In this passage Mabel compares herself and others to flies struggling for milk in a saucepan. The author uses figurative language to portray the insecurity Mabel feels as well as her desire to fit in with society. “We are all like flies trying to crawl over the edge of the saucer,...” Through the use of a simile, Mabel compares herself, as well as everyone else at the gathering, to flies. This is significant because it allows Mabel to see herself as equal to everyone else. “and repeated the phrase as if she were crossing herself, as if she were trying to find some spell to annul this pain, to make this agony endurable.” This significance is further evidenced by the equalizing thought being compared to the sign of the cross through a simile, …show more content…
“as if she were crossing herself”.
The sign of the cross is sacred to Catholics, just as the thought of being equal and secured is sacred to Mabel. Furthermore, the thought of being an equal “fly” to everyone else is further valued as it is compared to a magic spell, something able to fix Mabel’s problems instantly. “If she could say that over often enough and make herself see the flies, she would become numb, chill, frozen, dumb.” Mabel’s distaste for her own insecurity is shown through her desire to become “numb, chill, frozen, dumb” rather than to continue to feel as she currently does, plagued with self-doubt. “She saw herself like that—she was a fly, but the others were dragonflies, butterflies, beautiful insects, dancing, fluttering, skimming, while she alone dragged herself up out of the saucer.” There is no relief from Mabel’s self-loathing, as her fantasy ultimately fails and she begins to her herself as inferior once more; this is shown through Mabel still being compared to a fly, this time through a metaphor, while others are compared to more spectacular creatures. Mabel is shown to be insecure through her self-comparison …show more content…
to a fly. Throughout this passage Mabel’s character is shown through Woolf’s use of figurative language, which reveals that Mabel cannot view herself as an equal and suffers from great insecurity.
“it made her furious to be treated like a house agent or a messenger boy, to be made use of.” Mabel grows discontent with the conversation she is having as she realizes she is being used for sympathy, rather than being valued as an equal member of high-society capable of conversing properly. This is shown through the simile comparing Mabel to a “house agent or a messenger boy” two low-class positions that are used to serve rather than to be treated as equals. “and all the time she could see little bits of her yellow dress in the round looking-glass which made them all the size of boot-buttons or tadpoles;” The insecurity tied to Mabel’s dress also contributes to Mabel feeling as though she is not an equal, this is shown as Woolf compares the dress to small objects, through metaphors but clearly states the pain Mabel feels from wearing a dress she does not feel comfortable in. This is evidenced in the line,“and it was amazing to think how much humiliation and agony and self-loathing and effort and passionate ups and downs of feeling were contained in a thing the size of a threepenny bit.”, as even the smallest glimpse of the dress makes Mabel feel deeply unequal. “...it was impossible that the black dot, leaning forward, gesticulating, should make the yellow dot, sitting solitary,
self-centred, feel what the black dot was feeling, yet they pretended.” Lastly, Mabel feels unequal because she doesn’t believe that someone more powerful than her would attempt to truly converse with her. The metaphor used defines Mrs. Holoman as a black dot, her dress color, and Mabel as a yellow dot, the color of the dress Mabel hates. Mable has no reason to dislike Mrs. Holoman's dress, therefore, she sees Mrs. Holoman as more confident and worthy than herself.
Scout, the protagonist, is a young girl coming of age in a society trying to shove her into a dress and the role of a gilded daughter. For example, when Scout recalls a conversation with her Aunt Alexandra, a figurehead for society and one of the major female figures in her life, she begins to shine her own light on how to brighten her father’s life in a way that is true to herself. On page 108, Scout comes to terms with the fact that she is defying stereotypes, “I could not possibly be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants. Aunt Alexandra’s vision of my deportment involved playing with small stoves, tea sets, and wearing the Add-A-Pearl necklace she gave me when I was born; furthermore, I should be a ray of sunshine in my father’s lonely life. I suggested that one could be a ray of sunshine in pants just as well, but Aunty said that one had to behave like a sunbeam, that I was born good but had grown progressively worse every year. She hurt my feelings and set my teeth permanently on edge,
In the book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer wrote about Christopher McCandless, a nature lover in search for independence, in a mysterious and hopeful experience. Even though Krakauer tells us McCandless was going to die from the beginning, he still gave him a chance for survival. As a reader I wanted McCandless to survive. In Into the Wild, Krakauer gave McCandless a unique perspective. He was a smart and unique person that wanted to be completely free from society. Krakauer included comments from people that said McCandless was crazy, and his death was his own mistake. However, Krakauer is able to make him seem like a brave person. The connections between other hikers and himself helped in the explanation of McCandless’s rational actions. Krakauer is able to make McCandless look like a normal person, but unique from this generation. In order for Krakauer to make Christopher McCandless not look like a crazy person, but a special person, I will analyze the persuading style that Krakauer used in Into the Wild that made us believe McCandless was a regular young adult.
Samir Boussarhane During the early 20th century in the U.S, most children of the lower and middle class were workers. These children worked long, dangerous shifts that even an adult would find tiresome. On July 22, 1905, at a convention of the National Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia, Florence Kelley gave a famous speech regarding the extraneous child labor of the time. Kelley’s argument was to add laws to help the workers or abolish the practice completely.
During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s the fight for equal and just treatment for both women and children was one of the most historically prominent movements in America. Courageous women everywhere fought, protested and petitioned with the hope that they would achieve equal rights and better treatment for all, especially children. One of these women is known as Florence Kelley. On July 22, 1905, Kelley made her mark on the nation when she delivered a speech before the National American Woman Suffrage Association, raising awareness of the cruel truth of the severity behind child labor through the use of repetition, imagery and oxymorons.
The Letter from Birmingham Jail was written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in April of 1963. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of several civil rights activists who were arrested in Birmingham Alabama, after protesting against racial injustices in Alabama. Dr. King wrote this letter in response to a statement titled A Call for Unity, which was published on Good Friday by eight of his fellow clergymen from Alabama. Dr. King uses his letter to eloquently refute the article. In the letter dr. king uses many vivid logos, ethos, and pathos to get his point across. Dr. King writes things in his letter that if any other person even dared to write the people would consider them crazy.
I chose this word because the tone of the first chapter seems rather dark. We hear stories of the hopes with which the Puritans arrived in the new world; however, these hopes quickly turned dark because the Purtains found that the first buildings they needed to create were a prison, which alludes to the sins they committed; and a cemetery, which contradicts the new life they hoped to create for themselves.
Pollan’s article provides a solid base to the conversation, defining what to do in order to eat healthy. Holding this concept of eating healthy, Joe Pinsker in “Why So Many Rich Kids Come to Enjoy the Taste of Healthier Foods” enters into the conversation and questions the connection of difference in families’ income and how healthy children eat (129-132). He argues that how much families earn largely affect how healthy children eat — income is one of the most important factors preventing people from eating healthy (129-132). In his article, Pinsker utilizes a study done by Caitlin Daniel to illustrate that level of income does affect children’s diet (130). In Daniel’s research, among 75 Boston-area parents, those rich families value children’s healthy diet more than food wasted when children refused to accept those healthier but
In Lord of the Flies, Golding extensively uses of analogy and symbolism like the dead parachutist in Beast from Air to convey the theme of intrinsic human evil through the decay of the character’s innocence and the island itself. In this essay, I will view and explain Golding’s use of specific symbolism to explain the novel’s main themes.
... of hope for rescue and the destruction of their ties to former human society; and the Lord of the Flies, used to represent mankind’s “essential illness”: inherent human evil. Ultimately, Golding’s symbols, simple in appearance yet burdened with the weight of human savagery, violence, and inner darkness, do more than frighten. As these symbols are ingrained into our minds, so, too, is responsibility: the responsibility of recognition, understanding, and action. If we do not take heed of the messages behind Golding’s symbols, then our ignorance may be more than unwise—it may be fatal. For if we do not soon take steps to confront our inner evil face-to-face, we may eventually find ourselves trapped in Golding’s harrowing depiction of human society: one bound only by rules far too fragile that, when broken, lead only to chaos, self-destruction, and total savagery.
Jonathan Kozol revealed the early period’s situation of education in American schools in his article Savage Inequalities. It seems like during that period, the inequality existed everywhere and no one had the ability to change it; however, Kozol tried his best to turn around this situation and keep track of all he saw. In the article, he used rhetorical strategies effectively to describe what he saw in that situation, such as pathos, logos and ethos.
She uses God to avoid and challenge heteronormativity. In almost all aspects of her life she engages in her religion. While her cousins think it is silly to deny a boy and tell them “I am a temple of the Holy Ghost” (O’Connor 238) the child is proud to be able to make this claim. The presence of Christ is a positive influence in the child’s life that fuels her movement away from heteronormative society. Catholicism leads the child to be able to find meaning in herself instead of assigning her worth to how other people, especially men view her. The child is full of faith that she decides rather than being a doctor or engineer, her goal is to be a saint. However, because of her current life situation she decides the only way she can accomplish this is being a
The extensive descriptions of Mrs. Dalloway’s inner thoughts and observations reveals Woolf’s “stream of consciousness” writing style, which emphasizes the complexity of Clarissa’s existential crisis. She also alludes to Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, further revealing her preoccupation with death as she quotes lines from a funeral song. She reads these lines while shopping in the commotion and joy of the streets of London, which juxtaposes with her internal conflicts regarding death. Shakespeare, a motif in the book, represents hope and solace for Mrs. Dalloway, as his lines form Cymbeline talk about the comforts found in death. From the beginning of the book, Mrs. Dalloway has shown a fear for death and experiences multiple existential crises, so her connection with Shakespeare is her way of dealing with the horrors of death. The multiple layers to this passage, including the irony, juxtaposition, and allusion, reveal Woolf’s complex writing style, which demonstrates that death is constantly present in people’s minds, affecting their everyday
... more. All of these contrasts affirm Woolf's contention: no one can or should ever be denoted as someone with only dominant characteristic, because no one remains unvarying. Yet this novel isn't just about Mrs. Dalloway or her complex nature, but rather of Woolf's realization that as Mrs. Dalloway is multi-dimensional, every human is a mixture of his/her concepts, memories, emotions; still, that same human being leaves behind as many different impressions as there are people who associate with that person. Furthermore, Woolf evokes the following question: If everyone's impression of another is just a fragment of the whole, what is the "real world" like, where everyone's consummate nature is in view? Only then does one realize that such a thing, a consummate nature, doesn't exist, and with the human personality, what you see at this very instant is what you get.
Clarissa's relationships with other females in Mrs. Dalloway offer great insight into her personality. Additionally, Woolf's decision to focus at length on Sally Seton, Millicent Bruton, Ellie Henderson, and Doris Kilman allows the reader to see how women relate to one another in extremely different ways: sometimes drawing upon one another for things they cannot get from men; other times, turning on one another out of jealousy and insecurity. Although Mrs. Dalloway is far from the most healthy or positive literary portrayal of women, Woolf presents an excellent exploration of female relationships.
Signs of discomfort in her life in general rather than with the dress only are evident. It is evident that the dress may have had no problem but by having low self-esteem may be the main cause of Mabel discomfort. She reveals that at a young age she hoped to marry ‘’ some hero like Sir Henry Larence, some empire builder’’( Woolf 508)-- a rich individual-- and live in such place as ‘’ Her dream of living in India’’( Woofl 508) in a lovely mansion and have everything she wished. The reason for being ashamed is not because of the dress but because she is unable to connect with the people in the party. Thus, the assumption that the dress is the main cause of discomfort are also withdrawn the questions about the incompetence of Miss Milan the dress maker are by passed. The dress could not be the cause of Mabel feeling alienated rather it is due to unstable emotions. Moreover, the aspect of the social class is evident where she thinks of how she never had adequate money even when growing up. She reveals,’’ It was being one if a family of ten; never having money enough, always skimping.’’( Woolf 507). She feels that she is poor, hence unqualified to be associating with such rich people. She is married to a poor man and lives in a small house, unlike the others who she refers as ‘’butterflies’’ and ‘’dragonflies’’ dancing in the party (Woolf 504). She finds herself as an unlucky’’ fly’’ that is in the wrong place ( Woolf