"Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway Literary Analysis

     In "Hills Like White Elephants", Ernest Hemingway details the conversation between a man and a girl as they avoid discussing a life altering decision while they wait for a train to take them to their future. Hemingway's use of reticent symbolism and dialect characterize the unsuccessful relationship between the two, accentuating the necessity of honesty and communication within partnerships.
     Throughout the piece, Hemingway uses various elements of fictional craft to illuminate the importance of communication and an honest bond within a relationship. Hemingway uses various symbols throughout the text to emphasize his message. For example, by constantly referring to the "two lines of rails" throughout the work, Hemingway highlights the dysfunctional relationship between the man and the girl, symbolizing them as two "rails" that are metaphorically set in stone in their decisions and will never cross paths. Also, Hemingway uses beer as a symbol of miscommunication between the pair as it is a constant theme and the two are never pictured without a drink. The alcohol acts as a focal symbol in this piece to expose the way the two main characters avoid their decision and communication on the matter at all costs. Similarly, the author employs dialect as a way of characterizing the relationship as unsuccessful and solidifying the importance of communication and honesty. As the couple interact, they talk in short, blunt sentences, only skimming the surface of their issue surrounding the operation. As so, dialect depicts the surface level relationship between the two due to the lack of communication, unveiled though their strange talking, and ultimately dishonesty. In conclusion, Hemingway's use of symbolism and dialect characterize the couples relationship, redefining the necessity of communication and honesty within a relationship.

"I Stand Here Ironing"

      In the short story "I Stand Here Ironing", Tillie Olsen tells the story of a mother reflecting on the mistakes she made while raising her first child as she was forced to work more often than not in order to stay afloat during the depression. As narrator looks back on how her decisions have negatively affected her daughter, her reflective point of view and remorseful tone illuminate the overall emotions that parents feel as they bear witness to how their choices directly manipulate their children's lives.

     Throughout the piece, Olsen utilizes a reflective point of view as well as a remorseful tone as the mother recalls the past nineteen years of her daughters life. As the mother reflects on her daughters life, she looks back full of regret, stating "She was a child seldom smiled at. Her father left me before she was a year old. I had to work for her first six years" (271). Similarly, the mother draws attention to the differing relationships she shares with her other children, failing "to hold her and lover her after she came back... and after a while she'd push away" (269). Overall, Olson conveys the mothers dismay and feelings of failure through her tone as well as point of view, illustrating the difficulties of the time period as well as the sometime unexpected trials and tribulations that adhere to motherhood. This story relates to parenthood through all eras, shedding light on the difficulties that parents face when attempting to create well rounded children as well as the challenges that watching your child struggle put on parents. In all, Tillie Olsen's "I Stand Here Ironing" provides insight into the difficulties that parents face as they raise their children through struggle.

Accusatory

Accusatory - charging of wrong doing

"Cathedral" by Raymond Carver Response Questions

1. How does the first-person narrator of "Cathedral" reveal himself to the reader? Note his tone. Notice also the details he chooses to reveal about himself and his wife, as well as the ones he doesn't reveal. What character traits are you able to ascertain even in the first few paragraphs?

     The narrator in the story reveals himself as being close minded, stating that his wife's friend "being blind bothered me... a blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to" (1079). This use of harsh, bothersome tone suggests that because the narrator is unfamiliar with physical abnormalities and differences, like being blind, he rejects them as a part of functioning society. Contrary, the narrator describes his wife as being opposite to him, welcoming these differences as a piece of society, allowing the Robert to touch "his fingers to every part of her face, her nose - even her neck" (1080). This open attitude allows the reader to see the empathy and compassion within the narrators wife, as she attempts to understand differences between people and uses them as a way to create a bond.

2. How does Carver's narrator set the reader up for meeting the blind man? Is your first response to Robert the same as the narrator's? Look at paragraphs 18-44. How does Carver use both the conversation and the narrator's private thoughts to create the blind man's character while also continuing to develop the character of the narrator?

     The narrator leads into his first encounter with the blind man with a descriptor bases. He depicts his life as if he lacks the qualities and human experiences of a "normal" person, attributing this all to his lack of sight. In paragraphs 18-44, Carver uses conversation to convey the narrators ability to act normal while he uses his thoughts to express his uncomfortable nature as he studies the man, notes his differences and experiences the mannerisms involved with lack of sight. My response, although I may be uncomfortable at first in the situation, was entirely different from the narrators. I don't think I would dehumanize the blind man in the away the narrator does on the sole bases that he lacks a sense. 

3. Blindness is both a subject of "Cathedral" and a recurring motif. Consider the many different ways blindness is addressed in the story. How does each add complexity and meaning to the story?

     Blindness in included in "Cathedral" in various different ways, each adding their own meaning to the story. First, there is the physical meaning, describing Robert as a blind man. This lack of sensory creates a barrier between the narrator and Robert, causing tension and discomfort for much of the story. Similarly, there is a lack of connection between the narrator and Robert due to the unfamiliar world they each experience. Also, blindness is symbolic in a sense that the narrator is "blind" to the world of physical disabilities, and thus lacks compassion and empathy towards the matter. 

5. The narrator experiences an epiphany - a moment of sudden insight and clarity - at the end of the story, but the author never explains what that insight is. Why do you think Carver withholds that specific information from the reader? What other information is withheld from the reader? Why?

     At the end of the story, the narrator experiences an epiphany, but the author fails to explain this insight, leading the reader to come to their own conclusion about the situation. I believe Carver choses to do this to exemplify the various messages that can come from this story, strengthening his message that differences don’t define who we are, but rather create bonds between people. Carver also withholds the wife’s interpretation of the event to highlight the interaction between the narrator and Robert.

6. Characterize the habits of the narrator and his wife. They do not seem close; they watch television rather than talk to each other; they drink to excess, overeat, and use drugs. Does Carver judge them? Do you?

     Carver does appear to judge them, highlighting their opposite personalities and well as their inability to successfully communicate with each other. Similarly to Carver, I judge the couple as well. I think that their relationship lacks love, as the couple choses to partake in actions that will ensure their lack of communication. Furthermore, this way of interaction leads me to question why the two are married when their relationship is destined for failure once the drugs and entertainment run out. 

Literary Analysis "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates

    In the short story,  "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", Joyce Carol Oates depicts the story of a fifteen year old girl named Connie struggling with family acceptance, who becomes a victim to a local psychopath. Through comparing Connie's various family and depicting the fear invoked within Connie by her stalker, Arnold Friend, Oates testifies the balance between perception and reality when examining one's inward and outward personality. 

     When depicting Connie's appearance, Oates portrays Connie as having a split personality, appearing "one way when she was at home and another way when she was away from home. Everything about her had two sides to it" (469). This contradiction reveals that Connie attempts to break away from her family, trying to appear mature and sophisticated away from home because her family forces her into a childish, superficial girl. By developing the split in Connie's personality, Oates solidifies Connie's reaction when faced with danger. After being approached by Arnold Friend and recognizing the threat he poses, Connie feels as though she is "living inside this body that wasn't really hers" (479). By including this, Oates reaffirms her purpose, indication that even though Connie may appear to be a mature woman, when faced with adversity, she loses her artificial confidence and reveals her inner hopeless child. Furthermore, Oates unveils the thin line between how one acts to alter other's perception and the inner, true reality. This, in turn, is proving that often, people falsify their actions to hide their true person.

Literary Analysis - "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

     In the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman tells the story of a young wife who is suffering from a mental breakdown while facing self affliction over her role as a woman. Through portraying the narrators mental deterioration and personal liberation Gilman emphasizes the necessity of changing how gender roles are defined within society. Within the short story, Gilman utilizes the narrators isolation as well as her bedroom to strengthen her argument on gender equality.

     In the story, the narrator’s husband requires her to be isolated from society for the majority of her time in order to improve her mental health. Contrary to John’s beliefs, the narrator becomes more mentally unstable throughout her time in isolation because she is kept from expressing her creativity and is forced to yearn for freedom from her husbands control, causing her mental state to deteriorate. This portrays Gilman’s message because the narrator is compliant to the requests of her husband, keeping her journal a secret as well as not expressing the her discontent with her living situation. Due to the isolated setting the narrator lives in, Gilman’s message becomes clear as the readers witness the affects the narrator experiences due to her inability to voice her issues with John, as he views her as incompetent and even childish because she is a woman, resulting in her rapidly spreading mental illness. 

     To further the story, the narrator’s room contributes to the author’s overall message due to the symbolism within the different parts of the room. First, the room is illustrated as a prison-like nursery where “the windows are barred… and there are rings and things in the walls” (1067). This symbol of the room contributes to the characterization of John, portraying him as a controlling and dominant figure within the marraige. Similarly, Gilman uses the yellow wallpaper to not only symbolize the growth in the narrators mental illness, but also to show how her perception of liberation has changed as she begins to view herself as equal to John, eventually as his controller. Overall, the symbolism used within the narrators bedroom illustrates the shift in perspective as the narrator moves closer towards gender liberation and away from the typical wife role. 

     In conclusion, without the setting that the story takes place in, the authors message would not have been as accurately perceived. This piece of the story emphasizes the importance of gender equality within relationships due to how controlling and overbearing people have the ability to literally drive someone insane. The various ways that Gilman used the setting of the story to portray her message that the gender equality is a necessity in society makes her overall argument successful.

"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Exploring the Text

1. The narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" undergoes a profound change from the beginning of the story to the end. How is this change revealed in relation to her response to the wallpaper? How does she feel about the change? How do your feelings differ from the narrator's? 

     In the beginning of the story, the narrator lives by the rules that her husband John has set for her, catering to his wishes and obeying his professional advice. She is prohibited from interacting with the outside world and is forced to spend most of her time isolated, unable to use her mind in taxing ways until she recovers from her nervous condition. Throughout the course of the story, the narrator begins to become attached to the yellow wallpaper in her room, seeing faces of women in it that have become trapped. At first, the narrator wants to subdue these women and tie them up, keeping them in their place, but as the story professes, the narrator begins to connect herself with these women. She begins to see how these women are trapped, similar to herself, and want to escape their oppressive bonds, and experience world outside of their isolation. Soon, the narrator finds herself assisting these women to escape the wallpaper, and she identifies herself as one of them. By the end of the novel, the narrator no longer sees herself as insuperior to John and rejects typical domestic customs of the time, embracing her creativity and freeing herself from the wallpaper (oppression). The narrator is relieved by this change, no longer having to obey the standards of domesticity and being able to use her full potential. I feel as though this change was essential in a way for the narrator because without transferring her grief and misery into the wallpaper, Jane would have never recognized that she was unhappy with her situation and therefore, wouldn't have rebelled from the typical domestic lifestyle and embraced her own personality and attributes. 

2. The narrator describes the room with the yellow wallpaper as a former nursery - that is, a room in a large house where children played, ate their meals, and may have been educated. What evidence is there that it may have had a different function? How does that discrepancy help develop the character of the narrator and communicate the themes of the story?

     In line 37-39, the narrator comments that "it was a nursery first and then a playroom and then a gymnasium, I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children and there are rings and things in the walls." This quote suggests that the narrator was naive that the nursery was used as some sort of prison room, suggested by the barred windows and rings on the walls for chains. This discrepancy developed the narrator because the reader is able to witness that she is compliant and listens to what John tells her, trusting that the room is going to function as a recovery place. But in reality, John is using the room to keep his wife from society and to restrict her freedom unknowingly. This contradiction portrays the central theme of the story that women are susceptible to be controlled by men as they accept the societal norms of women. Furthermore, the prison-nursery suggests that women are often blind to the position they have within a household, and that they only live by these regulations because they are all that they have experienced.

4. Look at the description of the wallpaper in paragraphs 96-104. How does the syntax of the sentences both mirror the pattern on the wallpaper and suggest the narrator's agitation?

     The syntax of the description of the pattern of the wallpaper connects with the narrators agitation due to the way the narrator is able to view the pattern in a multitude of ways. She is able to see many different connections between the patterns, which in turn, exhausts her because of the difficulty to identify one set pattern. This suggests that the narrator is unhappy in her current life, that she has the ability to see many different ways to escape her position as a housewife, but is unable to find one clear path to take. As a result, she see's rejecting her current lifestyle as unfeasible and in turn, adds to the confusion that she dis experiencing as she learns more about her life as an individual. 

Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

     In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, illness is a reoccurring theme that Hurston utilizes to convey her overall message that one's happiness in life becomes dependent on others. Throughout the course of the novel, Janie witnesses illness take her love ones and impact her life and overall happiness. The majority of Janie's family succumbs to illness within the piece, including Nanny, Jody, and Tea Cake. With each death, Janie's happiness is directly effected. With the death of Nanny, Janie is forced to honor her grandmothers dying wish and marry Logan. This leads Janie to lose her childhood, representative of freedom and happiness, in order to have the life her grandmother wanted for her. Similarly, Janie's relationship with Jody hinders her happiness as Jody becomes controlling and jealous of Janie's happiness. But, once Jody passes, Janie once again, feels freedom as the part of her life that made her unhappy no longer was present. In contrast to these deaths through illness, when Tea Cake dies from Janie's shot, Janie loses the happiness she had during her marriage to Tea Cake due to the fact that she took his life. She feels remorse as well as the loss she has suffered, unlike the feelings she had with the death of Nanny and Jody. Because Janie allows her relationships to govern her happiness, each loss effects her happiness differently.
     Hurston's purpose through writing Their Eyes Were Watching God was to prove to her audience that nothing in life is permanent, and as a result, happiness should not be one's dependent on others in due to the lack of stability. By having three separate characters die from different illnesses, Hurston exemplifies the various curveballs in life to illustrate to the reader that life is unpredictable. Similarly, Huston has Janie react to each death in a different was depending on the type of relationship they shared to prove her message that happiness depends on the relationships shared between people. By having Janie be unhappy, Hurston demonstrates a deeper message that people should not allow their happiness to depend on others, rather have happiness come from within dependent on oneself. In conclusion, through illness, Hurston proves her message that happiness should be free from dependence on others due to the unpredictability of life.