The Hand

1285 Words3 Pages

“The Hand”

1.) Colette the author of “ The Hand” describes the newly found emotions of a teenage bride shortly after her wedding through the description of her husband’s hand. The young newly-wed at the beginning of the story looks around her new home and admires the differences between this home and her pre-marital home. The adolescent wife unable to sleep at night because of her excitement opens her eyes at night and “ savors, with astonishment, . . . the brand new curtains. . . instead of the apricot-pink. . . where she slept as a little girl”( Colette 55). The thrill of her new surroundings is an important setup for the rest of the story because it reveals to the reader how fresh this relationship is and the innocent ignorance between them.

2.) The proud and joyous young bride is initially exuberant about having her “ handsome” husbands hand complacently resting “ under the small of her, adolescent back”(55). The girl after savoring her new environment turns her attention to this “ powerful” hand(55). Her eyes were glancing over every small detail from his “red hairs . . . all curved in the same direction, like ears of wheat in the wind” to his “ flat nails” that “gleamed, coated with pink varnish”(56). The small previously unnoticed details of her husbands hand then began to frighten and disgust the wife because she then realized how little she knew about him and their love was just based out of lust. The nails of her husbands hand she moments before admired became the turning point in the brides emotional state. She says “ I’ll tell him not to varnish his nails . . .Varnish and pink polish don’t go with a hand so . . .”(56). In the next paragraph she looks at thumb and states that “ the hand suddenly took on a ...

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...simple everyday meal it was symbolic to the temptation and the spontaneous change of mind of the young lady. She was tempted for a split second to return to the inordinate relationship, but just like Princip she takes advantage of her second chance and changes history.

Works Cited

Colette.“ The Hand.“ Spring Q. Readings. Ed. Casey Blanton.

Daytona Beach: DSC Press, 2011. 1-7. Print.

Weldon, Fay. “IND AFF.“ Spring Q. Readings. Ed. Casey Blanton.

Daytona Beach: DSC Press, 2011. 1-7. Print.

Works Cited

Works Cited

Colette.“ The Hand.“ Spring Q. Readings. Ed. Casey Blanton.

Daytona Beach: DSC Press, 2011. 1-7. Print.

Weldon, Fay. “IND AFF.“ Spring Q. Readings. Ed. Casey Blanton.

Daytona Beach: DSC Press, 2011. 1-7. Print.

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