In the short stories “The Gift f Magi” by O. Henry and “A telephone Call” by Dorothy Parker, two women are troubled by how their significant others view them. While O. Henry’s Della is able to see that Jim is not touched, Parker’s narrator is left with uncertainty because her significant other does not call back, stuffing her with skepticism. In O. Henry’s “The Gift of Magi”, a young couple in love has to get surprise gifts for each other before Christmas. The story takes place in a small-industrialized city where poverty is prevalent and money is scarce. One of the characters Della, values her long hair while her significant other Jim, values his golden watch. Both sell each of their treasures in order to get something that adds onto the other’s cherished item. While In Dorothy Parker’s “A telephone call”, the narrator is awaiting for a phone call from her boyfriend. He said he would call at 5:00 but at 7:10 the narrator still awaits for him. As she imagines why, she looks to God for answers and advice. She thinks that if she waits tolerantly, something virtuous will happen nonetheless, on the other hand, she frantically wants to call him to find out the reason why he still hasn’t called.
Through her narrator, Parker establishes how simply waiting for a telephone call can put one in a circle of suspense. As Parker’s narrator eagerly waits for the telephone call from her boyfriend, she tries to figure out how she must retort. In doing so, she attempts to ascertain the reason why he hasn’t called and strains to come up with resolutions as to not be put in this position again, “I'll be the way I was when I first met him. Then maybe he'll like me again. I was always sweet, at first. Oh, it's so easy to be sweet to people before...
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...ssume that the boyfriend does not call back leaving the narrator alone and chockfull of doubt.
In likeness, these short stories are examples of how two women think of themselves because of their actions. O. Henry and Parker both exhibit how women can feel simply due to how their significant others view them. They show how a simple feeling can turn into a complex conundrum of moods and reactions. In contrast, Della can find love and luxury with Jim but as Dorothy Parker writes “A Telephone Call” she cultivates a sort of enthralling and despondent category of dispositions for the reader. Overall, Love plays an important role both stories as it can make one feel and do many different things.
Works Cited
Parker, Dorothy. “A Telephone Call”. New York: Cosmopolitan Magazine, 1930. Print
Porter, Sydney. “The Gift of Magi”. The New York Sunday World, 1905. Print
In these two stories “A Rose for Emily’’ by William Faulkner, and “Good Country People’’ by Flannery O’Connor, there is controversy between two women, Emily and Hulga. The protagonists, Emily and Hulga, deal with many things as in being from a small town and being unattractive. Emily and Hulga’s town show some sympathy throughout the stories. I believe they are sympathized for because, they struggle for love, then finally find love, and then lose love.
How sad can that be for these women to feel that they have no other option out of their marriage? In conclusion, both short stories were great at allowing the reader to see the way that women were repressed in their society in the 1900s. We don't hate the men; we just wish women did not have to be so subservient. Freedom is achieved in very unconventional ways in both of these stories, but the kind of freedom these narrators achieve is not available to most women of this time era. Works Cited Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia.
Recently, I saw a movie about female tennis champion – Billie Jean King, and although I have never been into the feminism (neither can I say that I quite understand it), her character woke up some other kind of sensitivity in me. After this – to me significant change – I could not help myself not to notice different approaches of John Steinbeck and Kay Boyle to the similar thematic. They both deal with marital relationships and it was quite interesting to view lives of ordinary married couples through both “male” and “female eyes”. While Steinbeck opens his story describing the Salinas Valley in December metaphorically referring to the Elisa’s character, Boyle jumps directly to Mrs. Ames’s inner world. Although both writers give us pretty clear picture of their characters, Boyle does it with more emotions aiming our feelings immediately, unlike Steinbeck who leaves us more space to think about Elisa Allen.
In the short story “A&P”, John Updike uses similes, metaphors, and other figurative language in order to portray the narrator's opinion on women. He uses phrases such as “giving me hell”(Updike 1), “she was the Queen”(Updike 2), “buzz like a bee in a glass jar”(Updike 2), “shoulder bones like a denten sheet of metal”(Updike 2), “the sheep pushing their carts down the aisle”(Updike 2), and much more to describe the narrator's opinion on the people who go into the store. This insight into the narrator’s mind is a good tool to show his personality since the story is written in his point of view rather than third person or one of the girls.
Within every story or poem, there is always an interpretation made by the reader, whether right or wrong. In doing so, one must thoughtfully analyze all aspects of the story in order to make the most accurate assessment based on the literary elements the author has used. Compared and contrasted within the two short stories, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, and John Updike’s “A&P,” the literary elements character and theme are made evident. These two elements are prominent in each of the differing stories yet similarities are found through each by studying the elements. The girls’ innocence and naivety as characters act as passages to show something superior, oppression in society shown towards women that is not equally shown towards men.
The setting of both stories reinforces the notion of women's dependence on men. The late 1800's were a turbulent time for women's roles. The turn of the century brought about revolution, fueled by the energy and freedom of a new horizon…but it was still just around the bend. In this era, during which both short stories were published, members of the weaker sex were blatantly disregarded as individuals, who had minds that could think, and reason, and form valid opinions.
As a female university student, I feel deeply related to Marjorie since her personality is quietly similar to mine. Analogously, I could feel Bernice’s “vague pain” (Fitzgerald, 3) and realize her sensitivity as the things have happened to me when I was younger. In order to comprehend author’s main idea, I did numerous researches about the jazz age. Thus it can be seen, reader’s background is also crucial when responding to this literary texts. The writer’s main target audiences are women, who have different desires and needs than men. The meaning of the text often competes when we have a better understanding of our self-identities. We interpret the text based on our own psyches, experiences, and judgments. Literature, are like music, without interaction with its audiences, no profound meaning would be
Callahan, John. "Review of Love and Trouble." Short Story Criticism Vol. 5. (Essay date 1974).
The Lais of Marie de France is a compilation of short stories that delineate situations where love is just. Love is presented as a complex emotion and is portrayed as positive, while at other times, it is portrayed as negative. The author varies on whether or not love is favorable as is expressed by the outcomes of the characters in the story, such as lovers dying or being banished from the city. To demonstrate, the author weaves stories that exhibit binaries of love. Two distinct types of love are described: selfish and selfless. Love is selfish when a person leaves their current partner for another due to covetous reasons. Contrarily, selfless love occurs when a lover leaves to be in a superior relationship. The stark contrast between the types of love can be analyzed to derive a universal truth about love.
Most love stories end with a man and woman happily in love with each other. This is not the case in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, “Last Kiss”. Throughout the story, Jim longs for his childhood sweetheart and Pamela seeks out someone who will make her a star actress in Hollywood. Jim holds fast to his position of power and does not give in to Pamela’s beauty and charm until later in the story. Strong will and determination of females pose as a threat to masculinity because females can entice, persuade and manipulate males. Fitzgerald’s story demonstrates the inability of femininity to surpass the power of masculinity. This is shown through reinforcement of femininity, masculinity and belief in social norms.
Gaitskill’s “Tiny, Smiling Daddy” focuses on the father and his downward spiral of feeling further disconnected with his family, especially his lesbian daughter, whose article on father-daughter relationships stands as the catalyst for the father’s realization that he’d wronged his daughter and destroyed their relationship. Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” focuses on Mel and his attempt to define, compare, and contrast romantic love, while leaving him drunk and confused as he was before. While both of my stories explore how afflicted love traumatizes the psyche and seem to agree that love poses the greatest dilemma in life, and at the same time that it’s the most valued prospect of life, the two stories differ in that frustrated familial love causes Gaitskill's protagonist to become understandable and consequently evokes sympathy from the reader, but on the other hand frustrated romantic love does nothing for Carver's Protagonist, except keep him disconnected from his wife and leaving him unchanged, remaining static as a character and overall unlikable. In comparing “Tiny, Smiling Daddy” and “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”, together they suggest that familial love is more important than romantic love, which we relentlessly strive to achieve often forgetting that we’ll forever feel alone without familial love, arguably the origin of love itself.
In the story “Two Kinds”, the author, Amy Tan, intends to make reader think of the meaning behind the story. She doesn’t speak out as an analyzer to illustrate what is the real problem between her and her mother. Instead, she uses her own point of view as a narrator to state what she has experienced and what she feels in her mind all along the story. She has not judged what is right or wrong based on her opinion. Instead of giving instruction of how to solve a family issue, the author chooses to write a narrative diary containing her true feeling toward events during her childhood, which offers reader not only a clear account, but insight on how the narrator feels frustrated due to failing her mother’s expectations which leads to a large conflict between the narrator and her mother.
William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” are two short stories that incorporate multiple similarities and differences. Both stories’ main characters are females who are isolated from the world by male figures and are eventually driven to insanity. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the unidentified narrator moves to a secluded area with her husband and sister-in-law in hopes to overcome her illness. In “A Rose for Emily,” Emily’s father keeps Emily sheltered from the world and when he dies, she is left with nothing. Both stories have many similarities and differences pertaining to the setting, characterization, symbolism, and their isolation from the world by dominant male figures, which leads them to insanity.
The “Gift of the Magi”, by O. Henry, is a short story that unfolds in an unanticipated and remarkable way that gently tugs the reader in which makes them want to continue reading. The story is about two characters named Della and Jim. For Christmas, Della cuts her hair to sell for money to buy Jim a chain for his watch while Jim sells his watch to buy Della some fancy combs. They both couldn’t use each other's gifts properly by reason of them sacrificing what they loved likewise finding delight in giving - what is foolish in the head, may be wise for the heart.
O. Henry’s short story “The Gift of the Magi,” is about a couple who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. The story takes place on Christmas Eve in a furnished apartment at eight dollars a week. I feel that the narrator mocks Jim and Della for being poor. “It did not beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.” (O. Henry 165). Della and Jim’s income shrunk from thirty dollars a week to twenty dollars a week causing them a great deal of financial problems. They both are troubled that Christmas is tomorrow and they cannot afford to buy each other a nice gift. Jim’s gold watch and Della’s hair play an important role in the story.