stranger

1051 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Morality and human nature

The essence of a stranger is a person who one has no direct connection with and is essentially strange for that person to induce any sort of personal interaction. Toni Morrison introduces a fisherwoman who she does not know by encountering her personally. This woman is a stranger to her and Morrison breaks down the boundaries of estranging people solely for not knowing who they are in this essay. Since no one else can recollect the existence of the Fisherwoman the actual existence of the fisherwoman is questioned. Despite the fact that this woman may look very similar looking to the individuals captured in Robert Bergman’s photos, Morrison is able to give the fisherwoman a personality and we can compare her to Bergman’s photos.
“[M]en’s shoes, a man’s hat, a well-worn colorless sweater over a long black dress” (Page 80) is the description of the fisherwoman who gave off a sense of welcome to Morrison. This enticed her to strike a conversation with the fisherwoman and invite her into her house. This may seem strange considering the two women have only known each other for fifteen minutes. After the fisherwoman leaves Morrison cannot find anyone else who has any knowledge of the fisherwoman. It could be that the fisherwoman does not even exist. There are reasons to believe both sides.
The fisherwoman must have existed. The reason that no one else can recall the fisherwoman could simply be because she was clever enough to never be noticed. Now the one time she is caught she has her alibi all ready and slips off back into society. The uneasy part of this scenario is the fact that Morrison had let this deceitful stranger into her home who has blatantly lied to Morrison and now knows where she lives. Although a woman wh...

... middle of paper ...

...ive of what she thinks society should be about themselves. In Morrison’s essay she says, “there are only versions of ourselves, many of which we have not embraced.” (Page 79) The fisherwoman is just her other side and inviting the fisherwoman into her own home is that embracing of the other side. The part where no one else could recollect the fisherwoman is those individuals protecting themselves from that other side and blocking it out.
The debate on whether or not the fisherwoman even exists is the key to this essay. Either situation can drive a different argument on the purpose of the essay. Having the fisherwoman exist shows the dishonesty of and the very reason society keeps away from strangers. Whereas having the fisherwoman not exist shows the kindness that a stranger can hold. Also the fisherwoman represents the other side that Morrison is embracing.

Show More
Related

  • Literary Analysis Of Mary Hood's 'How Far She Went'

    895 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Why? Why? The girl gasped, as they lunged down the old deer trail. Behind them they could hear shots, and glass breaking as the men came to the bogged car” (Hood 414). It is at this precise moment Hood’s writing shows the granddaughter’s depletion of her naïve nature, becoming aware of the brutality of the world around her and that it will influence her future. Continuing, Hood doesn’t stop with the men destroying the car; Hood elucidated the plight of the two women; describing how the man shot a fish and continued shooting the fish until it sank, outlining the malicious nature of the pair and their disregard for life and how the granddaughter was the fish had it not been for the grandmother’s past influencing how she lived her life. In that moment, the granddaughter becomes aware of the burden she will bear and how it has influenced her life.

    Read More

  • Essay on Flight in Song of Solomon

    1580 Words  | 4 Pages

    Clearly, the significant silences and the stunning absences throughout Morrison's texts become profoundly political as well as stylistically crucial. Morrison describes her own work as containing "holes and spaces so the reader can come into it" (Tate 125), testament to her rejection of theories that privilege j the author over the reader. Morrison disdains such hierarchies in which the reader as participant in the text is ignored: "My writing expects, demands participatory reading, and I think that is what literature is supposed to do. It's not just about telling the story; it's about involving the reader ... we (you, the reader, and I, the author) come together to make this book, to feel this experience" (Tate 125). But Morrison also indicates in each of her novels that images of the zero, the absence, the silence that is both chosen and enforced, are ideologically and politically revelatory.

    Read More

  • Summer by David Updike

    353 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the beginning we find the family and its surrogate son, Homer, enjoying the fruits of the summer. Homer wakes to find Mrs. Thyme sitting alone, “looking out across the flat blue stillness of the lake”(48). This gives us a sense of the calm, eternal feeling the lake presents and of Mrs. Thyme’s appreciation of it. Later, Fred and Homer wildly drive the motor boat around the lake, exerting their boyish enthusiasm. The lake is unaffected by the raucous fun and Homer is pleased to return to shore and his thoughts of Sandra. Our protagonist observes the object of his affection, as she interacts with the lake, lazily resting in the sun. The lake provides the constant, that which has always been and will always be. As in summers past, the preacher gives his annual sermon about the end of summer and a prayer that they shall all meet again. Afterward, Homer and Fred take a final turn around the lake only to see a girl who reminds Homer of Sandra. “And there was something in the way that she raised her arm which, when added to the distant impression of her fullness, beauty, youth, filled him with longing as their boat moved inexorably past…and she disappeared behind a crop of trees.

    Read More

  • Innocence: The White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett

    1201 Words  | 3 Pages

    The story is about a friendly hunter who comes to a budding girl named Sylvia for help to find a bird for his collection. He offers her ten dollars. At first, she agrees because of the impression the hunter makes on her. Later, she has a revelation through her love for the forest and neglects to tell him where the bird is. Sylvia represents the purity of innocence and has a bond with the natural world. Many of Sylvia’s thoughts are associated with the ability to be free. This exemplifies the women’s rights activism that was happening in the 19th century. Sarah Orne Jewett develops her theme of the change from innocence to experience in her short story “The White Heron” through the use of imagery, characterization, and symbolism.

    Read More

  • Literary Criticism In Woman Hollering Creek By Sandra Cisneros

    2485 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis of Recitatif Toni Morrison

    1321 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...al stereotypes to allow the readers to make their own assumptions based on their personal thoughts and beliefs. Many of the stereotypes that Morrison chose to use portray more of a socioeconomic class and not discriminating by race. As the setting or environment changed, it will be seen as a symbol of transformation of both Roberta and Twyla friendship. Each circumstance that they went through was distinctive. It tested the strength of their relationship with one another and exemplified their struggles they were facing in society. They had to adjust their beliefs to match the changing phases in the United States as many blacks and whites today still face problems in society about racial stereotypes and segregation. Toni Morrison portrayed racial identity not by black and white, but as irrelevant to relationships but rather by means of distinguishing between people.

    Read More

  • Hopper and Kirchner: A Comparative View

    1726 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...ainting; Nighthawks and Two Women do not seem similar in the least, upon a second deeper look one begins to notice their similarities. Similarities which are found both in the actual paintings; as well as in the places in their lives which the respective artists found themselves. Both were going through a period of isolation, which was taking place in either their personal lives, society around them, or both. These feelings were passed on to their paintings, leaving us, the viewer to gaze at them, study them and hear the message which they speak.

    Read More

  • Robert Johnson's He

    1346 Words  | 3 Pages

    This book helped me put some of the situations and feelings that I have experienced in my life into perspective and with more meaning. I could relate to many of the subjects that this book covered and could understand where the author’s ideas originated. Not only can I see his ideas appearing in my own actions, but I also see them in males in their mid-forties to fifties. This observation supports the idea of us going from innocence to doubt and back to innocence. The first idea that stuck with me is the interpretation of the salmon and how it represented Christ.

    Read More

  • Why the Ponds are Important in Crow Lake by Mary Lawson

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    Crow Lake is Canadian author Mary Lawson's first novel，which is narrated by Kate Morrison, the second child in the Morrison family. A serious car accident left seven-year-old Kate, her one and half year old sister, Bo, and her two older brothers, Luke and Matt, orphans. Rather than live with relatives separately, they chose to live together and grow up. Luke and Matt made many sacrifices to support their family and they also got many helps from their community. The story took place in Crow Lake, a remote small farming community in northen Ontario.

    Read More

  • Started Early - Took My Dog, by Emily Dickinson

    914 Words  | 2 Pages

    Through metaphors, the speaker proclaims of her longing to be one with the sea. As she notices The mermaids in the basement,(3) and frigates- in the upper floor,(5) it seems as though she is associating these particular daydreams with her house. She becomes entranced with these spectacles and starts to contemplate suicide.

    Read More

  • Coming of Age in Alice Munro’s "Boys and Girls"

    1071 Words  | 3 Pages

    Acceptance of who we are plays a large part in the overall theme of “rite of passage” in the story. The young girl is opposed to the thought of working for her mother at the beginning, but eventually comes to a realization that it is her pre-determined fate to fit the mould of the gender stereotype. Through the girl’s hardships, she accepts the fact that her younger brother, Laird, is now the man that his father needs for help, and she takes her place in womanhood. The story embodies gender identity and stereotypes, as a young child moves into adulthood. The fact that our rite of passage is unavoidable proves that we must all go through our own journeys to find our own true identity.

    Read More

  • Slavery, memory and women in Toni Morrison's beloved

    666 Words  | 2 Pages

    Therefore any attempt to read the noble Prize winner; Toni Morrison’s deep viewpoints urge us to see a side of her views, for she is an outstanding offshoot of the universal literary tree more specifically in American literature. Beloved has become a must on the American reading list despite of its complexity because of its effective subject and her artistic depiction.

    Read More

  • Toni Morrison Biography

    1003 Words  | 3 Pages

    Her mother was a church-going woman and sang in the choir. Her mother didn’t work; she just stayed home and took care of the family. By being black, her parents faced lots of racism living in the south (1). Both of her parents had moved from the south to escape the racism and to find better opportunities. Living in an integrated neighborhood, Morrison did not become fully aware of racial divisions until her teens (2).

    Read More

  • Violence In Toni Morrison's Authoritarianism Of Women

    1200 Words  | 3 Pages

    can be identified that Morrison relates violence to oppression. In this case, he asserts that women oppress the society because they do not support its progress.

    Read More

  • The Idea of Existentialism in The Stranger

    965 Words  | 2 Pages

    Existentialism is defined as "a philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining his or her own development through acts of the will”. In other words, existentialism it emphasizes individual freedom. Throughout The Stranger, the amount of existentialism views is abundant. The use of Mersault’s experiences covey the idea that human life has no meaning except for simple existence. The idea of existentialism in Albert Camus' The Stranger reflects through Mersault's life experiences with his relationship with Marie, the death of his mother Maman, the murdering of the Arab, and Mersault's trial and execution, all these events show that Mersault’s life of no meaning.

    Read More

More about stranger

Open Document