Monthly Archives: February 2018

Eluded

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Eluded

Transitive verb

Eluded – to escape the perception, understanding, or grasp of, subtlety simply eludes them, victory continued to elude us

Sources: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eluded

I encountered this word from the reading, called “Cinderella”, written by Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm, also known as the Grimm Brothers. I encountered the word on page 2, the third to last paragraph. The word came from the sentences “However, she eluded him and jumped into the pigeon coop”. I came to an understanding that  this word means to escape, or avoid a bad situation. In the story the prince try to escort Cinderella on her way out, but by avoiding that she jumped into the pigeon coop. She eluded him because she didn’t want him to find out who she is. In this case eluded was used to describe Cinderella trying to avoid getting caught.

 

The Wicked Stepmother

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When reading “ The Wicked Stepmother,” I came across a lot of unfamiliar aspects in the story. Usually any regular Cinderella story would have a girl that just lives with her father because her mother has passed and the father usually gets married to the stepmother who is usually wicked. The the father passes and leaves the daughter with the stepmother and Wicked step sisters. The daughter basically is being mistreated the whole time growing up until she finds happiness. This Indian version is completely different from what I know and grew up watching. In the story the mother and father make a promise to each other to never each without being in each other presence. If this prom is was broken then the mother would turn into a goat and the father would turn into a tiger. The mother one day was feeding her child and took a little taste of the food and she turned into a goat. When the dad returned home he came to the realization that she had broke her promise. Something that was different compared to any other Cinderella story is that the mother was actually there in the story. After the incident eventually the father remarried which wasn’t a surprised. The children weren’t being fed as they were suppose to so they went to their mother, the goat, to get food and the stepmother wondered why they were getting so strong when they were barley fed. This was familiar because usually the stepmother mistreats the fathers child. Eventually the stepmother finds out the children’s were getting fed by the mother so she ordered the husband to bring her some goat meat and he didn’t have enough money to buy a goat so he had to kill his wife which was the goat in the backyard. Towards the end of the story one of the siblings ends up marrying a king so the story has a happy ending which is usually how Cinderella story ends.

Aquiver

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Aquiver (adjective):  marked by trembling or quivering

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aquiver

From “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin

“She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life.”

Here, Kate Chopin uses the word Aquiver to describe how the trees were reacting to the spring weather. This means that the trees were shaking or vibrating in the wind.

Experiencing the Style of Narrations

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  • What effect does the style of narration have on your experience of the plot or characters? Use two different styles to reflect on this, using any of the stories we have read this semester.

The style of narration allows us to experience a story in a certain way. From the readings we have done so far there has been a few different styles of narration and each one is unique and gives us different emotions due to their uniqueness. Two stories that I’ve read with totally different forms of narrations are, Bia Lowe’s “I Always Write about My Mother When I Start to Write,” and Aarne Thompson’s “The Wicked Stepmother.” Bia Lowe’s story was in the first person point of view which helps us get inside the head of the narrator whom is the main character. This allows us as the readers especially for me to try to imagine what character is witnessing as well as experiencing rather than an outsiders view. For example, the narrator makes mention of “She is in every way my female deity,” “I was suddenly seized with a desire to court her,” and of much more of his emotions that occurred to him but makes us the readers feel/understand his emotions, somewhat like justifying how he feels about his mothers. In other words, Bia Lowe’s “I Always Write about My Mother When I Start to Write,” made me feel like I was part of the story and connect to why he may have felt a certain way or described somethings in such strange details. However, on the other hand, Aarne Thompson’s story “The Wicked Stepmother,” which is the Indian version of Cinderella was a third person point of view. This was very different because it was more of being told about something, the whole story was more of someone else’s experience being told to me rather than me experiencing what the character was feeling. I found it harder to connect to “The Wicked Stepmother” by Thompson more than “I Always Write About My Mother When I Start to Write” by Lowe because I wasn’t “in the footsteps of the character but rather I was the observer/watcher. For example, Thompson  mentions “That very moment she was changed into a goat,” upon reading this I did not feel that shocking emotion but rather it was more of “oh okay.” I feel like it the story was in a first-person narrative it would have made me feel more connected to the story than just an observer or someone who’s just reading it. If the situation was “That very moment I changed into a goat,” that feels more vivid and makes you feel apart of the story rather than being told it. In short, the style of narration effects the reader’s experience of the story, it’s like living and experiencing it or being told by someone else experience.

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/knowles127.html (“The Wicked StepMother” By Aarne-Thompson

 

Mrs. Mallard’s freedom

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  • We really wanted to spend more time looking at the ending of Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.” What do we understand about Mrs. Mallard’s desire for freedom in the story? Does she have freedom at the end of the story?

I believe that it is safe to assume that Mrs. Mallard was too overwhelmed by the thought of freedom due to the fact that she was deprived of it for so long. She had, up until the moment she was given the news of her husband’s alleged death, been emotionally suffocated by him. Seen when the narrator describes the state of Mrs. Mallards’ face as being one, ” whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength”, we can assume that the lines on her face were being repressed by Mr. Mallard, and that those lines were made by her smile, that for years Mrs. Mallard was not happy throughout the course of her marriage. But the lines on her face could also refer to Mrs. Mallard’s physical appearance, wrinkles, and this line could be referring to the social exceptions that demand she force herself to look beautiful and young for the sake of her husband’s happiness. “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself… There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature.” There was a clear shift in tone in this short story from mournful to a sigh of relief, Mrs. Mallard at first sign of news cried her eyes out, then locked herself in a room to be alone, only to be confronted by this idea of what now? Then her attitude begins to shift realizing the benefits of her husband passing and claiming freedom as her own. And she did not hate her husband rather she saw that as long as he was alive she could not be free, “she knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.” By the end of the story Mrs. Mallard is free she dies before being informed that her husband is alive, so in her mind she was free, and her freedom is shown through a change in how she is addressed. From the beginning she was introduced as Mrs. Mallard, and it is usual in “traditional circumstances” that upon marriage the woman takes the man’s last name. So she is only known as being someone’s wife. She continues to be addressed throughout the story as Mrs. Mallard, until her sister Josephine addresses her as “Louise” shedding her title, “Mrs”. She was no longer a wife, shed the title of “Mrs.”, and she was able to reclaim her identity through being called by her name. Which made her free in the end.

https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/webtexts/hour/

A Jury of Her Peers

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In the story A Jury of Her Peers two women casually inspect the home of a woman and her husband after the husband is found dead. Their examining of the house is contrasted with that of a group of men (two husbands and a prosecutor) who are actively investigating it, looking for clues that would implicate the recently widowed woman.

The difference between the men and womens probes is that the women actually approached the situation with empathy and an ability to take the widow/killer seriously. When they’re all in the kitchen the men belittle the women for worrying about preserves:

“Well, can you beat the women! Held for murder, and worrying about her preserves!”

The young attorney set his lips.

“I guess before we’re through with her she may have something more serious than preserves to worry about.”

“Oh, well,” said Mrs. Hale’s husband, with good-natured superiority, “women are used to worrying over trifles.”

This just illustrates how quick the men are to mock the women, setting them up to miss the big clue later on. Just a few moments later the prosecutor makes light of the widows work around the house, making it even more clear how little the men think of the women:

“Dirty towels! Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?”

He kicked his foot against some dirty pans under the sink.

The women’s response to these things are a lot more empathetic. They want to bring the preserves to the widow to give her comfort, and even defend her against the men’s accusations of untidiness. This level of understanding leads the women to examine the house, but not as a way to build a case against the widow and more to understand her experience living with her husband.

Because of the compassion the women feel for her, they actually discover the possible motive for the murder, a bird the dead husband killed that belonged to the killer/widow. Also, it leads them to decide the widow does not deserve punishment for the crime of killing her husband. To sum it up the men in general just did’t take the women or the widow serious.

Kate Chopin’s Story of an Hour. (Post for comment and Discussion) Christelle.

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Freedom from feminist constraint is a common theme in Kate Chopin’s work. She is in fact considered one of the first feminist writers that would, later on, emerge more prominently in the late 20th century. What might perhaps set her aside from other feminist writers is that for most of her adult life she conformed to the conventional role of housewife, it is not until her husband’s death that she begins her career in the literary arts. Although we can never speculate as to her feelings about her husband’s death, we can state that it has had an immense impact on her writing. Freedom from feminist constraint through the death of a patriarch is explored in “The Story of An Hour”. What we understand about Mrs. Mallard’s desire for freedom in the story is that she doesn’t feel like she is her own person and is only through the absence of the patriarch (her husband) that she feels she can come into her own being. When he again becomes present, she knows that she would again be an object. By examing the text, specifically her contemplation, we will then determine if she had achieved freedom in her own death.

We can induce that Mrs. Mallard was in at the least in a loving and steady marriage. Mr. Mallard did exhibit some form of care and sensitivity to his wife. This is exhibited in the following quotation,” she knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead.”. She does feel remorse for the loss of her spouse and that this is a bittersweet moment in her life, although the latter (sweeter) more so as she contemplates more on what this means for her. It is important to note that she holds no resentment for her husband because it demonstrates that the confines she finds herself were constructed outside of their relationship.

As I stated in the introduction Mrs. Mallard does not feel she can act out of her own will and consciousness. She must always be in mind of her role as a married woman. In other words, everything that she does reflects as well as affects her husband’s reputation. This is the predicament that many upper-class women found themselves at the time the story was written. And so her life is not her own. As written in the text “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature” With him gone and no one men to associate (or belong to), her actions are own to decide and to be judged for.

 

To conclude Mrs. Mallard does not find freedom in her death. She only thought about the possibilities that it may bring but she did not exercise that freedom.

 

 

Veiled

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Veiled (adjective): able to be seen or understood but not openly shown or stated : expressed in a way that is not clear and direct.

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/veiled

I encountered this word while reading “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin. “It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her husband’s friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard’s name leading the list of “killed.” This means that Josephine did not come straight out and tell Mrs. Mallard about her husband’s death but gave hints here and there to help her derive to that conclusion.

Smock

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Smock:
Defenition from Websters Dictionary:

: a light loose garment worn especially for protection of clothing while working
I came across this term while reading the Grimm Brothers version of Cinderella. It was used in the first page on the 5th Paragraph.
“They took her beautiful clothes away from her, dressed her in an old gray smock, and gave her wooden shoes.”
The defenition of this word helps understand the story better as it shows that her stepsisters attempted to degrade her as a smock was something used to wear while working and viewed as an inferior piece of clothing.

Homework posts on Lowe, Atwood, Glaspell, Chopin, and Faulkner

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If you volunteered to post by end-of-day on Friday so that everyone can comment on your posts by 10:00am Monday, here are some ideas to get you started (choose one, or get inspired by one or two):

  • We really wanted to spend more time looking at the ending of Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.” What do we understand about Mrs. Mallard’s desire for freedom in the story? Does she have freedom at the end of the story?
  • Think of the various details mentioned in Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers.” Point us to a few examples, including quotations from those passages. How do these examples become important details in the story? How do the men and women read these details specifically and details in general differently in “A Jury of Her Peers”?
  • Another way to consider the details in “A Jury of Her Peers” is to consider what the women do with details to understand the backstory as reading the scene; consider in a post the model for critical reading this short story presents. Alternatively, how is “There Was Once” a model for critical reading? What does the second speaker do with the Cinderella story, and how or to what extent is that something we should do when we read? What does it do in that story, and what could it do for us as we read critically?
  • If Margaret Atwood’s short story “There Was Once” and Anne Sexton’s poem “Cinderella” attempt to retell the fairy tale, what does Bia Lowe’s “I Always Write about My Mother When I Start to Write” do with fairy tales? We started discussing this in class. What aspects of fairy tales does it borrow, and what is the effect of this motif? Be sure to learn about what a motif is if you choose this option, and feel free to add it as your glossary entry for this week (but this only goes for one person, and the post’s author has priority!
  • What effect does the style of narration have on your experience of the plot or characters? Use two different styles to reflect on this, using any of the stories we have read this semester.
  • What connections do you see among the stories assigned from the start of the semester through Monday? Are there trends you can identify? Or contrasting situations/characters/styles that are worth noting in their difference? Be specific!
  • In thinking about William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” who is the narrator? is it a reliable narrator? Use evidence from the story to show why you say reliable or not.
  • What does gothic mean?  What is Southern Gothic, specifically? Wikipedia might be a good place to get a definition and explanation of what Southern Gothic is. How is  “A Rose for Emily” an example of this? You might add this term as your glossary entry word as well.
  • Finally, if you’re interested, argue for or against “A Rose for Emily” as a Valentine’s Day reading. What notion of love do you take away from this story?

These are just a few ideas that you might consider, and certainly not all of them will be addressed. I hope my suggesting them gives everyone ideas about other topics for discussion and other ways to read the short stories we have begun to cover in class. For your post, choose one of these topics, or venture off on your own topic, using any of these as a guide to make sure your topic is as focused. Use the texts to guide you, consider that your audience (mostly your classmates and me) will have read the same materials but might not have thought about them as much as you have or in the same way that you did, and enjoy sharing your ideas. On the nitty-gritty end of things, remember to include a title that reflects what you’re writing (it shouldn’t be able to apply to everyone’s post!), choose appropriate categories and tags (or add if you want a tag that isn’t there already), write at least 300 words, proofread, and publish! If there are links or media you want to include, please do.

Commenters: get ready! Everyone who isn’t writing a blog post will need to comment by 10:00am Monday, so make sure you’re ready with 100-150 words of insights and reactions to share with the class.

Feel free to comment on this post to ask questions or get clarification to understand this assignment better. I will answer, but feel free to answer questions for your classmates if you have the answer!