It is often people establish judgments of others based on a fragile perspective that will probably change once they actually get to know them. In Lucy Maude Montgomery's short story "A Fortunate Mistake", the Wallace sisters discover this when they thought Florrie Hamilton did not fit with them, only to find out that she is actually quite the charming girl. Their change of perspective is evident in Nan's impression of Florrie after her visit, and in Miss Braxton's girls' reactions after witnessing the blooming friendship, between Florrie and the Wallace sisters. In my experience, I have also naively based my opinions of others on what people had to say about them, which proved to be a foolish mistake that I no longer made. Although one may not be able to help but base judgments and opinions on limited perspective, it is through widening perspectives that an individual can reach a better understanding of those around. …show more content…
Nan’s dreaded visit from Florrie is “a fortunate mistake” that results in their friendship.
When Maude accidently invites Florrie to visit, Nan is flustered thinking the visit will be uncomfortably awkward, because from her perspective; Florrie “is so quiet and shy.” That perspective changes when Nan and Florrie spend the afternoon together. Nan soon realizes that Florrie is actually “so bright and witty when she thaws out.” This indicates Nan’s fresh understanding of Florrie once her perspective changed. The fact that Florrie “didn’t seem like the same girl at all.” proves that there is more to individuals than a flimsy first
impression. The Braxton’s girls’ perspective of Florrie change after observing her friendship with the Wallace sisters, causing them to reconsider their actions toward her. Despite Florrie’s actual personality, the girls get the impression that she is “dull and mopy”. It is only after her friendship with the Nan and Maude that they thought: “If the Wallace girls liked her, there must be something in the girl more than was at first thought.” With a newfound perspective, the Braxton’s girls approach Florrie and discover what Nan and Maude discovered, “that Florrie was full of fun and an all-round good companion when drawn out of her diffidence.” The Wallace girls’ change of perspective was the push the Braxton’s girls needed to change their own perspective. Similarly, I used to base my opinions of people through tinted perspective. I did not bother to change said perspective because I did not think it would change my opinions. This caused me to be confused when deciding my beliefs and values because it would always seem as if the picture is too foggy for me to set judgments. That taught me to allow myself to be open-minded and to widen my perspective regarding other people and issues in general. It is only then that I reached a better understanding of those around me and a clear picture of where my beliefs and values lie. Most people would agree that first impressions always change. It would be foolish to hold on to those impressions instead of keeping a wide perspective. As it is shown with the Wallace sisters and the Braxton’s girls, a wide perspective gained them a lovely friend. It also helped me reach a better understanding of different life issues and people. Although it cannot be helped sometimes, people must understand that basing judgments is best done with a clear wide perspective, than a fragile tinted one.
The Film, Harold and Maude, which was released in the year 1971, follows a 20 year old boy, Harold, with a narrow view on life. He spends his time attending funerals of people he does not know and faking suicides in attempts for his mother’s attention. She however finds his actions immature and foolish, thus showing the strain on their relationship. One day however, at a random funeral, Harold meets Maude, a 79 year old women with a zest for life. She is fun-loving and happy at all times. Their friendship grows as Harold’s mother simultaneously tries to find him a wife. Harold soon develops an intimate love for Maude that she reciprocates. Harold’s spirits are lifted and he breaks from his unhappy existence by leaving his mother to marry Maude.
Frances O'Grady, the first woman to be General Secretary of the Trades Union of the UK once said "You just wish sometimes that people would treat you like a human being rather than seeing your gender first and who you are second." To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee was about how evil human behavior can change people for the worse in many different cases for example Boo Radley and Tom Robinson. Both were hurt by the evil doings of others around them. Boo by his own father and Tom by the Ewells and their supporters. Scout and Jem's father Atticus was a young black man named Tom Robinson's lawyer in the trial after he was falsely accused by the Ewells who said the he raped 19 year old Mayella Ewell. Sadly he was charged with rape and sentenced
Identity is something every human quests for. Individuals tend to manipulate views, ideas, and prerogative. Janie's identity became clay in her family and friends hands. Most noteworthy was Janie's grandmother, Nanny. Janie blossomed into a young woman with an open mind and embryonic perspective on life. Being a young, willing, and full of life, Janie made the "fatal mistake" of becoming involved in the follies of an infatuation with the opposite sex. With this phase in Janie's life Nanny's first strong hold on Janie's neck flexed its grip. Preoccupation with romantic love took the backseat to Nanny's stern view on settling down with someone with financial stability. Hence, Janie's identity went through its first of many transformations. She fought within her self, torn between her adolescent sanction and Nanny's harsh limitations, but final gave way and became a cast of Nanny's reformation.
She was our friend.” (Lee 59) This was how Scout described Miss Maudie, Scout was explaining her perspective of herself and that she wants to be treated like an adult and that the only one to do so was Miss Maudie. Consequently, this helps the reader understand Scout. Also, Miss Maudie helps to develop Jem’s character by giving him a big cake when he’s supposed to have a small one like Scout and Dill.
Mildred Pierce, by James M. Cain, begins in pre-Depression California, and ends during World War II times, also in California. The main character, Mildred Pierce, is a very attractive housewife of 29, raising two daughters, Ray and Veda. Although Mildred loves both her daughters, Veda is a particular obsession with Mildred. She constantly slaves away throughout the novel to do whatever she can to make Veda happy, despite the constant abuse and deception Veda inflicts upon Mildred. After a divorce from her first husband, Bert, in the opening pages of the novel, Mildred is forced to sacrifice her pride and become a waitress in order to support her family. If Veda were ever to find out, she would be appalled; a constantly recurring theme throughout this story is Veda’s pride and arrogance, and her condemnation of jobs she deems to be menial. Mildred’s main goal is to nurture Veda’s musical talents, and manages to pay for expensive music lessons from her meager salaries as a waitress and pie baker. However, Mildred’s luck is soon to change, as she takes up with an attorney and former partner of Bert, Wally. Mildred is able to use Wally’s business and real estate savvy to build a restaurant out of a deserted model home, and from there create a thriving chain of three food businesses. After becoming bored with Wally, however, Mildred craves a relationship with another man, a prestigious local man named Monty. Veda highly approves of her mother’s choice, as this makes her feel as if she too were more prestigious and affluent, despite having misgivings about her mother still being so low as to have an average, pedestrian job. All seems to be going well; even through Veda’s constant demands and tantrums, she still gets everything she wants, and Mildred and Monty are happy. Monty, however, falls on hard times with the coming of the Great Depression, and he constantly mooches off of Mildred’s affluence, making it a struggle for Mildred to cater to Veda’s every whim. Mildred soon dumps Monty to focus on making Veda a musical prodigy; this fails, however, when Veda is told that her piano is not up to par from a local famous music teacher. After Veda recovers from this shock, she explores the opportunities offered by an acting career, and begins to spin more webs of deception and selfishness. After Veda forces money out of a local rich family, lying and claiming their son got her pregnant, Mildred and Veda have a major argument, and Veda disowns her mother.
Each one complimented the other and it was as if they were two halves of one whole. Like many things in life, they each secretly enjoyed the immediate surroundings of the other. As much as Nel regarded the neatness of her house with dread, Sula felt the house to be comfortable and relished the neatness. On the same token, Sula disliked the disarray and lack of privacy in her house, but Nel found it to be a welcome change and a taste of real life. Sula and Nel found friendship in each other, because they were both lonely people. When they were young girls, they would go to Edna Finch’s Mellow House together to purchase ice cream. The ice cream representing the end of one’s life, the real treat was on getting there. They looked forward to the looks and sly comments of the boys as they made their way to the ice cream parlor, and as most girls do, exhibited an air of indifference while secretly relishing in the attention they received. It was an ...
As a child grows, many people influence their development as a person. Some people impact more than others, and a select few really leave their mark. In Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” several characters play this role. Among them, Miss Maudie Atkinson, a woman who proves herself a strong character, prevails as the one who has the greatest impact on Scout Finch, the protagonist of this novel. As Scout matures and grows up, her views on the world around her change. Through subtle yet effective ways, Miss Maudie teaches Scout many life lessons about being humble, judging, and attitude, all of which ultimately have a great effect on the kind of person Scout develops into and her outlook on the world.
We are born into this world with the realization that life is hard and that life is like a box of chocolates and it is hard to take it at face value. The majority of our time is spent trying to answer an endless stream of questions only to find the answers to be a complex path of even more questions. This film tells the story of Harold, a twenty year old lost in life and haunted by answerless questions. Harold is infatuated with death until he meets a good role model in Maude, an eighty year old woman that is obsessed with life and its avails. However, Maude does not answer all of Harold’s questions but she leads him to realize that there is a light at the end of everyone’s tunnel if you pursue it to utmost extremes by being whatever you want to be. Nevertheless, they are a highly unlikely match but they obviously help each other in many ways in the film.
...ce near Mean Lady Ming’s where we bought shrimp lo mein. I grabbed Vonetta and Fern and we all ran off. Five minutes later of running we were at Cecile’s house. At the doorstep, I heard crying. This crying sounded like Cecile. Could she have really changed? We opened the door and ran in and hugged her. Surprisingly the door was opened. She must have went searching for us because there were two distinct footprints on her welcome mat before we entered the house and before we stepped on the mat. She really has changed. “You all better hug tight Vonetta and Fern.” I said with tears of joy. “My babies, my babies! I will never treat you that bad ever again. I am so sorry!” cried Cecile. “ From now on I will care for you and be a good mother. I am sorry for however I treated you.” cried Cecile. For the first time in forever, my sisters and I actually had someone to call Ma.
The point of view that Katherine Mansfield has chosen to use in "Miss Brill" serves two purposes. First, it illustrates how Miss Brill herself views the world and, second, it helps the reader take the same journey of burgeoning awareness as Miss Brill.
Evidently, Janie must struggle with keeping a balance between accepting her mixed features that bring racial complications but she must also deal with her place regarding gender roles. As a mixed individual, Janie certainly has a complicated life, especially when in comes to balancing between expectations set by Nanny and her peers while aspiring for her own desires. When Nanny discovers about Janie’s sexual awakening by means of her secret admirer, she decides that Janie has transformed from a young girl to a woman, and promptly arranges for her to marry a much older man. Janie disapproves of this, but Nanny has good intentions for doing this.
Throughout time society has been tested many a time. The tests of society are those which show the development of a society’s culture, morals and value system. The recent events of Maycomb have shown it has not developed or flourished but that with the death of my dear husband, Tom, it has failed miserably. Justice, although bittersweet, is the pie that society has been given the duty to serve. The once-solid pillars of fairness and humanity upon which our society was built are crumbling. The trials and tribulations of Tom Robinson have not only led me to lose faith in justice, fairness and humanity but removed my veil of ignorance and shown me the ignorant “whites” have the power to kill even the sweetest of mockingbirds.
Peter and Clarissa’s memories of the days spent at Bourton have a profound effect on them both and are still very much a part of them. These images of their younger selves are not broad, all-encompassing mental pictures, but rather the bits and pieces of life that create personality and identity. Peter remembers various idiosyncracies about Clarissa, and she does the same about him. They remember each other by “the colours, salts, tones of existence,” the very essence that makes human beings original and unique: the fabric of their true identities (30). Clarissa Dalloway is content with her life with Richard, is content to give her party on a beautiful June evening, but she does regret at times that she can’t “have her life over again” (10).
Marie, who is a product of an abusive family, is influenced by her past, as she perceives the relationship between Callie and her son, Bo. Saunders writes, describing Marie’s childhood experiences, “At least she’d [Marie] never locked on of them [her children] in a closet while entertaining a literal gravedigger in the parlor” (174). Marie’s mother did not embody the traditional traits of a maternal fig...
Aubery Tanqueray, a self-made man, is a Widower at the age of Forty two with a beautiful teenage daughter, Ellean whom he seems very protective over. His deceased wife, the first Mrs. Tanqueray was "an iceberg," stiff, and assertive, alive as well as dead (13). She had ironically died of a fever "the only warmth, I believe, that ever came to that woman's body" (14). Now alone because his daughter is away at a nunnery he's found someone that can add a little life to his elite, high class existence; a little someone, we learn, that has a past that doesn't quite fit in with the rest of his friends.