In Cheever's story "The Swimmer" I in a lot of ways am lost. He wrote it in a narrative point of view, but yet then also from Ned's also. Ned seems to be lost in his own little world through out the piece. He swims and swims through everyone's pools, and waters, but yet he still does not remember things. He does not understand what the people he comes in contact with while swimming say such things to him as " if you are coming here for more money I will not give you another cent". It seems as though Ned is lost in his own world, buried in confusion. When he finds his house empty he does not understand what happened. All of the things the people had told him on his journey were true, but he then and still does not understand what is going on. To me it seems like a huge dream one that he can't even translate himself.
In O'Conners' " Good country people", there are many aspects that fit well with "The Swimmer". Hulga in this story was very sheltered by her mother because of her conditions. Although she was this way she let life take her where it leaded her. Even though she was careful how she did this, she made a mistake. She allowed her self to fall for the bible sales man. Because of this he took off with her leg. This fits well with "The Swimmer" because in the end of the story Ned realizes he has nothing left, his life is empty. Hulga finds this out also after her leg is taken away, and all she is left with is her education, in which did not get her very far with the man tricking her. O'Conner wrote this story through a narrator, but yet still had a lot of dialog especially from the mother. In both cases, the person takes great lengths to make it to their goals in life or at the moment their goals, but in return they are left empty, with the end not appearing as though their vision had set in their own minds.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Sunday, April 1, 2007
hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God"
In the novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” women were treated very differently than women today are treated. It was inflected in the beginning how Janie’s grandmother was a slave woman, who was forced to have a child with her slave owner, (Janie’s mom). This situation was followed by Janie’s mother, whom also was raped, except this time it was by her own school teacher. This to me shows that women meant nothing to guys of that earlier time, because they just would rape them and abandon the child they left behind. As the novel progressed, we saw how Janie’s grandmother disapproved of her kissing the boy at the fence. Women of this time period could not randomly kiss a guy unless they were married to them. I guess you can say that in reality these women were just pieces of property passed along to the next caretaker.
Being a piece of property was shown very well when Janie was forced to marry Logan Killicks by her grandmother. Her life of being a man’s property started with this marriage. Logan first pampered her and as he said “spoiled” her at the beginning of their marriage. Towards the end, he figured she should start helping with things like cutting wood and carrying it in the house, as well as plowing fields. “Naw, Ah needs two mules dis yea. Taters is going’ tuh be taters in de fall. Bringin’ big prices. Ah aims tuh run two plows, and dis man Ah’m talkin’ ‘bout is got uh mule all gentled up so een uh woman kin handle ‘im.” Although he doesn’t come out and say “ Janie you’re going to start plowing fields with me” he does tell her that she is going to in an odd way.
As Janie got tired of that life she did end up running away with Joe Starks. This life seemed at first to also give her a great deal of freedom. That changed as you’d think it would during this time period. He would tell her always that she should be proud to be the mayor’s wife and she needed to start acting like it. He was often very jealous of other men in the town also, because they would stare at his wife’s hair. Because of this, he made her put a bandana on her head to cover her hair’s beauty.
Soon after Joe died Janie’s life changed once again , and this time it was in a totally different aspect. She met tea cake, who treated her wonderfully. Although tea cake was much younger than her he would tell her that age didn’t matter and that no body would know because she looked as though she were his own age. Tea cake did everything he could to please Janie. To him, she was far from a piece of property, but rather a gift from god. The other women in the town having no knowledge of being treated so wonderfully made it obvious that they did not approve. Often times the women would just tell her that he was going to run off with her money and that is all that he wants. They would do this to her because as she was previously, they were pieces of property set out to only please their husband, but yet not be happy in their life. Janie although had found a happyness. Tea cake only once had hit her, and that was to prove ownership as though he thought he had to in order to not lose her. But unlike the other men of the area, he did not treat Janie as though she was just there to please him and him only. He was caring and compassionate to her, which made her happy in her life.
Although Janie’s life went from persay owner to owner, in the end she was no longer treated as though she was property. Tea cake treated her as something special, which most men in this time period by far did not treat their wives like this. In all it was a progression through time, when women started to show their strengths leading to their freedom. It was not until much later that they were no longer property, but this book showed the starting of it. Hurston is trying to show how the women were treated poorly, and how some of them led their own way into happyness.
Being a piece of property was shown very well when Janie was forced to marry Logan Killicks by her grandmother. Her life of being a man’s property started with this marriage. Logan first pampered her and as he said “spoiled” her at the beginning of their marriage. Towards the end, he figured she should start helping with things like cutting wood and carrying it in the house, as well as plowing fields. “Naw, Ah needs two mules dis yea. Taters is going’ tuh be taters in de fall. Bringin’ big prices. Ah aims tuh run two plows, and dis man Ah’m talkin’ ‘bout is got uh mule all gentled up so een uh woman kin handle ‘im.” Although he doesn’t come out and say “ Janie you’re going to start plowing fields with me” he does tell her that she is going to in an odd way.
As Janie got tired of that life she did end up running away with Joe Starks. This life seemed at first to also give her a great deal of freedom. That changed as you’d think it would during this time period. He would tell her always that she should be proud to be the mayor’s wife and she needed to start acting like it. He was often very jealous of other men in the town also, because they would stare at his wife’s hair. Because of this, he made her put a bandana on her head to cover her hair’s beauty.
Soon after Joe died Janie’s life changed once again , and this time it was in a totally different aspect. She met tea cake, who treated her wonderfully. Although tea cake was much younger than her he would tell her that age didn’t matter and that no body would know because she looked as though she were his own age. Tea cake did everything he could to please Janie. To him, she was far from a piece of property, but rather a gift from god. The other women in the town having no knowledge of being treated so wonderfully made it obvious that they did not approve. Often times the women would just tell her that he was going to run off with her money and that is all that he wants. They would do this to her because as she was previously, they were pieces of property set out to only please their husband, but yet not be happy in their life. Janie although had found a happyness. Tea cake only once had hit her, and that was to prove ownership as though he thought he had to in order to not lose her. But unlike the other men of the area, he did not treat Janie as though she was just there to please him and him only. He was caring and compassionate to her, which made her happy in her life.
Although Janie’s life went from persay owner to owner, in the end she was no longer treated as though she was property. Tea cake treated her as something special, which most men in this time period by far did not treat their wives like this. In all it was a progression through time, when women started to show their strengths leading to their freedom. It was not until much later that they were no longer property, but this book showed the starting of it. Hurston is trying to show how the women were treated poorly, and how some of them led their own way into happyness.
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