In the Novel “Women of Brewster Place,” the author Gloria Naylor presents several stories of women living in Brewster place. She highlights the personal struggles of each and every character to show how complex relationships are and how the relationships help them survive in Brewster place. Some of the most important female relationships that are illustrated in this novel would be Mattie and Etta, Kiswana and Cora, and Theresa and Lorraine. All three of those relationships represent the struggles of living in Brewster place and how they all need someone to depend on to feel at ease in a place they would call home. One of the most important relationships in the novel is the relationship between Mattie and Etta. Mattie and Etta had known …show more content…
In the Novel, both female lived completely different lives. Kiswana was a rich girl who used to live in a middle class neighborhood known as Linden Hills and Cora was a doll obsessed child who uses men for her own benefit; to give birth to children. Kiswana is a strong advocate for African Americans and wants to create a petition to help fix the homes in Brewster Place while Cora wanted nothing but to live watching her favorite shows on TV and trying to tame her wild children. Cora had no interest in how to improve the life of her children nor did she wanted to improve the living style she was in. But thanks to Kiswana, Cora finally came to her senses and tries to create a better life for her children to make up for what she lost in her childhood. One day Kiswana persuaded Cora to bring her children to a shakespeare play and at first Cora was irritated of the fact that she couldn’t understood what the actors were saying but eventually she came to love the story and everything about it. She then reminisces about the life she used to have and how she wanted her children to be better. “Sonya wouldn’t be little forever—she’d have no more excuses for missing those meetings in the evening. Junior high; high school; college—none of them stayed little forever. And then on to good jobs in insurance companies and the post office, even doctors or lawyers. Yes, that’s what would happen to …show more content…
She gave Mattie a huge role in the story and created a relationship with Etta to served as a guide for friendship between women living in Brewster. Gloria created a educated figure such as Kiswana and her relationship with Cora to help make Brewster a better place and bring hope for a better future for everyone. Gloria especially introduces a Theresa and Lorraine relationship to show that beyond the bond between women lays the truth of what women had to go through while living in a society with
In the book, Mattie starts out as a lazy teenager who needs to be told what to do by her over controlling mother, but throughout the story, she becomes more responsible and adult-like. For example, at the start of their adventure, Mattie leaves P...
Working as a teacher serving at-risk four-year-old children, approximately six of her eighteen students lived in foster care. The environment introduced Kathy to the impact of domestic violence, drugs, and family instability on a developing child. Her family lineage had a history of social service and she found herself concerned with the wellbeing of one little girl. Angelica, a foster child in Kathy’s class soon to be displaced again was born the daughter of a drug addict. She had been labeled a troublemaker, yet the Harrisons took the thirty-hour training for foster and adoptive care and brought her home to adopt. Within six months, the family would also adopted Angie’s sister Neddy. This is when the Harrison family dynamic drastically changes and Kathy begins a journey with over a hundred foster children passing through her home seeking refuge.
Throughout the novel Mattie and Ethan are genuinely in love with one another. This can be proven when Mattie turned down Denis Eady the “rich Irish grocer” for Ethan. Another example was when Mattie “had an eye and an ear to hear” that not only listened but also understood Ethan. However it was the “lover” archetype that Wharton incorporated into Ethan that blurred the image of Mattie in Ethan’s eyes. Mattie is a manipulator that dragged Ethan into his predicament and...
... the book has to offer. She gives Montag a new outlook on life, simply by asking questions, and actually taking interest in his life.
As Mother’s Day approaches, writer Penny Rudge salutes “Matriarchs [who] come in different guises but are instantly recognizable: forceful women, some well-intentioned, others less so, but all exerting an unstoppable authority over their clan” (Penny Rudge), thereby revealing the immense presence of women in the American family unit. A powerful example of a mother’s influence is illustrated in Native American society whereby women are called upon to confront daily problems associated with reservation life. The instinct for survival occurs almost at birth resulting in the development of women who transcend a culture predicated on gender bias. In Love Medicine, a twentieth century novel about two families who reside on the Indian reservation, Louise Erdrich tells the story of Marie Lazarre and Lulu Lamartine, two female characters quite different in nature, who are connected by their love and lust for Nector Kashpaw, head of the Chippewa tribe. Marie is a member of a family shunned by the residents of the reservation, and copes with the problems that arise as a result of a “childhood, / the antithesis of a Norman Rockwell-style Anglo-American idyll”(Susan Castillo), prompting her to search for stability and adopt a life of piety. Marie marries Nector Kashpaw, a one-time love interest of Lulu Lamartine, who relies on her sexual prowess to persevere, resulting in many liaisons with tribal council members that lead to the birth of her sons. Although each female character possibly hates and resents the other, Erdrich avoids the inevitable storyline by focusing on the different attributes of these characters, who unite and form a force that evidences the significance of survival, and the power of the feminine bond in Native Americ...
The lack of support and affection protagonists, Sula Peace and Nel Wright, causes them to construct their lives on their own without a motherly figure. Toni Morrison’s novel, Sula, displays the development of Sula and Nel through childhood into adulthood. Before Sula and Nel enter the story, Morrison describes the history of the Peace and Wright family. The Peace family live abnormally to their town of Medallion, Ohio. Whereas the Wrights have a conventional life style, living up to society’s expectations.The importance of a healthy mother-daughter relationship is shown through the interactions of Eva and Hannah Peace, Hannah and Sula, and between Helene Wright and Nel. When Sula and Nel become friends they realize the improper parenting they
Mildred is in the novel simply to show us what the average joe (or jane) is like. "In a story of extordinary people—Montag, Clarisse, Faber, Granger, and even
She is the person who raised Grant to be the good, kind person that he is. She is also the one who talked Grant into talking to Jefferson. Vivian is Grant’s girlfriend; she is Grant’s encouragement. Whatever problems he has, he always talks to her about them and she makes him feel better, and helps him through them. Summary: This story is about racism in the South and how it affects the people it concerns.
Women were expected to stay at home and take care of the house. When Bethia’s mother dies she is expected to take of her siblings and put her educational aspirations on hold. Caleb may be a Native but even he is allowed to pursue a higher education simply due to the fact that he is male. Their friendship is also never allowed to become anything more than a friendship. Bethia’s father arranges her marriage for her, she does not actual end up going through with it but during this time arranged marriages were extremely common. Friendships between girls and boys was not acceptable let alone marriages between colonist and
Intertwined in allusions to women of Mexican history and folklore, making it clear that women across the centuries have suffered the same alienation and victimization, Cisneros presents a woman who struggles to prevail over romantic notions of domestic bliss by leaving her husband. In the story Woman Hollering Creek, Sandra Cisneros discusses the issues of living life as a married woman through a character named Cleófilas; a character who is married to a man who abuses her physically and mentally. Cisneros reveals the way the culture puts a difference between a male and a female, men above women. In Woman Hollering Creek, we see a young Mexican woman, who suddenly moves across the border and gets married. The protagonist, Cleófilas’ character is based on a family of a six brothers and a dad and without a mom, and the story reveals around her inner feelings and secrets.
...devoted herself to the practical and compensating notion of supporting a household during the early 1900s. The farm girl’s exclusion from society allowed her to possess freedom, unattainable to the Gibson Girl. Victorian society bound the Gibson Girl to unrealistic expectations and oppressive restrictions. Society possessed no dominance over the ideals and appearances of a farm girl thus demonstrating that the Gibson Girl’s life held just as many, if not more, difficulties.
Within Tennessee Williams's story about love and abuse within marriage and challenging familial ties, there lie three very different characters that all see the world in vastly different ways. These members of a family that operate completely outside of our generation’s norms, are constantly unsure of themselves and their station within the binary not only of their familial unit, but within the gender binary that is established for them to follow. Throughout the story of the strange family, each character goes through a different arch that changes them irrevocably whether it is able to be perceived or not by those around them. The only male, Stanley is initially the macho force in the home who controls everything without question. He has no consequences for his actions against his wife and is never held accountable for treating the people around him poorly; this lasts until Blanche arrives. Blanche is an outwardly demure, but spirited young woman who after experiencing untold misfortune breaks mentally and decides to no longer care what others may think of her. She lives her life lavishly and foolishly by having dalliances with younger or richer men who shower her with gifts and attention to get sex from her all too willing form. Her effect on Stanley is one of temptation and challenge; she continually tries to convince her sister that she is too good for the man and in turn fosters a resentment for her in him. Stella acts as the antithesis of Stanley and Blanche’s extreme personalities. She is innocence and purity where they are the darkness that threatens to overtake her life. Throughout, Stella is a pawn that they both try to use against the other to no real avail as she is determined to make the best choice for herself. In th...
The female characters in Ladder of Years and Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Pearl Tull, Delia Grinstead, and Jenny Grinstead, are women who specially thrives in the environment where unjust treatment is mostly apparent. The dysfunctional family dynamics in Ladder of Years and Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant allows these female characters to manifest different aspects feminism. Feminism by itself is rather ambiguous, therefore, specific aspects of the Feminist Theories are applied. Liberal feminism, which advocates for individuals to freely develop their own talents and pursue their own interest, is primarily prominent in these novels. Anne Tyler promotes liberal feminism in Ladder of Years and Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant through
...y uses anecdotes and stories of women in the 17th and 18th centuries to provide evidence to the reader and demonstrate the roles women filled and how they filled those roles. Furthermore, she illustrates the individuality in each woman’s story. Although in several of the stories the women may be filling the same roles, the uniqueness of the situation varies from woman to woman. Ulrich’s use of period stories helps add to the credibility of the arguments she makes. She makes the reader feel the weight of responsibility on the shoulders of colonial New England women. A sense of appreciation is gained by the reader for the sheer number of roles fulfilled by the women of New England. In addition, Ulrich’s real life accounts also give valuable insight to life as it was during this time period in American history and the silent heroes behind it – the wives of New England.
A woman's place in the post-depression era is usually one where a woman would commonly be known to have a role in the economy; only to be waiting in her kitchen to cook for the "money-making husband." It was often rare to encounter one woman who had the ability to take her inner interests and turn them into an entrepreneurial role in society. Yet, through this novel by James M. Cain, one will encounter Mildred Pierce, in which Mildred uses her inner talent, and cooking. To redeem the long lost woman's role in the economy and the workforce. This inner interest of cooking was not kept inside the household as it has with millions of other woman in the United States; it was instead expanded into a successful capitalistic venture for Mildred.