Granny Dan Written By Danielle Steel, 1999, Delacorte Press (fiction, historical) I came upon this book one day while rifling through my mother’s yawn-inducing adult paperbacks, due to a lack of recent visits to the library. They were the kind of books that are thick, fine print, and usually about some unhappy beautiful heroine who finds true love through a turbulent 700 pages. Then I came across Granny Dan. It was hardcover, a mere 223 pages, and had no close-up shot of a gun, or broken glass, or some other imagery in that vein. So, I did the obvious thing, I opened it up and began to read. Granny Dan was a magical grandmother, who enjoyed roller skating in her kitchen, singing to her family in Russian, and mostly just loving her family in her own little ways. But when she passed away, no one knew anything about her past, which she’d spoken little of. When cleaning out her house after her death, her granddaughter is sent a small brown box, containing all the secrets of Granny Dan’s life, secrets just bursting to be understood. The box contained very few things, a pair of satin toe ballet shoes, a gold locket, and letters tied together. Granny Dan suddenly becomes more than just an endearing grandmother, she becomes Danina Petroskova, the great ballerina. Learning more of Danina’s past, her granddaughter slowly begins to unravel the mystery surrounding her life. As a young girl, Danina’s father and brothers gave her up to a ballet school in St. Petersburg, Russia, because so many men would not know how to raise the motherless girl. For years, Danina devoted her life to ballet, she did not know the outside world. While other girls fell in love and began to ruin their focus for training, Danina only ate, slept, and danced, it was a monastic life, enduring gruelling hours of training with her teacher, Madame Markova. By the age of seventeen, Danina was a prima, and from her performances, she was soon recognized by the Czar and Czarina, members of the royal family. As time went on, she became a favourite of the Imperial family, especially the sickly Czarevitch, Alexei. (The Czar is basically the equivalent of the king, the Czarina, the queen, and the Czarevitch, the prince. Alexei’s family, the Imperial family, were real) Many shattering events occur to Danina, from losing precious brothers to war, to falling in love with Alexei’s (the Czarevitch) doctor, Nikolai Obrajensky.
People become inspired from all sorts of unique things from a play or a quote to a book of poems. Julia Alvarez’s “On Not Shoplifting Louise Bogan’s The Blue Estuaries” conveys the speaker’s discoveries and the passion and inspiration they created through the use of tone, imagery, similes, and alliteration.
One of her earliest memories came from when she was three years old. Jeannette had to go to the hospital because she burned herself cooking hot dogs. Her parents didn’t like hospitals, so for that reason after a few weeks they came and took her away. Jeannette and her family were constantly moving from place to place, sometimes staying no more than one night somewhere. Her father always lied to them saying that they had to keep moving because he was wanted by the FBI. Jeannette’s mother never took much interest in Jeannette or her siblings, because the mother didn’t want them and thought that they were bothersome and in the way.
Porter, Katherine Anne. “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.” Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Fort Worth: Harcourt, 2000.
Although this story is told in the third person, the reader’s eyes are strictly controlled by the meddling, ever-involved grandmother. She is never given a name; she is just a generic grandmother; she could belong to anyone. O’Connor portrays her as simply annoying, a thorn in her son’s side. As the little girl June Star rudely puts it, “She has to go everywhere we go. She wouldn’t stay at home to be queen for a day” (117-118). As June Star demonstrates, the family treats the grandmother with great reproach. Even as she is driving them all crazy with her constant comments and old-fashioned attitude, the reader is made to feel sorry for her. It is this constant stream of confliction that keeps the story boiling, and eventually overflows into the shocking conclusion. Of course the grandmother meant no harm, but who can help but to blame her? O’Connor puts her readers into a fit of rage as “the horrible thought” comes to the grandmother, “that the house she had remembered so vividly was not in Georgia but in Tennessee” (125).
influence all her life and struggles to accept her true identity. Through the story you can
Anna Pavlova perfected a new art form. Her passion and dedication to ballet impacted Russia’s culture and the direction in this specific art. Pavlova was recognized as the leading artist for both Imperial Russian Ballet and Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev while her best ballet performances included the Birth of a Dying Swan and The Dragonfly. Anna impacted Russian ballet but it originated in Russia by Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich and Peter the Great which brought this exquisite art to their country while others played an integral part to make this art spectacular. Pavlova shared her incredible talent and today ballet plays an active and important role in Russia.
Granny seems to be bitter about somethings, but not about the life and love she had with her husband. Granny says, “I wouldn’t exchange my husband for anybody except St. Micheal himself.” (Porter, 210) Though not ready for death, “I’m not going, Cornelia. I’m taken by surprise,” (Porter, 270) she seems to have a purpose brought by love even in death. She had a loved one that she wanted to go see. “Granny made the long journey outward, looking for Hapsy.”(Porter, 270) Her loving, though full of loss, seems a prime example of what it means to be a
Anna Sergeyevna is a young woman alone on vacation with her dog. We know she is married but the author doesn’t go into her character a great deal, at least not to the extent of Dmitri. Perhaps it’s not important.
The Romanov family story is one that ends in tragedy and mystery. The Romanov dynasty ruled Russia for over 300 years coming to an end with Nicholas II. The book The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, & The Fall of Imperial Russia, written by Candace Fleming, tells the story of Tsar Nicholas II of how he came to become the Tsar and fell trying to protect his family. Fleming tells the story of young Nicholas coming to power when his father, Alexander III, died and how ill-prepared Nicholas was to rule due to his father’s inferior teaching skills. The story goes on to Nicholas meeting his future wife, Alexandra, and how they had four daughters, Olga, Tatiana, Marie and Anastasia. With each daughter came a disappointment of not having an heir
The memoir gives a unique perspective of the noblewoman in this period of Russian society. A male-centered society made it difficult for women to shape and control their lives, however it was possible through means of gaining respect. The society respected woman who had a virtuous demeanor. Especially, those who lived with an immoral spouse and still were able to show virtuous characteristics. Anna is able to gain the respect of people higher in authority than her husband receiving special treatment for various requests. Through her marriage, she recognizes that her husband has rights that she doesn’t have in shaping and controlling her life privately and especially publicly. This society causes for women to depend on men completely.
... destroy and reinstate the bonds of family and Russian nationalism. Turgenev explores hoe this generational divide interacts with the division among classes and how the powers of the aristocracy affects the younger generation and feminine identity. Throught these interactions the power of love as redemption is seen in the relationship between Arkady and Katya as well as Anna and Bazarov. The women in Fathers and Sons symbolize the diversity found within the same class and generational margins these women challenge the men they encounter and cease power over their relationships. The struggle for power, between the sexes is dependent upon the roles and social standings of the perspective character. The female characters whether aristocratic or dependent, “mothers” or “daughters” find power in their gender and utilize their womanly intellect to find eventual resolve.
In every rags to riches story, the protagonist eventually must decide whether it is better to continue to associate with impoverished loved ones from the past, or whether he or she should instead abandon former relationships and enjoy all that the life of fame and fortune has to offer. Anton Chekhov gives his readers a snapshot of a young woman in such a scenario in his short story Anna Round the Neck. While this story certainly gives a glimpse of the social climate in Russia during the nineteenth century, its primary focus is the transformation of Anyuta (Anna) Leontyich from a meek, formerly impoverished newlywed into a free-spirited, self-confident noblewoman. Throughout the story, the reader is drawn to pity Anna’s situation, but at the
...ey have surrounded her with. She longs for a deeper connection with her past, but she realizes this is not to be, at least not as far as her family is concerned. She must adhere to the role of the loyal daughter as it has been established through many generations, and strive not to shame the family as her aunt did many years ago.
Another new family - a union of Natasha and Pierre Bezukhov . Each of them is a special person , but to make concessions to each other , as a result , they form a harmonious family . In the epilogue to the example of the family relationship of history can be traced to the relationship between individuals . After the war of 1812 in Russia arose a different level of communication between people , erased many estates border that led to the creation of new , more complex families.
At the death of her mother, a rich old lady takes her to her home and brings her up. The widow of the cobbler gave Karen a pair of red shoes, which she wore for the first time at her mother’s funeral. The old lady who adopted Karen disliked, the red shoes greatly because of Karen’s obsession with them and so she burnt them. Then Karen saw the princess wearing beautiful red shoes. Her love for these shoes got re-ignited.