The symbols recognized in Muriel Spark’s novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, establish a deeper truth within the story. Specifically, Sandy’s small eyes are continuously brought up at the perfect moments, which can make readers question what the eyes of Sandy Stranger represent. The small eyes of Sandy show significant character traits, important features in the plot, and recognize the reasons as to why Sandy makes the decisions she does. Without her explicit small eyes, the novel would be completely different. Throughout the story, her eyes regularly show the double side of what is actually happening. Spark’s representation of Sandy’s small eyes embody the continuous contradictions often shown throughout the novel.
Sandy’s small eyes are
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Though the influence of Miss Brodie was strong, Sandy’s beliefs of being her own person were even stronger. In one instance, after Miss Brodie shared too much with Sandy, she said, “Sandy, I’ll swear you are short-sighted, the way you peer at people” (114). By saying this, Miss Brodie was attempting to tell Sandy that she actually does not understand the conversation they just had, which can make readers believe Sandy is unwise. This is just another way that Miss Brodie attempts to manipulate the girls into thinking they are a certain stereotype. However, Sandy completely understands the importance of her conversation with Miss Brodie and adds that she is not short-sighted at all, although it may seem that way (114). Sandy understands that she easily comprehends ideas although her eyes may make her seem like she does not. In essence, Spark counteracts Miss Brodie’s comment when she points out that “She listened to their conversation, at the same time calculating their souls by signs and symbols…” (128). Sandy is constantly watching and listening to people as they go about their lives. She recognizes the way that people act and she notices details that Miss Brodie or any other characters in the story would not understand. Her eyes also give detail about why Sandy’s life abruptly concluded the way that it …show more content…
After learning about Sandy’s character, Spark unexpectedly contradicts her whole persona and tells readers Sandy became a nun who wrote a psychology book. Even Sandy and her eyes do not seem to enjoy being a nun as she “always leaned forward and peered, clutching the bars with both hands” (35) in the convent. Sandy is constantly looking out into the world that she could be in, but she feels it is necessary to be a nun because it contradicts exactly what Miss Brodie wanted out of her. While Sandy notices her own unhappiness in the church, she stays there to prove a point. Sandy’s idolization of Miss Brodie and the sudden betrayal of Miss Brodie also allows readers to see how her eyes played a role in Sandy’s own decisions. After continuous efforts from Miss Mackay to find the truth behind Miss Brodie’s methods, Sandy eventually came forward to talk with her. Spark writes, “…the headmistress said to this rather difficult old girl with the abnormally small eyes, ‘You’ll have been seeing something of Miss Brodie, I hope’” (133). The representation of Sandy’s eyes during this conversation offer awareness into why the betrayal of Miss Brodie was necessary. Sandy’s “seeing something of Miss Brodie” that Miss Mackay referenced was the truth behind Miss Brodie’s constant manipulation to make Sandy into her mold of perfection. Though
The novel which we are reading in class is “Their Eyes Were Watching God”. The main idea of the novel is to portray the story of Janie Mae Crawford’s development to finding her identity, through love. Both the book and the movie depict different pictures for the audience. Although the movie is very similar to the book, it has multiple different scenes that help the audience connect more to the charaters which the book may not, but it’s also missing deeper layers that were covered in the book. In this essay I will compare the two mediums and which I identified more with.
This excerpt from Zora Neale Hurston’s book, Their Eyes Were watching God, is an example of her amazing writing. She makes us feel as if we are actually in her book, through her use of the Southern Black vernacular and admirable description. Her characters are realistic and she places special, well thought out sentences to keep us interested. Zora Neale Hurston’s art enables her to write this engaging story about a Southern black woman’s life.
Like Jay Gatsby, many elements of the paragraph in that opens the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God plays into Janie Crawford and how she fits into the gender roles that Zora Neal Hurston describes and in ways, twists, into the narrative of her novel and in the paragraphs mentioned. With these two different characters in two different stories, the narrator of the paragraph conveys a message and draws the distinctions between men, women and how they attain their dreams and the differences between them in doing so.
From a young age, Moody noticed something unusual about race relations than those around her. She blossomed into an intelligent, strong-minded young woman with an aspiration to create changes to the racial perspective in the South. For years she worked determinedly to help bring about those changes, but in the end she became disillusioned. She understood who she was, and she realized that she needed to help make a difference, but she did not know if she could. Ultimately, Anne Moody feels "old" and alone towards the end because she is so too upset with the civil rights movement. These factors have contributed in shaping her attitude towards race and her skepticism about fundamental change in society. "I WONDER. I really WONDER".
... advertisement” (Fitzgerald pg. 160). Wilson understands the symbolic meaning of the eyes and how they truly do watch over all the corrupt, shameful things the main characters do.
Hurston masterfully utilizes four basic Southern literary elements to illustrate the plight of a woman that achieved self-expression and independence in the 1930’s: narrative language, allegory, and symbolism. The combination of the three elements utilized by Hurston in her novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” bring about a much greater theme of the story—self-expression and independence. Throughout the book, Janie is faced with many trials and tribulations on the road to achieve her ideal life. But everything throughout her journey happened for a reason for her to learn from and keep pushing. She finally got her ideal relationship with Tea Cake.
Harper Lee’s only book, To Kill a Mockingbird, is the stereotypical tale of childhood and innocence, yet it successfully incorporates mature themes, like the racism in the South at the time, to create a masterpiece of a work that has enraptured people’s minds and hearts for generations. According to esteemed novelist Wally Lamb, “It was the first time in my life that a book had sort of captured me. That was exciting; I didn’t realize that literature could do that” (111). Scout’s witty narration and brash actions make her the kind of heroine you can’t help but root for, and the events that take place in Maycomb County are small-scale versions of the dilemmas that face our world today. Mockingbird is a fantastically written novel that belongs on the shelves for classic literature that everyone should take the time to read and appreciate for their execution of style and the importance of their content.
... the novel. Ranging from clothes, to birds, to the “pigeon house”, each symbol and setting provides the reader with insight into Edna’s personality, thoughts, and awakening.
“Her face was fair and pretty, with eyes like two bits of night-sky, each with a star dissolved in the blue.” This elaborate simile creates a mental image of the natural beauty of the young princess, Irene, by comparing her eyes to the night sky. The simile also parallels the depth of Irene’s soul to the dark, endless night sky.
Each character’s personality in the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is intricately described, therefore giving the reader an image or idea of the kind of person he or she is. A picture of the character is formed in the mind with maybe rough edges but a soft heart on the inside. A character’s personality may be oversimplified by drawing shapes in symbolism, but the shapes may be helpful in perceiving the general extent of the characteristics. With a little help from Lee’s descriptions, I have been able to form images in my mind (and draw them on paper) of the personalities of Scout, Jem, Atticus, Dil, Calpurnia, Boo Radley, and Bob Ewell.
She tells the story with much curiosity of the era she is in, unable to understand the world she lives in and why the black were inferior to the white people. Her soft childlike sense brings comfort to the readers. As we come to the end of the book Scout is older but still gives us a kids perspective.
"SparkNotes: Their Eyes Were Watching God: Analysis of Major Characters." SparkNotes. SparkNotes LLC, 2014. Web. 24 Apr. 2014. .
The symbols that are used in literature can have a large impact on the story and what the reader pulls out from the story. If there was no symbol used in To Kill a Mockingbird, people would miss a lot of the story going on and they may not see the more innocent side of the story. Although symbols are used in many different forms, the one used in To Kill a Mockingbird made the story what it was. The mockingbird gave the story a whole different approach. By using a symbol in the story, the author was able to make th...
The use of symbolism is essential to writing a story as it explains complex ideas and themes in an enjoyable yet succinct way. In the critically acclaimed novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, a biracial woman named Janie lives her life in search of true love and happiness but finds herself failing multiple times. In the end, she finds herself single yet in the state of happiness and enlightenment that she had longed for her entire life. Through the use of a pear tree, Hurston symbolizes the idealistic view of intimate relationships that most women desire. She uses the horizon as a symbol of the happiness that Janie, and many other women, want in their lives. By using these two symbols, Hurston conveys the message that women can be independent and lead a happy life without being in a relationship with a man.
perceive the novel in the rational of an eleven-year-old girl. One short, simple sentence is followed by another , relating each in an easy flow of thoughts. Gibbons allows this stream of thoughts to again emphasize the childish perception of life’s greatest tragedies. For example, Gibbons uses the simple diction and stream of consciousness as Ellen searches herself for the true person she is. Gibbons uses this to show the reader how Ellen is an average girl who enjoys all of the things normal children relish and to contrast the naive lucidity of the sentences to the depth of the conceptions which Ellen has such a simplistic way of explaining.