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Essays on incarcerated fathers and children
Essays on incarcerated fathers and children
Essays on incarcerated fathers and children
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In the beginning of the short story the Madonna doll cries the girl in the play thinks that the doll crying means that her mother has died in the prison. Even though she is almost sure that her mother has died she takes the madonna doll and goes towards the prison to visit her mother. On the way to the prison she stops and gets some pork from a dealer to give to her mother. When she arrives at the prison she sees her bone thin Manman, her head freshly shaven by the guards and in a dress she made with the cloth that was given to her at last week's visit. Manman asked for the Madonna doll, when she got it she rubbed the space under the eye and tasted it. Manman asked if the doll has cried, with a nod she indicates yes and Manman starts to sob. …show more content…
She expresses that she is happy that on the day she lost her mother her daughter was born. Manman hopes she will find flesh to help her when her Manman dies, which is soon she says. Ever since she was put in the prison for being accused of taking the breath away from a baby she has lost weight and her health has decreased. When she leave the prison her Manman says “let your flight be joyful, and mine too”. At the next visit Manman had a cough, she was cold and her skin was very saggy. The prison guards thought it was saggy because she was in a hurry to put it on when they turned on the lights in the morning. Her mother says “keep the Madonna when I am gone”. Almost exactly a week later and elderly women came to her house, saying that her Manman has been killed. The prison guards had seen her skin sagging worse and thought that she had taken the breath away from another baby so the beat her to
When the narrator first compares her Barbies, she thinks that she needs perfect and new Barbies to fit in with everybody else. The narrator does understand that her family does not have money, but she simply works around it. Although, she wants more Barbies it was unlikely for them to get them. The narrator says, “Because we don’t have money for a stupid-looking boy doll when we’d both rather ask for a new Barbie outfit next christmas. (14-15)” The narrator has to make do with what she has. She can not have a boy Barbie because it is not in her parents budget. This affects her and it makes her lose confidence in herself because she does not have what everybody else has. After the narrator receives her partially messed up Barbies, she says, “And if the prettiest doll, Barbie’s MOD’ern cousin Francie with real eyelashes, eyelash brush included, has a left that that’s melted a little-so? If you dress her in her new ‘Prom Pinks’ outfit, satin splendor with matching coat, gold belt, clutch, and hair bow included, so long as you don’t lift her dress, right?-who’s to know. (16)” Even though the Barbie has a melted left foot, the narrator moves past this. She will just cover it up with a dress. The narrator wanted new and perfect Barbie’s in the beginning, but she realized that these Barbie’s are not everything and she can make them her own. She is not defined by her Barbies. Sandra Cisneros used symbolism and characterization to describe how the narrator had a hard time coming into her own identity and finding
She sees her father old and suffering, his wife sent him out to get money through begging; and he rants on about how his daughters left him to basically rot and how they have not honored him nor do they show gratitude towards him for all that he has done for them (Chapter 21). She gives into her feelings of shame at leaving him to become the withered old man that he is and she takes him in believing that she must take care of him because no one else would; because it is his spirit and willpower burning inside of her. But soon she understands her mistake in letting her father back into he life. "[She] suddenly realized that [she] had come back to where [she] had started twenty years ago when [she] began [her] fight for freedom. But in [her] rebellious youth, [she] thought [she] could escape by running away. And now [she] realized that the shadow of the burden was always following [her], and [there she] stood face to face with it again (Chapter 21)." Though the many years apart had changed her, made her better, her father was still the same man. He still had the same thoughts and ways and that was not going to change even on his death bed; she had let herself back into contact with the tyrant that had ruled over her as a child, her life had made a complete
Marie had just traveled from her hometown of Ville Rose, where discarding your child made you wicked, to the city of Port-Au-Prince, where children are commonly left on the street. Marie finds a child that she thinks could not be more beautiful, “I thought she was a gift from Heaven when I saw her on the dusty curb, wrapped in a small pink blanket, a few inches away from a sewer as open as a hungry child’s yawn” (79). Marie has suffered many miscarriages, so she takes this child as if it were her own, “I swayed her in my arms like she was and had always been mine” (82). Marie’s hope for a child has paid off, or so it seems. Later, it is revealed that the child is, in fact, dead, and Marie fabricated a story to sanction her hopes and distract her from the harsh reality of her life, “I knew I had to act with her because she was attracting flies and I was keeping her spirit from moving on… She smelled so bad that I couldn’t even bring myself to kiss her without choking on my breath” (85). Her life is thrown back into despair as her cheating husband accuses her of killing children for evil purposes and sends her to
In both poem “ Barbie Doll” by Merge Piercy and “ homage to my hips” by Lucille Clifton, they both expressed the different way on how our society wants us, women to look and act in order to be except into the society. Our society condemned any women who are to act differently from our norms. In this society and in every culture aspect they are always stereotype, women always been taking advantage of no matter what century we are on. In “Barbie Doll” the author tend to provide more effective critique of society expectation about our body image than “homage to my hips”.
Nevertheless, her attempts are futile as he dismisses her once more, putting his supposed medical opinion above his wife’s feelings. The story takes a shocking turn as she finally discerns what that figure is: a woman. As the story progresses, she believes the sole reason for her recovery is the wallpaper. She tells no one of this because she foresees they may be incredulous, so she again feels the need to repress her thoughts and feelings. On the last night of their stay, she is determined to free the woman trapped behind bars.
...ess her husband just so happens to die. Her husband has spent most of his nights with the couple’s personal servant, Sarah, who has conceived the children of this man. Ms. Gaudet also dislikes the children solely for the fact that they remind her much of her husband. Manon is soon granted her freedom when her husband is murdered by African- American rebels.
In Marge Piercy’s, “Barbie Doll,” we see the effect that society has on the expectations of women. A woman, like the girl described in ‘Barbie Doll’, should be perfect. She should know how to cook and clean, but most importantly be attractive according to the impossible stereotypes of womanly beauty. Many women in today’s society are compared to the unrealistic life and form of the doll. The doll, throughout many years, has transformed itself from a popular toy to a role model for actual women. The extremes to which women take this role model are implicated in this short, yet truthful poem.
As a small child, about two years old, Lizzie's mother died. Her father, Andrew, married again. Lizzie did not like her stepmother even though she did not really remember her real mother at all. She never really accepted her stepmother as the person who raised her. And then one afternoon they were robber sunk in the house a...
A small, four person family lived in a small town where jobs were hard to come by and money was scarce. The daughter of this family, Veronica, who was only nine, had wanted to buy herself a new doll that she could love and be friends with. She would find small jobs all over town doing whatever she could to earn what little money there was to be made for that doll she wanted ever so badly. After a lot of hard work she became very close to her goal of making the money for the doll. However, one night she saw how her younger brother, who was only three, carrying around his stuffed bear. The bear was beyond repairs and was on its last limb. Her younger brother knew this and she saw that. She then decided to make the ultimate sacrifice by going and spending all of her hard earned money on a brand new stuffed bear for her brother because she prefered to see him happy over herself. Many people make sacrifices for the ones they love, especially when it
The only happiness that she appears to have is with this bird. The bird probably sang when she could not. He was probably a companion to her, she had no children. And like her, he was caged. Because we do not know, we can only guess that her husband killed her bird.
... she calls her husband “that man” (608), implying that she no longer recognizes him, and says that she “had to creep over him every time”, clearly not comprehending the absurdity of crawling repeatedly around the room and over her husband’s unconscious body.
...er husband comes looking for her because she has locked herself in her room. He was so worried that she might do something crazy. When she trapped herself in her room she wanted to take all the wallpaper off the walls, so that the woman is let free from the bars of the wallpaper that was holding her captives.
In the beginning of “Barbie Doll”, pleasurable and unpleasurable imagery is given so that the reader can see the extremes girls go through to be considered perfect.
It pinpoints out how women were taken as during the 1900’s. The story also highlights the extremes of repression and sexism by viewing the woman as mad by a rest cure. In the view of the Narrators role as a woman, lack of intellectual stimulation in her thought and unjust environment usually led her insane. This points out failure in the society in which sexism and oppression was carried out towards women. An aspect of feminism portrayed by the Narrator in the story is how she tries to dismiss John’s opinions. She repeatedly requests him to relocate her to another room downstairs. This is an aspect of feminism which should be encouraged among women to demand for their freedom. The Narrator takes part in not conquering with John. But as time goes she is less able to feel the usual relief. John rejects the request and replies to her that she must spend in the nursery room which is barred and rings similar to those of dungeon on the walls. She is denied the right to choose what pleases her. Later she comes to like the nursery room where other times she locks herself up to avoid husband’s disturbance upon the story. Also the act of Narrator’s wallpaper routine is a sense of imprisonment. She recognizes that the pattern is so ugly like a cage imprisoning women who are desperately trying to escape. The Narrator figuratively tears the bars and the wallpaper of the cage to clear her way to escape.
A platter of fruit, a grand piano with a shawl from Persia, and a cat actively watching a charming mouse that had gotten up as the cat looked more intently. At five in the morning, each of the outside stairs would weep as the milkman walked upon them; the light of the morning sun would show the scraps of the previous night's cheese and a few mournful bottles. Meanwhile, he played a few notes on the keyboard and complained that they were out of tune, shrugged at his own reflection, scratched his beard, and left to get some cigarettes; while she is tormented by minor demons, as she pulls back the sheets, makes the bed, uses a towel to dust off the top of the table, and allows the coffee pot to remain on the stove. When the evening rolled around, the woman was in love again, however, throughout the night, she woke up in order to feel the morning light arrive, like the milkman coming up the stairs.