Can we Break Traditions? The essay “ Stone Soup” by Barbara Kingsolver and the essay “Once More to the Lake” by E. B White have a multifold of comparisons and a multifarious differences. In “Stone Soup” the fundamental issue is explaining that broken families are not actually broken. In “Once More to the Lake” the root of the story is that the father wants to carry on the tradition with his son that he had as a child on the lake. “A tradition is a belief or behavior passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past”(Tradition). Although White and his son are exceedingly close, unlike Kingsolver’s family, they are both families and they both love each other to a great extent. …show more content…
Most readers can agree that family is one of the important components in life. Family is important in “Once More to the Lake” due to the bond between the father and son, as they are extremely close. In “Stone Soup” family is important, taking into consideration no family is broken and no family is better than another. Each family functions in its own perfect way; furthermore, they do not need to change. One similarity in these stories is love, which is demonstrated frequently throughout each story. Love in “Stone Stoup” is shown by families loving and caring for each other as a family should. In “Once more to the Lake” love is the bond between a father and a son. Love is the underlying base of everything. Without love you have nothing. Most readers can presume that everything begins and ends with love and requires love to make it work. Families need love to survive, relationships need love to last, friendships need love to endure. The most important way these stories are alike is by the traditions that are handed down from one generation to the next. Traditions can be little things from secrets your parents tell you to significant things such as Thanksgiving. “Once More to the Lake” includes a tradition of father and son enjoying their summer at the lake. “Stone Soup” includes a tradition of people thinking that marriages must last and that blended families are not family; Which most readers do not agree
In the novel Waterlily by Ella Cara Deloria, kinship plays a key role in the depiction of Dakota society in the novel. Throughout the novel, kinship is instrumental in the development of community ties and familial relations throughout Dakota society. With her depiction of kinship roles and obligations, Deloria argues that kinship brings honor and interconnectedness between the members of society. Through her portrayal of Waterlily’s communities ties, her view of kinship practices is strengthened through her illustration of the Dakota civilization’s view that kinship practices help extend graciousness throughout their community and create bonds that last throughout generations.
When the narrator sees the image of the man and the woman at the beach, looking “through the triangle formed by the woman’s tanned knee, calf, and thigh,” she “saw the calm, sleeping waters of the ocean. My mother was out there somewhere. My father had said so” (le 6). Here, the power of the water is highlighted as this occurrence shows the significance of the ocean as both a connection between the Vietnamese refugees and their homeland, as well as a subjective construction of families and family experiences. It is in the water that families are created by experiences, not by blood. _____ Brogan argues “families do not simply tell stories; stories create families” (18). The four uncles became family due to sharing the “boat people” experience. The water in this instance represents family and starting a new life in America. The image is also seen as indicative of the pejorative aspects of water – the ocean separates these refugees from the narrator’s mother and their homeland. The ocean separates the refugees from the narrator’s mother and their homeland, but also creates a sense of unity among the
When two siblings are born together, and are close in age, many people wonder whether they will be the same or different altogether. A “River Runs through it” shows two brothers who grew up in the same household, and grew up loving to do the same activity fly fishing. Both brothers were raised in a very strict presbyterian household. Norman is the older brother, and he is much more responsible and family orientated. Paul is the irresponsible younger brother; Paul as an adult was not at home much anymore. Both brothers were loved equally as children, but how they view and use love is what separates them. Paul and Norman differ in behavior and character.
Religion and tradition are two ways that families come together. However in Norman Maclean’s novella, A River Runs Through It, the Maclean family’s devotion to their Presbyterian religion and their tradition of fly-fishing is what undeniably brought the family together. Under the father’s strict Presbyterian values, his sons, Norman and Paul used fly-fishing as the link that brought them closer together and helped them bond with their father on a different level. The family’s hobby of fly-fishing was started just for fun. It was a sport that was taken up every Sunday after church to take their minds off of the worries in life. After a while, going fly-fishing every Sunday turned into a tradition and soon a learning experience for the father and his two sons. The sport brought the men of the family together and it was an activity that gave them structure in their lives. It was used as a guideline as to how to handle different situations and how to let go of the worries of life for a day and just relax. It is clear to say that fishing has a big meaning to the member of the Maclean family, but fishing held a meaning to each person in that family.
Within the essay “Once More to the Lake”, E.B. notes that “I bought myself a couple of bass hooks… returned to the lake… to revisit old haunts… When the others went swimming my son said he was going in… As he buckled the swollen belt, suddenly my groin left the chill of death (White 464). The essay “Once More to the Lake” brings a significant amount of attention towards the author’s attempt to secure personal satisfaction. It becomes quite obvious in the first few paragraphs, that the main character is on this vacation with his son, to recreate the careless feeling he use to have while vacationing with his dad as a child. Even though E.B. does not come out clearly and say it, the author is chasing some type of nostalgic feeling he clearly needs to feel better about life. On each page, White uses comparison and contrast to explain to the reader how the trip resembles the one he use to experience with his dad. By the end of the reading, the father begins to realize his vacation trip with his son will never be the same as the one he has dreamt about. He is no longer a child who can only notice the positive components of life. At this point, the father is an adult who will never have the innocence he once clung too. It takes some reflection for him to finally realize his place as a father in the situation. Comparison and contrast displays the idea that even though everything may look the same, it does not mean it feels the same. This mode rhetoric reflects back to the theme at the end of essay, as it concludes the author’s failed attempt to find some satisfaction from the
The stories “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, are different in many ways, but are also similar. “I Stand Here Ironing” and “Everyday Use” both focus on the relationships of the mother and daughter, and on the sibling’s relationships with each other. Emily from “I Stand Here Ironing” and Maggie from “Everyday Use” have different relationships with their mothers, but have similar relationships with their sisters. Although the stories are similar in that Emily and Maggie are both distant from their sisters, they differ in that the mother is distant from Emily in “I Stand Here Ironing,” while the mother is close to Maggie in “Everyday Use.”
Family bonds are very important which can determine the ability for a family to get along. They can be between a mother and son, a father and son, or even a whole entire family itself. To some people anything can happen between them and their family relationship and they will get over it, but to others they may hold resentment. Throughout the poems Those Winter Sundays, My Papa’s Waltz, and The Ballad of Birmingham family bonds are tested greatly. In Those Winter Sundays the relationship being shown is between the father and son, with the way the son treats his father. My Papa’s Waltz shows the relationship between a father and son as well, but the son is being beaten by his father. In The Ballad of Birmingham the relationship shown is between
Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel The Road displays different concepts of nuclear and non-nuclear families throughout the novel. In The Road the reader is introduced to different types of individuals and non-nuclear families and how they succeed in a post-apocalyptic world. Nuclear families are what many consider to be a traditional family, consisting of a mother, father, and children while non-nuclear families are families that are considered untraditional. However, when a traditional family is introduced the reader sees the failures of nuclear families rather than their success while non-nuclear families appear to be more likely to succeed in the sense of survival. Incidents
And choose wrong?” (P.98). From reading this, I feel that the community was able to control problems such as divorce, rape, teen pregnancy, and AIDS. They all are given a life that is predictable, orderly and painless. Mostly, they have no memory or experience. In reality, we learn from our mistakes to be better each day. Experience is the best teacher in the world; unless one goes through sorrow, he or she will never know how it feels. “Warmth, Jonas replied and happiness. And let me think. Family, that it was a celebration of some sort, a holiday. And something else I can’t get the word for it. Jonas hesitated; I certainly liked the memory, though. I couldn’t quite get the word for the whole feeling of it, The Giver told him the feeling that was so strong in the room is love” (P.125). Family in the novel is described as a group of people that have a unit or bond that they share each day together.
In “Once More to the Lake,” E.B. White expresses a sense of wonder when he revisits a place that has significant memories. Upon revisiting the lake he once knew so well, White realizes that even though things in his life have changed, namely he is now the father returning with his son, the lake still remains the same. Physically being back at the lake, White faces an internal process of comparing his memory of the lake as a child, to his experience with his son. Throughout this reflection, White efficiently uses imagery, repetition, and tone to enhance his essay.
Family dynamics are patterns in the relationships between family members. Every family has its own dynamics and there are very different from one another because of the many aspects that influence them such as the numbers of members in the family, the personalities of the individuals, the cultural background, the economic status, values, and personal family experiences. This paper will analyze the two different relationship patterns found in the poem “Elegy for My Father, Who Is Not Dead,” by Andrew Hudgins and in the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker. By interpreting those two sources through Freud’s concept of family, the family environment and the relationships between the members will be analyzed to illustrate the ways family dynamics
The author uses imagery, contrasting diction, tones, and symbols in the poem to show two very different sides of the parent-child relationship. The poem’s theme is that even though parents and teenagers may have their disagreements, there is still an underlying love that binds the family together and helps them bridge their gap that is between them.
The relationship between a father and his son can be articulated as without a doubt the most significant relationship that a man can have throughout the duration of his life. To a further extent the relationship between a father and a son can be more than just a simple companionship. Just like a clown fish and a sea anemone, both father and son will rely on each other in order to survive the struggles of their everyday lives. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Gabriele Muccino’s The Pursuit of Happyness both depict a story between a father and son using each other as a means of survival when faced with adversity. When placed in a tough situation father and son must create a symbiotic relationship in order to survive. Upon the duo of father and son can creating a symbiotic relationship, it will result in a mutual dependency on each other. This theme of paternal love is omnipresent given the bond between the two characters.
Ones early year life experiences play a significant role as to how relationships are formed among children and their parents. In the case of J. Baldwin's “Notes of a Native Son” and O. Pamuc's “My Father's suitcase” stories, the focus is based on a father and son relationship. Moreover, it is the development of such relationships that has an enormous influence on how a child is raised and the way they see the world that they live in. In both stories the authors reflect upon experiences they had after their fathers’ death. Even though, there are both differences and similarities in these stories, it is obvious to discover differences in a father and son relationship. However, it is interesting to find that similarities exist among these stories.
...e dysfunctional families we are all familiar with -- the overcrowded, meddling, abusive, alcoholic, substance controlled individuals that can make family life miserable and destroy the self esteem of the children they control. These families become encapsulated unable to function within the norm of the general population. Their children face the same trouble dealing with peers and finding their place in the world – because they haven’t been given the tools with which to work out their problems within their own family much less the rest of the world. In essence, it does take a village to raise a child – but it also helps if all of the tribe members have the child’s best interest at heart.