“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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...th his mother. His mother was really important to him and the same goes his mother. “She reminded me daily that I was her sole son, her reason for living, and that if she were to lose me, in either body or spirit, she wished that God would mercifully smite her, strike her down like a weak branch” (166). He and his mother were very important to one another that she would really die if he was gone from her life. They share something important and that is food. Now that she has passed away he looks back on his life and thinks back to all the times they had together. The food that he ate as a child gave him such wonderful memories. Now it is something that he was able to do himself and every time he would make it, he would think about his mother and it makes him smile.
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Both authors utilize symbolism to suggest the influence of valuable memories in conceiving the desired dreams awaiting their present eyes. In Like Water for Chocolate, Esquivel acknowledges the significance of memories in the past through the usage of recipes passed down from generation to generation by the main character Tita’s ancestors. The recipes reawaken the past, make the present reality more real, and capture the desired future with respect to these memories. In this context, food symbolizes history. In the novel, Tita’s memories revolve around her childhood cooking in the kitchen with the family’s cook, Nacha. During her youth, Tita learns about the appealing connection between food and emotions, which she uses to cope with her strong emotions throughout her life, happy or sad. One connection made in the novel involves Tita struggling to cook a tamale; Tita remembers “…Nacha had always said that when people argue while preparing tamales, the tamales won’t get cooked…In a case like that, you have to sing to them, which makes them happy, then they’ll cook"(134). Esquivel’s symbolic nature of recipes allows for Tita to build the foundation for the imagination of future dishes shaped by her memories and her emotional connections to the food.
In the short story, “The Story of an Hour,” author Kate Chopin presents the character of Mrs. Louis Mallard. She is an unhappy woman trapped in her discontented marriage. Unable to assert herself or extricate herself from the relationship, she endures it. The news of the presumed death of her husband comes as a great relief to her, and for a brief moment she experiences the joys of a liberated life from the repressed relationship with her husband. The relief, however, is short lived. The shock of seeing him alive is too much for her bear and she dies. The meaning of life and death take on opposite meaning for Mrs. Mallard in her marriage because she lacked the courage to stand up for herself.
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In her story, Desiree’s Baby, Kate Chopin underlined the contrast between lust and love, exploring the problem of a man’s pride that exceeded the love he has for his wife. Armand, the main character of the story, is a slave owner who lived in Louisiana during the era of slavery. He married an adopted young woman, Desiree, and together they have a son who eventually became an obstacle in the way of his father’s happiness, thus removing out the true character of Armand. Desiree’s Baby, by Kate Chopin is a love story, love that ultimately proved to be a superficial love, a story that shed light on the ugly relationships between people. “Lust is temporary, romance can be nice,
The narration is first person, as told by the narrator. We never hear directly from the wife so we must use our imagination in order to acknowledge or sympathize with her character. Not much is revealed about the wife’s history or appearance, but we d...
Their conversation was very rapid but the reader is able to get their first insight into the central theme of the story. When the older waiter is asked what the old man was in despair about he responds "Nothing” since the old man has...
The short stories “Souls Belated” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” have in common ‘Marriage’ as main theme. However, the marriage is treated quite differently in both short stories. In "Souls Belated", Lydia chooses to take control of her destiny, to deviate from conventions and to choose what is good for her. She is the strongest character of the couple. Whereas, in "The Yellow Wallpaper", the name of the main character who is also the narrator of the story is not known. She is identified as being John’s wife. This woman, contrary to Lydia in "Souls Belated" is completely locked up in her marriage. This essay will first describe and compare the characters of Lydia and John's wife in the context of marriage, and then it will look at how marriage is described, treated and experienced by couples in these two short stories.
My belief on marriage is a sacred vow taken by two people which joins them in union. Most people carry the belief that marriage should occur only when two people are in love; although this belief is common it is not always the case and people marry for a variety of reasons. In the short story "The Story of an Hour" Kate Chopin suggests that in the case of Mrs. Mallard and Mr. Mallard, love was not a deciding factor for their reason to get married. Though the response of three readers, one being myself, we will explore the character of Mrs. Mallard and the idea of love in her marriage. Kate Chopin has given little detail about the Mallards and therefore left much to the imagination of the reader. Although there are similarities in details between readers such as: point of view, setting, and character, each reader brings new perspective and ideas. This type of analysis of the text allows a richer and more knowledgeable outlook; not only by enhancing ones own ideas by introducing new ones.