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From first impressions, part of a character is revealed, not much but enough. Morrison strategically places this quote to disclose Sethe’s nurturing instinct and motherly love: “I don’t care what she is. Grown don’t mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What’s that supposed to mean? In my heart it don’t mean a thing” (54). Morrison incorporates this quote to build upon the character Sethe. From a first impression standpoint, Sethe is a loving mother who will sacrifice and always provide what’s best for her children. Yet, her point about her children never growing up in her eyes is quite paradoxical; loving your children and ending one of their lives doesn’t seem to add up. Portraying Sethe as a devoted,
strong, and loving mother is deceiving in comparison to what Sethe has done. By doing so, Morrison establishes a bias -readers begin to synthesize with Sethe. The use of paradox conveys the split reasoning of Sethe: “How if I hadn’t killed her she would have died and that is something I could not bear to happen to her” (236). The motherly love for her children is evident yet her actions speak otherwise. The horrors of slavery have scarred Sethe, and her devotion of protecting her children causes her to act unreasonably. Morrison successfully provides enough characterization for characters to feel empathy towards Sethe yet scold her for her actions.
Ann Rinaldi has written many books for young teenagers, she is an Award winning author who writes stories of American history and makes them become real to the readers. She has written many other books such as A Break with Charity, A Ride into Morning, and Cast two Shadows, etc. She was born in New York City on August 27, 1934. In 1979, at the age of 45, she finished her first book.
-Toni Morrison uses strong diction to resonate the central message that the most unexpected people/places have the deepest meaning in life. In the novel it states,“ In the safe harbor of each other’s company they could afford to abandon the ways of other people and concentrate on their own perceptions of things.” (Morrison, 55) Toni Morrison shows how they were important in helping each other understand the world around them. By the author using the word abandon, she displays how they needed to escape the world when it came to focusing on their relationship. She could have easily used “they left the world” but by using the word abandon it adds more depth to just how powerful they were to one another. Toni Morrison used perceptions to help relate to the powerful bond of their friendship. In the novel, Sula and Nel saw things very different. Sula perceived the world with its imperfections by rebelling against society. Nel perceived the world in a warped sense and felt the need to follow society’s rules. Sula was an unexpected force in Nel’s life, which impacted her view on the world and her future.
seems as if Reuben will not get his smicha and Michael will never be cured.
Sula by Toni Morrison is a compelling novel about a unique, self-confident woman. As in many other books, each secondary character in the story serves as a vehicle to explain the main character. Hannah, Sula's mother, is dominated by the element of air; she is free spirited, frivolous and child-like. On the other hand, the element of fire is prevalent in Sula, who is impulsive, hot-tempered and passionate. Despite the differences between the two, Hannah's lifestyle intrigues and influences her daughter. The effect Hannah has on Sula is reflected in many of her daughter's perspectives and actions. As a result of the ubiquitous presence of fire within her, in contrast to her mother's blithe spirit, Sula carries all of Hannah's immorality and actions to a more extreme level. Both women have promiscuous tendencies, do not have close friendships with women, and become easily irritated by Eva. The difference is that Sula's fiery character leads her to act more cruelly than her mother.
I was torn by Harry’s negative thoughts. Harry (2010) states, “You are beautiful, but if you’re going to hang around and give me trouble, I’d rather you died (p. 4). In addition, she did not see her daughter for the first 24 hours! A mother’s love for her daughter should always be unconditional. Riding along Harry’s roller coaster of emotions, I was sad and mad at first but then I became understanding of her feelings. Harry sets forth the honest truth of how she felt. She asked questions to the doctor regarding Melanie’s intelligence, while coping with her own fears. I understood the things she said and felt because it was her way of coping and expressing how her ideal story of motherhood and how it had to be rewritten. As Harry questions the doctors, she begins to expose herself to the unfamiliar world. She learns about her daughter 's diagnosis and grows as a person as she reflects on her thoughts. Hence, Harry’s growth as a person has left me feeling grateful that she tells her story the way she does. However, gripping on the last few pages, I was saddened and heartbroken to find out that Melanie had passed away at the age of 5. The way Melanie had died brought out my feelings of fear. It rushed through my body reminding me that my inner deepest fear of working with children is coming across death. If anything happened to the child, I would feel responsible and reminisce endlessly
Marilyn Frye, a feminist philosopher, discusses the idea of oppression and how it conforms people into gender roles. She claims that it is based upon membership in a group which leads to shaping, pressing, and molding individuals, both women and men.
In the book Sula by Toni Morrison, Morrison’s ambiguous link between good, evil, and guilt, she is able to show that these terms are relative to each other and often occur mutually. In her comparison of good and evil, Sula states that "Being good to somebody is just like being mean to somebody. Risky. You don't get nothing for it" (145). Good and evil are being compared as if they are equal and that is how the book is structured. For instance, Eva's burning of Plum is a complex conjunction of motherly love and practicality and cannot be described as simply being a good act or a bad one. The killing of Chicken Little is a similarly ambiguous situation from which Sula and Nel's feelings are unclear. Lastly Sula, upon her death bed, questions what it means to be good and suggests that it what may be considered bad could in reality be good. Both in the syncopated style of Morrison's writing and the morally ambiguous portrayal of characters, cause the reader to question morals and think about them on a larger scale.
The difference of color is seen through the eyes, but the formulation of racial judgement and discrimination is developed in the subconscious mind. Toni Morrison’s short story “Recitatif (1983)” explores the racial difference and challenges that both Twyla and Roberta experience. Morrison’s novels such as “Beloved”, “The Bluest Eye”, and her short story “Recitatif” are all centered around the issues and hardships of racism. The first time that Twyla and Roberta met Twyla makes a racial remake or stereotype about the texture and smell of Roberta’s hair. Although they both were in the orphanage because of similar situations, Twyla instantly finds a racial difference. The racial differences between Twyla and Roberta affects their friendship, personal views of each other, and relationship with their husbands.
The men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 were just ordinary men, from a variety of backgrounds, education, and age. It would appear that they were not selected by any force other than random chance. Their backgrounds and upbringing, however, did little to prepare these men for the horrors they were to witness and participate in.
"It is the ultimate gesture of a loving mother. It is the outrageous claim of a slave"(Morrison 1987). These are the words that Toni Morrison used to describe the actions of the central character within the novel, Beloved. That character, Sethe, is presented as a former slave woman who chooses to kill her baby girl rather than allowing her to be exposed to the physically, emotionally, and spiritually oppressive horrors of a life spent in slavery. Sethe's action is indisputable: She has killed her child. Sethe's motivation is not so clearly defined. By killing her "Beloved" child, has Sethe acted out of true love or selfish pride? The fact that Sethe's act is irrational can easily be decided upon. Does Sethe kill her baby girl because she wants to save the baby from slavery or does Sethe end her daughter's life because of a selfish refusal to reenter a life of slavery? By examining the complexities of Sethe's character it can be said that she is a woman who chooses to love her children but not herself. Sethe kills her baby because, in Sethe's mind, her children are the only good and pure part of who she is and must be protected from the cruelty and the "dirtiness" of slavery(Morrison 251). In this respect, her act is that of love for her children. The selfishness of Sethe's act lies in her refusal to accept personal responsibility for her baby's death. Sethe's motivation is dichotomous in that she displays her love by mercifully sparing her daughter from a horrific life, yet Sethe refuses to acknowledge that her show of mercy is also murder. Throughout Beloved, Sethe's character consistently displays the duplistic nature of her actions. Not long after Sethe's reunion with Paul D. she describes her reaction to School Teacher's arrival: "Oh, no. I wasn't going back there[Sweet Home]. I went to jail instead"(Morrison 42). Sethe's words suggest that she has made a moral stand by her refusal to allow herself and her children to be dragged back into the evil of slavery. From the beginning, it is clear that Sethe believes that her actions were morally justified. The peculiarity of her statement lies in her omission of the horrifying fact that her moral stand was based upon the murder of her child. By not even approaching the subject of her daughter's death, it is also made clear that Sethe has detached herself from the act.
Home is about a Korean War veteran named Frank Money who needs to save his sister from dying. The story starts with Frank describing a scene from his childhood with his sister. They were in a field with horses he describes the horses being beautiful and brutal, but on the other side some men were burying a dead African American in a hole. When Frank becomes an adult he is soon committed to a mental hospital after his time in the war. Frank soon gets a letter stating that his sister was in danger and could die if he did not hurry to save her. Then he remembers his family being evicted and not being able to take any possessions. Frank then escapes the bastion of the hospital on his way to save his sister from the mysterious person. On his way Frank Money meets many different people who offer their assistance to him because he is not wealthy. Frank makes his way to Atlanta to continue the search for is sister but is attacked by gang of thugs, who steal his wallet and hit him with a pipe. After trying to find his sister he finds his sister being an experimental patient to Dr. Beau, a doctor who conducted experiments on colored civilians. After Frank saves his sister he takes her to some friends to help her get better from the experiments. While there his sister starts to make a quilt while she got better, which they eventually laid over the man’s bones, who was lynched, when they were kids. They nailed a sign to the tree as a sign of respect showing that someone was buried there beneath the tree. Finally, after nailing the sign, Frank looks at the tree for a while thinking of everything that has happened, then his sister Cee walks over and tells him it’...
Communities shape the way we think about ourselves and the people around us. They are a reflection of the ideas, beliefs and socio-economic realities that we share as a collective whole. Who we interact with and how they react to us can foster a sense of belonging or lead to rejection and isolation. In Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye, we see a community affected by poverty, institutionalized racism, sexual abuse and the influences it has on a little girl named Pecola Breedlove and how it shapes her own self image, as she is constantly reinforced with negative messages about herself and her family everywhere she goes. This eventually leads her to believe that there is something inherently wrong with her, and the only way that it can be fixed, so she can be accepted by anyone, is to have blue eyes. As we follow Pecola through her unfortunate circumstances we learn that without reliable support network, she begins to believe the negativity she feels towards herself and questions her own self worth. How Pecola Breedlove reacts to the messages of a toxic community and how the community reacts to her illustrates the powerful influence it has on her personal development and how Pecola used the community as a mirror in which to view herself.
Having inherited the myth of ugliness and unworthiness, the characters throughout the story, with the exception of the MacTeer family, will not only allow this to happen, but will instill this in their children to be passed on to the next generation. Beauty precedes love, the grownups seem to say, and only a few possess beauty, so they remain unloved and unworthy. Throughout the novel, the convictions of sons and daughters are the same as their fathers and mothers. Their failures and accomplishments are transferred to their children and to future generations.
Toni Morrison In the mid twentieth century, the Civil Rights Movement influenced African-American writers to express their opinions. Most African-American writers of the time discussed racism in America and social injustice. Some authors sought to teach how the institution of slavery affected those who lived through it and African-Americans who were living at the time. One of these writers was the Toni Morrison, the novelist, who intended to teach people about all aspects of African-American life present and past.
Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill is a complicated story. It shows a day in the life of a dysfunctional family. This family is made up of four extremely different personalities. Tyrone is the sympathetic father. Mary is the morphine addicted mother. Jamie is the difficult older son and Edmond is the sick younger son. Everyone in this family has their strengths and weaknesses. In Tyrone’s case his strengths and the weight of his family’s weakness makes him the most sympathetic. Jamie is the opposite. His flaws weigh more than his family’s strengths. The typical reader can easily find Tyrone as the most sympathetic and Jamie as the least sympathetic.