Willa Cather, from “The Joy of Nelly Deane” (p. 223)
Willa Cather writes the story of The Joy of Nelly Deane, describing Nelly’s joy as “unquenchable,” especially, Nelly’s joy attracted all the Baptist ladies who admired the prettiest girl in Riverbend, Nebraska (Cather, p. 225). Nelly fluttered from one social event to another, parties, picnics and dances, and sings like a “prima-donna” in the Baptist Church choir, where she met Peggy, the narrator of the story.
Peggy was named, by the Baptist sewing women, as a good influence for Nelly because she was quiet and although quiet, Peggy actually was a good influence because she was discerning, she gave subtle warnings to Nelly on how she felt about the young men whom Nelly chose, like, Scott Spinney whom Peggy describes as “so set in dark” and “Taciturn and domineering.” Peggy later writes about her discerning intuition when she shakes Scott’s hand as he was walking out of the Post Office, “ He gave me a hard grip with one black hand” (Cather, p. 231).
Cather writes Peggy’s description of Nelly’s baptism, before her marriage to Scott, which sealed the quenching of Nelly’s worldly joy into the cement Baptismal pit that swallowed Nelly into
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dark waters, like death. Peggy experienced a quick pain in her heart as her thoughts whispered, “It will be like that when she dies” (Cather, p.232). The blind, Baptist community indulged in the life of Nelly as a thoughtless act of outward thoughtfulness and claimed her as the one they love, their great joy. Peggy also inherited Riverbend’s Baptist fear and avoidance in the despair and sadness in Nelly as she begged for Peggy to stay a few days. Peggy listened to her voice of avoidance, “But I was afraid-afraid of what she might tell me and of what I might say” (Cather, p.232). Nelly received deep wounds of being perched on a pedestal and labeled as ‘joy” from good intentions, of an outward visual, judging community. Nelly had a need for love in truth, that would quench her outward joy, inviting in permission to grieve in the arms of the community of believers, friends, those that loved her. Unquenchable joy comes from the Spirit of God, it is not outward happiness, on the contrary, it is set in our inmost embraced in happy and sad, is this inner joy that runs to do justice, and overcomes fear to love others in truth. Flattery comes to mind, how have I flattered someone in order to receive? How do I avoid sadness, injustice by pretending that everything is okay? Where have I not only run toward justice, but also fled in avoidance? Katherine Anne Porter, "Rope" (p. 239) Katherine Anne Porter’s, Rope, is a short story event of an argument between a man and woman on the third day after they moved out in the country.
The argument begins when the man arrived after the two mile walk from the store without the woman’s anticipated coffee. Instead of the coffee the man held a 24 foot rope. The man did not drink coffee and that must be, according to the woman, why it was forgotten. The woman wondered, “What was the rope for?” The man could not think of anything, at the moment that the rope could be used for, in addition, the woman discovered the eggs had been broken, apparently when the rope had been laid on top of the them. The rope argument escalated and hate prevailed and worked it’s way into other surface issues, household chores,
money, The man returned to town, a four mile walk, to purchase the coffee, but what should he do with the rope? He could return it. As he approached home, with the coffee, he wondered if he should hide the rope that he forgot to return. The woman stood by the post box waiting, waving in the sweet air and the man smelled the dinner with the rope in his hand they entered the home. The woman could see no reason why he should return the rope, in fact, he should keep it, if he wanted it, he should have it. In the attempt to discover the meaning of the rope in Porter’s story, the word bondage came to mind. The traveling destructive rope told a deeper story of truth within the heart of man and woman, a story of light and darkness, both residing, both fighting for their place. The man said to the woman, “And anyhow for God’s sake, were they living in the house, or were they going to let the house ride them to death?” The overwhelming circumstances of work unmet wants and desires have focus in an argument, like, “Letting the house ride them to death,” in the same way darkness leads to death. What about the rope? The circumstances changed, but the rope “bondage” remained with the man and woman, signifying the possible resurfacing of superficial argument. Surface proves something deeper festers, and to give up the bondage “rope” means to lay the bondage before God, and trust Him to heal the root of anger, to make room for true, whole living within the house, temple, or body. What surface issues are a source or agitation that require inspection and renewal from my heavenly Father? “Create in me a pure heart, Oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10 New International Version) Alice Munro, “Mrs. Cross and Mrs. Kidd” (p. 307) Mrs Cross and Mrs Kidd are among the elderly residing in a community home for the elderly. They have known each other since Kindergarten, in spit of, through the years, various interludes of separation, they know each other well. Munro writes of the simple daily lives of these two women, expressing a fine detail in each character that grants the reader a special privilege of honor to know the women as if they actually lived in the lives of the reader. Mrs. Kidd, a secret atheist, enjoyed science in nature, particularly, botany and zoology. She was well educated and a teacher, who as a student recited poetry and still remembers these poems from eighty ago. It is interesting how Mrs. Kidd’s aging children “Want her fixed at the age of forty or fifty,” instead of accepting their mother as she now (Munro, p. 310). Her children celebrate her for her abilities to outshine others, compared to her age and Mrs. Kidd hides all the ways she is not so different from the other aging companions that she lives with in Hilltop Home. Mrs Cross is an enthusiastic woman, from her childhood days, she sang, danced and had a “bellowing voice” (Munro, p. 308). Mrs Cross’ room is decorated with one enormous pincushion that is a doll, the Lord’s supper picture with a halo around Jesus’ head, a dog statue resembling her beloved dog, Bonnie, artificial roses, and cushions. Mrs. Cross reaches out to people while Mrs. Kidd tends to take care of herself. Mrs Cross explained the urine odor covered in violet spray during a visit of her cousin, lily, on the second floor of Hilltop Home with Mrs. Kidd. Mrs Kidd turned her eyes away from a white wilded hair women because her dress was pulled up showing her bare legs, and never made it to visit Mrs. Cross cousin. She wheeled away from the horror of the second floor. Mrs Kidd befriended Charlotte, who was “itching to be somebody’s slave,” but was careful to not take too much, she did not want Charlotte to be a devoted rock around her neck. Mrs. Cross cared about others more than herself she cared for her cousin, lily and Jack, a young man who had a stroke. Mrs. Cross wanted to help Jack because she felt he was a “poor chap,” usually putting herself into other peoples shoes. Mrs. Cross authentically cared for others while Mrs. Kidd thought mostly of herself, or did she? Mrs. Kidd loved Mrs. Cross, when she noticed that Mrs. Cross, who had a heart defect, would not make it back to her room without her wheel chair. Mrs. Kidd offered to wheel her back to her room in her chair. Mrs Kidd used all of her strength to walk Mrs. Cross back to her room and she ended up sitting in the hall on cold linoleum floor resting until she could regain her strength.
The warm blackness of summer nights, settling over your lawn and drifting down familiar street signs, over coffee shops closed for the night and broken down asphalt. Dust, collecting on creaking wooden floorboards and swirling through age-old sunlight. A song forgotten, notes away from your ears. Nostalgia is an emotion that all human beings experience and know well. Willa Cather expands on this fact, infusing her award-winning novel, My Ántonia, with sentimentalism and melancholy. Cather tells a tale of home, drawing from the idealistic “American dream” that all Americans know well. Jim Burden, a young orphan, moves to the countryside, spending his days watching men work in the dusty fields and find community amongst themselves. He adores
Scout, the protagonist, is a young girl coming of age in a society trying to shove her into a dress and the role of a gilded daughter. For example, when Scout recalls a conversation with her Aunt Alexandra, a figurehead for society and one of the major female figures in her life, she begins to shine her own light on how to brighten her father’s life in a way that is true to herself. On page 108, Scout comes to terms with the fact that she is defying stereotypes, “I could not possibly be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants. Aunt Alexandra’s vision of my deportment involved playing with small stoves, tea sets, and wearing the Add-A-Pearl necklace she gave me when I was born; furthermore, I should be a ray of sunshine in my father’s lonely life. I suggested that one could be a ray of sunshine in pants just as well, but Aunty said that one had to behave like a sunbeam, that I was born good but had grown progressively worse every year. She hurt my feelings and set my teeth permanently on edge,
In the exposition of the story, Minus immediately delves into the characters, introducing us to both and young Carrie Johnson and Mrs. Cado P. Clark, the main characters in the story. She also gives us a physical description of Carrie, as well as a beginning presentation of Mrs. Clark’s character. Of Carrie, Minus writes, “…Carrie had come out of the South, the red clay clinging to her misshapen heels, made migrant by the disintegration of a crumbling age” also “Carrie’s wide brown nostrils...”(Girl, Colored 1940). Of Mrs. Clark’s character as person from the upper class; she writes “A pale blonde woman opened the door. Wisps of inoffensive hair strayed from the leather thongs of a dozen curlers set at variance on her head.”Minus instantly offers a feel for how each character will shape up to be, and presents a chance for us (the reader) to attach ourselves to these perhaps not-so-unique individuals. Without further ado, Minus expounds on her both her characters initial descriptions of throughout the remainder of the story. We learn that Carrie has a quick temper and she easily angered but manages to keep of her emotions under control, Mrs. Clark ha...
In “A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” O’Connor introduces the reader to a family who represents the juxtaposition between old and new Southern culture. The grandmother, in particular, represents the old South because she focuses on her appearance, manners, and other attributes that are considered the stereotypical image of femininity. She is a self proclaimed lady whose “collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace” and “at her neckline, she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet” (405-406). In fact, she yearned to dress ideally so that “in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead...
Published in 1913, Willa Cather is the author of O’ Pioneers!. Set in the Nebraskan Prairie, Cather tells the story of Alexandra Bergson. Far from stagnant, Alexandra is a very complex character because of her independence as a woman and her acceptance of others. Analyzing some aspects of Cather’s life provides insight into O’ Pioneers! , specifically, why Alexandra’s character traits and choices make sense. If Cather consciously or subconsciously influenced Alexandra’s character with her own, then Alexandra’s independence could be due to Cather’s career success and Alexandra’s tendency to welcome outcasts and to judge gently could be due to Cather’s gender struggles and to her lesbianism.
Brown M. & Crone R. Willa Cather the Woman and Her Works. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1970.
Cather, Willa. A Lost Lady. Ed. Susan J. Rosowski with Kari Ronning, Charles W. Mignon and Frederick M. Link. The Willa Cather Scholarly Edition. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1997.
Margaretta Large Fitler came from one of the richest families in the nation, attaining their eight million inheritance from rope-making. It was a “blue-nosed society that advised a girl to get her name in the papers only four times: when you are born, when you make your debut, when you are married, and when you die” (N. pag.). Even when Happy was taken in as blissful and was never seen without a smile on her face there always seemed to be an unspoken sadness that weighted her quiet disposition heavily. Perhaps this came from her mother and father separating when she was only ten, or it could be because her mother being the extremely self-centered woman that she ha...
Showalter, Elaine. "Tradition and the Female Talent: The Awakening as a Solitary Book." Martin 33-55.
At the beginning of the short story Maggie's family is introduced, from her scrappy little brother Jimmie, to her short lived brother Tommie, her alcoholic mentally-abusive mother Mary, and her brutish father. Jimmie's friend Pete is introduced and becomes a mirror image of Jimmie later on in the book. They both are portrayed as Don Juans, the seducers of young women who treat women as objects rather than people. Maggie's father is as short-lived as her brother Tommie. However, he becomes a negative social factor in Maggie's life. Maggie’s mother was an essential symbol of hypocrisy and pessimism throughout the book, from her drinking to her last comment in the book “I'll Forgive Her” (Crane).
Margaret is an intelligent, articulate, and ambitious woman who desires to rise up in social status by marrying a man of higher social rank. She attends to those above her, in hopes of elevating her status as she becomes closer to the upper-class. As a minor character, she plays a small yet crucial role in advancing Don John’s plot to slander Hero and spoil her wedding. As a lower-class character, Margaret serves as a foil to the rich girls, particularly Hero, who embodies every attitude and mindset Margaret does not. But she also offers an alternative perspective on the upper-class characters in the play. Because Margaret is victimized because of her social ambitions, punished for wanting to rise above her ...
Mrs. Mallard’s repressed married life is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern. This is clearly evident in the great care that her sister and husband’s friend Richard show to break the news of her husband’s tragic death as gently as they can. They think that she is so much in love with him that hearing the news of his death would aggravate her poor heart condition and lead to death. Little do they know that she did not love him dearly at all and in fact took the news in a very positive way, opening her arms to welcome a new life without her husband. This can be seen in the fact that when she storms into her room and her focus shifts drastically from that of her husband’s death to nature that is symbolic of new life and possibilities awaiting her. Her senses came to life; they come alive to the beauty in the nature. Her eyes could reach the vastness of the sky; she could smell the delicious breath of rain in the air; and ears became attentive to a song f...
The novel shadows the life of Janie Crawford pursuing the steps of becoming the women that her grandmother encouraged her to become. By the means of doing so, she undergoes a journey of discovering her authentic self and real love. Despise the roller-coaster obstacles, Janie Crawford’s strong-will refuses to get comfortable with remorse, hostility, fright, and insanity.
Clarissa’s memories of Bourton, of her youth, are brought back to her vividly by just the “squeak of the hinges”. . . [and] she had burst open the French windows and plunged at Bourton into the open air” (3). The intensity of these memories is what makes them so much a part of what she is– everything in life reminds her of Bourton, of Sally Seton, of Peter Walsh. Peter and Sally were her best friends as a girl, and “with the two of them”. . . she shared her past.... ...
...she describes the pompous women. The author uses the women's conversations to emphasize the reasons Scout remains a tomboy and refuses the traits of Maycomb females.