Toni Cade Bambera's short story “Gorilla, My Love” displays Hazel’s first experience with unrequited love. The author narrates a story about the way children overanalyze misrepresentations of the truth. Throughout the story, Hazel talks about different instances of when she thought she was being lied to. When Jefferson shows Hazel and Jason some pictures of his girlfriend, it triggers a flashback for her. Hazel felt betrayal throughout the story although there was no real betrayal, it was only her naive mentality that made her feel that way. Hazel overanalyzes everything adults say and takes things too personal. As Hazel is in the car with her Granddaddy, her uncle Hunca Bubba, and her younger brother Baby Jason, Hunca Bubba asks to be called by his full name, Jefferson Winston Vale. Hazel asks Hunca Bubba if he will marry his girlfriend. When he confirms that he will, she accuses him of lying, since he had once promised to marry her. Although this promise was a joke, Hazel takes it seriously. Hunca Bubba finds the misunderstanding to be small, however, Hazel is devastated and hur...
The Notebook (Cassavetes, 2004) is a love story about a young couple named Allie Hamilton and Noah Calhoun, who fall deeply in love with each other. The Hamilton’s are financially stable, and expect for their daughter Allie to marry someone with the same wealth. Noah on the other hand works as a laborer, and comes from an underprivileged family. Throughout the film there were several negative behaviors, and interpersonal communications within the context of their relationship, which relates to chapter nine. This chapter explores relationships, emphasizing on affection and understanding, attraction, and the power of a relationship. The focus of this paper is the interpersonal conflict with Noah, Allie and her mother, Anne Hamilton.
The influence family members can have on the development of a child is enormous; they can either mold a healthy mind or drive a child toward darkness. Jennifer Egan’s Safari is a short story that highlights the different relationships in a family with a complicated background. Rolph and Charlie come from a divorced household and join their father, Lou, and his new girlfriend, Mindy, on an African safari. As the events of the trip unfold, Lou’s children experience a coming of age in which they lose the innocence they once possessed. The significant impact of family dynamic on children’s transition into adulthood is presented in Safari. Jennifer Egan uses Mindy’s structural classifications of Charlie and Rolph to demonstrate how Lou and Mindy’s relationship hinders the maturation of the two kids.
Connie, from “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, wants to rebel against her family. She uses her attractiveness to flirt with boys at the local restaurant behind their backs as a form of rebellion. She feels as though her family does not appreciate her; her father does not pay any attention to her and her mother constantly compares her to her sister, criticizing her every move and asking why she cares so much about her appearance. On one of her outings she sees a boy who she vainly chooses to ignore. Later he shows up at her house posing as her friend, calling himself Arnold Friend, and talking to her as though he is another boy she flirts with down at the diner and pretending to be her age. She subtly flirts with him at first, only realizing the danger when it is too late.
By her account, some of the fun in going to the movies is throwing popcorn, making noises, and leading the other children in disruptions. They all knew from past times how much noise they can make, how far they can push the theater personal before they get into trouble, and they enjoy seeing the personal angry. On this Easter Sunday in question the theater was advertising a film called Gorilla, My Love, but the theater is actually showing a religious picture, King of Kings, and an old Bugs Bunny cartoon. Hazel agitates the children in the crowd in order to cause loud protest, and marches into the manager's office to demand her money back. When the manager refuses to speak or even return her money, she steals a book of matches and lights a fire in the lobby. Somehow, Hazel is so fierce in her explanation, and her voice is so strong and confident, that she seems tough and likeable at the same time. Hazel has been raised to speak her mind, and she does. She avoids a whipping from her father by explaining that the adults had made a promise—that they would show Gorilla, My Love—and broke it. Hazel's rebellion, in her eyes, was a blow for the value of keeping one's word. Knowing she was raised to stand for ...
When an emotion is believed to embody all that brings bliss, serenity, effervescence, and even benevolence, although one may believe its encompassing nature to allow for generalizations and existence virtually everywhere, surprisingly, directly outside the area love covers lies the very antithesis of love: hate, which in all its forms, has the potential to bring pain and destruction. Is it not for this very reason, this confusion, that suicide bombings and other acts of violence and devastation are committed in the name of love? In Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, the reader experiences this tenuity that is the line separating love and hate in many different forms and on many different levelsto the extent that the line between the two begins to blur and become indistinguishable. Seen through Ruth's incestuous love, Milkman and Hagar's relationship, and Guitar's love for African-Americans, if love causes destruction, that emotion is not true love; in essence, such destructive qualities of "love" only transpire when the illusion of love is discovered and reality characterizes the emotion to be a parasite of love, such as obsession or infatuation, something that resembles love but merely inflicts pain on the lover.
Connie has the need to be viewed as older and as more mature than she really is, all the while still displaying childlike behavior. She shows this childlike behavior by “craning her neck to glance in mirrors [and] checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was all right” (Oates 323). This shows that Connie is very insecure and needs other people’s approval. Although on one side she is very childish, on the other side she has a strong desire to be treated like an adult. This longing for adulthood is part of her coming of age, and is demonstrated by her going out to “bright-lit, fly-infested restaurant[s]” and meeting boys, staying out with those boys for three hours at a time, and lying to her parents about where she has been and who she has been with (Oates 325, 326). “Everything about her ha[s] two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home” (Oates 324). Even her physical movements represent her two-sided nature: “her walk that could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make anyone think she was hearin...
The film chronicles the histories of three fathers, and manages to relates and link their events and situations. First is Mitchell Stephens and his relationship with his drug-addict daughter. Second is Sam, and the secret affair he is having with his young daughter Nicole. He is somewhat of a narcissistic character because of his preoccupation with himself and pleasing himself, and his lack of empathy throughout the film for the others in the town. Third is Billy, who loves his two children so much that he follows behind the school bus every day waving at them. Billy is also having an affair with a married woman who owns the town’s only motel. On the exterior the town is an average place with good people just living their lives. But, beneath all the small town simplicity is a web of lies and secrets, some which must be dealt with in the face of this tragedy.
Bambara, Toni Cade. “Gorilla, My Love.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 294-298. Print.
“Big Blonde” tells the tale of former wholesale dress model Hazel Morse as she drinks herself into the arms of many men and eventually to a suicide attempt. Throughout the story we see Hazel having many relationships with many different men all who want nothing more than for her to be a good sport. The first we are introduced to is her husband Herbie Morse. The two wed only six weeks after meeting and start a life together. Pleased by her new o...
What is the meaning of love? Many people believe in love at first sight, and this number seemingly goes down, as some people simply don’t find love at first sight or second and so on. Love may not be finding the absolute perfect relationship but what one can say is perfect in their eyes. The feeling that is strung along with this is complete disappointment. In Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, the feeling of disappointment is felt throughout the audience, as the reader learns of the situational struggle and the extremely uncomfortable topic of the unborn baby sitting with them at the restaurant.
In her novel Beloved, Toni Morrison explores the paradoxical nature of love both as a dangerous presence that promises suffering and a life-giving force that gives the strength to proceed; through the experiences of the run-away slave Sethe. The dangerous aspect of love is revealed through the comments of Paul D and Ella regarding the motherly love of Sethe towards her children. Sethe's deep attachment to her children is deemed dangerous due to their social environment which evidently promises that the loved one of a slave will be hurt. On the other hand, love is portrayed as a sustaining force that allows Sethe to move on with her life. All the devastating experiences Sethe endures do not matter due to the fact that she must live for her children. Although dangerous, Sethe's love finally emerges as the prevalent force that allows her to leave the past behind and move on with her life.
The race has already ended and Hazel is waiting for the results. Hazel realizes that her brother is a great runner and is jumping up and down. Hazel is responding by jumping up and down after she sees her brother running and she decides that he is a great runner. Many people think she is jumping up and down because they think she won. We see that she is caring in the following quote: “And by the time he comes over I’m jumping up and down so glad to see him- my brother Raymond, a great runner in the family tradition.” (p. 381 lines 475-476) We see that Hazel saw Raymond running during the race. She saw her brother running and realized that her brother is a good runner and was happy for him as she felt he was a great runner in the family tradition. She now values him as someone important. She didn't value him as important before as he isn't quite right. We now can see that she values and cares for her brother as she is happy for him. Through this quote we are able to see that Hazel cares for her brother and that she believes in him. We see that she is caring and proves that Hazel has many emotions including being
After having held numerous jobs while trying to balance the loss of his father, raising children since the age of 18, and his passion to write, Carver began drinking. He wrote Gazebo, a story in his collection “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” in 1981, before his divorce. The story depicts Holly and Duane, a married couple managing a motel. Once college sweethearts, they’re love begins to fade as Duane has an affair with Juanita, a maid at the motel. Duane was set on managing the motel, forcing Holly to give up her future. They rely on following each other to get through life; therefore, despite Holly’s doubtfulness in the rekindling of their love, Duane wants to continue an aimless life together despite his unfaithfulness. Holly makes efforts to rekindle their love by pouring whiskey on Duane’s stomach and licking it off but ultimately admits to herself that Duane is thinking about Juanita whenever they have sex. He begs for her forgiven...
Marie, who is a product of an abusive family, is influenced by her past, as she perceives the relationship between Callie and her son, Bo. Saunders writes, describing Marie’s childhood experiences, “At least she’d [Marie] never locked on of them [her children] in a closet while entertaining a literal gravedigger in the parlor” (174). Marie’s mother did not embody the traditional traits of a maternal fig...
Hazel Grace Lancaster was a shy and depressed girl who knows she’s going to die soon, she met, Augustus Waters, (Gus) a smooth talking boy who knows what he wants. Gus changed Hazel’s whole life by just meeting at a cancer meeting. After the meeting they were outside and he asked her out to go see a movie, and right after that he pulls out a cigarette and puts it in his mouth. Hazel asked why are you doing that! That is Disgusting! Gus says to her it’s a metaphor. Hazel says, A Metaphor? Yep, you see you put the thing that does the killing between your teeth, but you don’t give it the power to do the killing. So there for it’s a metaphor. With Augustus’s smooth moves and Hazel charmingness, they slowly fall in love with each other. Hazel gets