...human mind. This means that authors write about what goes on in their subconscious life. They write about what makes them as a person without the author actually knowing it. Tillie Olsen, the author of “I Stand Here Ironing,” was born into a middle class working family. She was born before the Great Depression, which means she grew up during it. “ I Stand Here Ironing” took place during the Great Depression and the main character is Emily. Emily is the first born in the family and she was the only baby that was beautiful at birth. She is a loner who has always been self-conscious of her dark hair and complexion; this makes her insecure. Through out the story the reader learns what the mom had to go through in order to raise her children. At the beginning of “I Stand Here Ironing” an unknown character tells the narrator that her daughter Emily needs help. The mother then goes to explain that there is nothing she can do for her at this point. Emily grew up a beautiful baby but she was troubled by illnesses. Her father had to leave their family to go find work. This was a normal thing to do during the depression but it left her mother alone with her. In the story you learn that the mother would work any job just to provide for Emily. As Emily grew up her appearance changed and her skin got darker. She did not look as good as she did when she was a child. This turned her into a loner and she became more insecure. In the short story the narrator explains that Emily always had...
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...The Baby Yellows “The Yellow Wallpaper”, a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is an unnerving tale about a woman and her spiral into psychosis. Mirroring the author’s actual experiences with depression and the “resting cure”, the story criticizes medical care that ignores patient concerns and deprives them of emotional outlets that could have been beneficiary towards a healthy mind. Set in the late nineteenth century, “The Yellow Wallpaper” illustrates the psychological effects of the popular “resting cure” and how the narrator is influcenced by it. While the illness the narrator has is never actually said, it is very heavily implied that she is suffering from postpartum depression. Eventually, her husband’s reliance on the “resting cure” and denying her healthy mental activities is what causes her depression to grow into postpartum psychosis. Postpartum depression is a form of depression typically affecting women after childbirth. Symptoms of postpartum depression include hallucinations and delusions, extreme agitation or anxiety, overwhelming fatigue, bizarre behavior, mood swings, inability or refusal to eat or sleep, and over worrying about the infant. The narrator showcases all of these symptoms, leading to the heavy assumption that she is suffering from postpartum depression. The narrator regularly experiences hallucinations, seeing a woman trapped behind bars in the pattern of the wallpaper. Gilman writes, “The front pattern does move- and no wonder! The woman...
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...Jessie Georgina Sime, Sinclair Ross, and Margaret Laurence all share one key element in their respective short stories. That common element is the fact that all three short stories’ settings directly impact the lifestyle, but, more importantly, the growth and decisions of the people (the individual and the wider society) involved. To begin with, Sime’s urban realism is used to depict the life of a woman during World War I. She discusses and expands on the idea of the new woman. Furthermore, she notes and how the emergence of this idea of the new woman had a great impact on society and the individual. More specifically, she points out how women went from noiseless to being heard. Furthermore, as we move from urban life to the prairies, Ross explores what is means to live and the effects of living in the prairies with prairie realism. The mother in Ross’ “The Runaway” experiences anger as a result of the great depression and the lifestyle...
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...A Clean Well-Lighted Place Adianez Leon Composition III/Literature– ENG1300 Alan Green, PH.D. 5 September, 2014 South University Abstract The short story A Clean Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway, deals mainly with the subject of loneliness, as many of Hemingway’s story usually do. The story is about two waiters waiting to close their café, one is old the other is young and the customer is old. The story deals with the two waiters different take on the customer need for a clean well-lighted place where he can have more than a few drinks. The younger waiter does not understand why the customer cannot just drink at home instead of inconveniencing them by staying up so late, while the older waiter understands the customer need for a place to drink, where he can try and escape the feeling of nothing less which in the end will come to all of us regardless of social status. This story shows the men who are at different stages of life and how they see the inevitable death in dissimilar ways. In the end as the saying goes the only things guaranteed are death and taxes, however you can only control the way you approach the death. A Clean Well-lighted Place Ernest Hemingway short story “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” is one of many short stories written by one of The 20th Centuries most celebrated authors. Hemingway was part of what they called the lost generation, the generation that served during the First World War, which later on came to be used for a group of expatriates...
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...A Journey A Journey is a story written by Colm Tóibín in 2006. The story is about Mary, her family and their problems. In this essay I will find out what could cause the problems. To support my claims I will make an analysis and interpret the short story “A journey” in which I will put my interpretation into perspective with this to other items. The story starts in media res where we get introduced to Mary the protagonist, and her son David. At the beginning of the story there is a flashback. The flashback is from David’s childhood. Suddenly the story moves on to present time, where Mary picks her son up from the hospital and drives him home. Almost the whole story takes place in the car. Mary is an ordinary married woman and it seems like she has an unhappy and depressed family. She lives with her husband Seamus and her son David, in the house her father gave her at her weeding. David is suffering from a depression and Mary does not know why, neither can she figure it out. Mary seems to be a good and careful mother “She dreamed for a second that they had not sold it and thought that working there every day might help David” Even though if it seems like Mary has been a good mother, she still has not spend a enough of her time with David when he was child. “Mrs. Redmond, who lives in a nearby cottage and whose husband died just after David was born, came in every day to help and babysat at night if they wanted to get out” This might indicate that it was not Mary...
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...Ineffective Treatment of Postpartum Depression The short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman brings to light the mistreatment of women’s mental health issues in the late nineteenth century in the American society. Rena Korb is a writer and editor says, “’The Yellow Wallpaper’ commands attention not only for the harrowing journey into madness it portrays, but also for its realism” ("The Yellow Wallpaper" 284). In the story "The Yellow Wallpaper," a woman falls into postpartum depression and her doctor recommended a treatment called the “rest cure,” which contributed to her madness because her condition was not yet understood and therefore never diagnosed. The story "The Yellow Wallpaper” was based on Gilman’s personal experience...
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...”A Journey” is a short story by Colm Tóibín. It’s written in 2006. The plot is told by a 3rd person omniscient narrator. The composition of the short story is in chronological order with flashbacks. The story begins in a flashback where we are introduced to David’s fear of presence. David is an unsteady boy who is afraid of life. To overcome his fear he keeps asking questions about life and people’s presence in the world. The oil painting, Interior with Woman and Child, on picture 1 by Paul Mathey from 1890 could be an illustration of David – a sad, alone boy who don’t feel secure. Who just stands waiting for the next thing to happen? Mrs. Redmond is taking care of him. David feels safe when he is near her: “Often, when Mary went down to the cottage to collect him, he did not want to come home. But then, once he was back in his own house, he would start to smile again and follow her around asking her questions or, when he was older, telling her what had happened to him at school”[1]. You can tell that he is secure when he is with Mrs. Redmond because he likes staying with her. You can also tell from the quotation above that he looks up to her mother and thinks that she has a large knowledge. He is embarrassed of his stay at the hospital. He can’t look her mother in her eyes afterwards: “… and for a quick second she caught his eye. He looked away”. David’s mother, Mary, has thick blonde hair and a large-boned face. She wants the...
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...102 8:40 3/10/2008 The History Within William Faulkner, is a well known and very influential American writer of the 20th century, and is considered to be one of the most important Southern writers of all time. Faulkner is known for writing fictional short stories, novels, and poems about history, culture, and family traditions. In his first collection of short stories, These 13 contained the short story “Barn Burning,” one of Faulkner’s more popular short stories. The story tells of an impoverished man named Abner Snopes, who continuously takes revenge on higher class men by burning down their barns, which creates a conflict of morality and loyalty between Abner and his son Sarty. Throughout the story Faulkner provides the reader with information about how people lived in the South during the 1930’s and the post Civil War era (Hönnighausen). In William Faulkner’s story “Barn Burning,” the role of class, race, and the change from the agrarian to the industrial age arising during the 19th century is put into perspective. Understanding the setting of “Barn Burning” is crucial to interrupt the story. The story takes place in 1830’s post Civil War in the south during the reconstruction and Great Depression era. During this time the South is struggling to avoid being conquered by the North, and “…has retreated into plantation life and small-town existence, and it maintains in private the social hierarchy that characterized the region in its pre-war phase. Slavery has...
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...“If you don’t know what you want, you end up with a lot you don’t.” (Chuck Palahniuk) fits perfectly with his short story Zombie. Most of us really don’t know what we want out of life. We go to college hoping to land a job that will make us money, yet, sacrifice the passion that makes life meaningful. In the short story Zombie, many characters struggle with the lack of purpose, challenge, or opportunities of life. Out of frustration, they choose to do something drastic to get away from it all. Initially, these choices are satisfying. They become a quick fix to a much bigger problem or “A new reality begins”: a reality that again someone does not have the power to control. At least they don’t think they do. So, they get reckless. They make painful decisions that not only affect their own life, but they bleed into those around them. This imagery of frustration and depression is what Palahniuk uses to create eccentric characters in this bold short story. Chuck Palahniuk, the author of Zombie, along with many...
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...life. In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a women suffers from postpartum depression and is prescribe the resting cure. As she is doing what her husband, an outstanding doctor, has told her to do, she becomes increasingly depressed and soon this results in her losing her insanity. As she losses her way of expressing herself and is doing what the doctor says, she is expected to conform to the doctor and the world around her. In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Gilman she illustrates women’s struggles through this story by using symbolism, theme, and irony. The wallpaper is a symbol used throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The author states, “The color is repellant, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight” (649). The way this is worded can...
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...Short stories can be both fiction and non-fiction. Either way, the purpose of short stories is to convey a message, moral, or lesson. Setting often sets the mood and tone of the story. Characters in the story are usually affected tremendously by the setting. The setting is the time, place, day, or location in which the story takes place. The setting reveals clues to the readers as a sense of direction of what will happen next. The plot can be affected by the setting as because it affects what will happen throughout the story. The two short stories, “The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck and “Hills like White Elephant” by Ernest Hemingway displays how setting can give hints to what can possibly happen, describe the characters trait, and effect the plot. “The high grey-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from all the rest of the world. On every side, it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed pot” (Steinbeck 581). This quote is stating that the Allen’s foothill ranch was closed off to the outside world, they are living in a rural setting. The Allen’s lived in a neat white farm house with red geraniums...
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...The Story of an Hour Analysis Kate Chopin’s short story called The Story of an Hour fits its title because the whole story happens in literally an hour or less. In the story the first character we hear about is Mrs. Mallard a wife of a man who works at a railroad; it is also known that she has a heart disease. We also hear about her sister, Josephine who had to break the news to Mrs. Mallard about her husband’s supposed death, the last character is Mr. Mallards friend named Richards, who seems to be with Josephine just for moral support and to be there if anything were to happen. The setting took place in Mr. and Mrs. Mallards house when Josephine went to break the news “in broken sentences” to her about the railroad accident that happened and seemed to cause the life of Mr. Mallard. The story is told in third person, and it only takes an hour or less to find out what really happened at the railroads. After she had heard of the disaster that had happened back at the railroads she started to cry on her sisters shoulders. She was paralyzed at the fact that her husband had died she was in a huge shock and did not expect such news. The story then goes on talking about depression “There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know” I believe that what was coming to her was a depression that she had never felt before. Mrs. Mallard’s felt guilt mostly because she realized that she had taken her husband for granted. Also, by taking...
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...Miller My two favorite short stories are “The Lottery and “Young Goodman Brown”. Making a decision which is better will be a tough choice. Although both stories are similar in its theme, it is transported differently in each story. The stories display different character analysis and word choice. I. My favorite pastime is reading short stories. a. Two stories I can read repeatedly. i. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. ii. “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. b. The authors battle with depression in their lives. i. Shirley Jackson was stricken server depression from time to time. ii. Nathaniel Hawthorne was depressed because of his ill health and the toll of the Civil War. II. Scenery and characters of “The Lottery” and Young Goodman Brown. a. Towns identified as small villages. i. “The Lottery” was a small village with no name. 1. The story gives a population of 300 people living there ii. “Young Goodman Brown” story took place in a small village called Salem. b. The wives in the story played contrast characters. i. Tessie Hutchinson was a main character that went through climax and denouement. ii. Faith Brown played somewhat of a static character. c. The husbands were portrayed differently in the stories. i. Bill Hutchinson persona was very multi-dimensional ii. Goodman Brown played the main character that was a foil to Ms. Hutchinson. III. How are we to use the themes of these stories? a. Analyzing the moral...
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...scared and ask them self the question, if they are good enough to raise a child. What does it takes to have the energy to take care of your children and still be able to realise yourself. The exact same thing is happening to Mary in this short story by Colm Tóibín. Taking care of others, communication, the past against the present and identity is some of the themes that Colm Tóibín uses in this short-story about a woman called Mary, her husband, Seamus and their child, David. A third person limited narrator tells “A journey”, that starts in medias res and the viewpoint is on Mary. Colm Tóibín uses a technique called Stream of consciousness, where thoughts gets depicted as they arise at Mary and the short-story and becomes one long associated stream of consciousness. We do not get to know where the story takes place, but it might be in a small village, since Seamus is principal for a small country national school. “Their house was just beside the small country national school where Seamus was principal” (p. 2, l. 16-17). Mary is driving on her way home with her son, David, on the backseat. He had been hospitalized because of a depression. Mary is unsure of her self and was afraid of becoming a mom, and after David have had a depression, she wants to be confirmed, that she has done the right thing for him. As soon as Mary and her husband, Seamus gets David, she become scared and thinks that they may be too old and too established in their usual surroundings to raise a...
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...Martin Seligman, an American psychologist, educator, and author of self-help books states in one of his novels that Major Depression is the no.1 disabling psychological disorder in the western world, and at its current rate of increase, will be the 2nd most disabling health condition in the entire world by 2020. Good morning/afternoon, my name is Suzannah Bugden and it is a pleasure to be here at the 2015 Anthology of Science Fiction Short Stories by Australian Authors. My story is called ‘The Death Collectors’, which is about the social issues in concern to genetic modification of human beings attributable to rising epidemic illnesses such as Clinical Depression. ‘The Death Collectors’ explores the repercussions genetic modification would...
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