family’s meaningless duty to place her love and interest above to experience fulfillment in life.