Monthly Archives: March 2014

Fictitious

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“Her fictitious nature was of great assistance to her. It is far harder to kill a phantom than a reality. She was always creeping back when I thought I had despatched her. Though I flatter myself that I killed her in the end, the struggle was severe;”

fictitious- adjective

of, relating to, or characteristic of fiction

not true or real

www.meriamwebster.com

I understand that the angel in the room must have not been real. The fact that she (the angel) was more of a conscious being and a thought than a real person made it more difficult to avoid her. Each time that it was attempted by the writer to send the angel off or rid of  the spirit she would just come back. Finally the angel was defeated and killed, though it was a struggle.

Midterm prep

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“Her purity was supposed to be her chief beauty–her blushes, her great grace. In those days–the last of Queen Victoria–every house had its Angel. And when I came to write I encountered her with the very first words. The shadow of her wings fell on my page; I heard the rustling of her skirts in the room. Directly, that is to say, I took my pen in my hand to review that novel by a famous man, she slipped behind me and whispered: “My dear, you are a young woman. You are writing about a book that has been written by a man. Be sympathetic; be tender; flatter; deceive; use all the arts and wiles of our sex. Never let anybody guess that you have a mind of your own. Above all, be pure.”

1. Professions for Women

2. Virginia Wolf

3. In this passage the beauty and pure ness of the angel is being explained. The angel to me is a metaphor for what women writers are expected to portray , if not outwardly at least consciously. The writer Is being manipulated by that “angel” in the room to deceive others through  her writing. If the writer listens to the angel she will not give readers the impression of her real writing style , but they will be exposed to an accepted but fabricated version of the writers work. It is definitely a contradiction for the angel to ask her to be all the things she is not, but to still be pure.

4.This passage connects to larger issues in the text because, to me it brings my attention to the fact that in any profession for women, especially writing, females have a set standard for which they are expected to look, live and behave by. This set standard really puts strain on women to alter their work, and or looks. The symbolism of the angel in the room represents the ideal woman who lives up to everyone else’s expectations. In life today it is even so. The advantage of having your own mins is conflicted by the opinions if others. This passage sheds a little light on the controversies involved with professions for women.

 

Midterm Prep

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1)   “Life is very much more exciting now than it used to be. You see I have something more to expect, to look forward to, to watch. I really do eat better, and am more quiet than I was”

Title: The Yellow Wallpaper

Author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Explain: Here, the narrator is talking about the impact the yellow wallpaper has on her. She explains that she has something to be excited for again and its affecting her life positively. This connects to the larger issue of her post-pardon psychosis as she is imagining the yellow wallpaper to be something much more than it is.

2)   “I have all of your letters here. I look at them everyday. I have one that looks as though it’s weeping, because the words fade away into nothing, and another that looks as if it’s been through a hard day, because there’s a smudge of dirt at each corner, and it smells of kerosene and burnt sugar. But I can’t tell you what they say, because I don’t read. I can’t tell whether there are any truths, but I keep them, ‘cause George gives me his heart, though it covered in mud and filthy, but he gives it to me in one of these letters. And I believed him. I believed him!

Title: Intimate Apparel

Author: Lynn Nottage

Explain: Here, Esther is talking about the physical appearance of the letters. She compares the way the letters look to the experiences of a human, crying or being tired after a long say. She gives them personification because she cannot read, so she implies from their appearance. She is upset because although she cannot read the letters, she knew that George said he gave her his heart in these letters. Therefore she cannot understand the cheating ways of his actions now.

 

 

Midterm Quotations: Quicksand

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1. Quicksand

2. The author of the story is Nella Larsen

3. ” The great community, she thought, was no longer a school. It had grown into a machine. It was now  a show place in the black belt, exemplification of the Whiteman’s magnanimity, refutation of the black man’s inefficiency. Life had died out of it”.

4. This quote examines how Helga comes to the realization that it did not matter how educated and well mannered you become, there is still the notion of the African-American race still being limited. She understands that they are being oppressed. This the beginning where Helga throughout the story, dabbles into her not being able to see where she truly thinks she fits in, despite being mixed race.

Midterm Quotation: Story Of An Hour

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1. The Story of an Hour

2.Kate Chopin

3. ” When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: ” free, free, free!” The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.”

4. This quote is about the feelings that start to arise from Mrs. Mallard, due to the assumption of the unexpected death of her husband. We get a glimpse of how Mrs. Mallard feels free from the burden of having to live under the shadow of her husband. She no longer has to be indulged in her wifely duties.

Midterm Quotes

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1)

Passage “That woman, then, who was born with a gift of poetry in the sixteenth century, was an unhappy woman, a woman at strife against herself. All the conditions of her life, all her own instincts, were hostile to the state of mind which is needed to set free whatever is in the brain. But what is the state of mind that is most propitious to the act of creation? ”

Title of text: A Room of One’s Own

Author: Virginia Woolf

What is happening in this passage is that Woolf is talking about woman’s state of mind. She leans towards the argument that women might be the best writers because of all of the conditions in their life. They would be able to write against the struggle against themselves that most male writers do not have.

This passage connects to larger issues in the essay because it is about women in the 16th century. It talks about their struggles, and how because you are a women you have no chance of following your passion. It argues what state of mind is right for creation? What do males have that the females do not?

2)

Passage: “…who had been born in this dirty, mad, hurrying city, had no home here. She had not even any friends here.”

Title of text: Quicksand

Author: Nelia Larsen

What is happening in this passage is that the reader is learning that Helga Crane has no home, or friends and we learn that she is going to be starting a journey of finding herself

How does this tie into the main themes of the novel? Well especially in the first half of the novel we follow Helga on her journey of finding herself. We watch her move to Chicago, to Harlem, to Denmark, and back to Harlem. We see that she has no real home, and she does not feel comfortable with her mix race.

 

 

Midterm questions 1

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“I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • identify the title of the text- The Yellow Wallpaper
  • identify the author-Charlotte Perkins Gilman
  • explain what is happening in the passage, – In this passage, her disorder , loniless and unhappy marriage makes her very sad and makes her depressed.
  • explain how it connect to larger issues or themes in the text- This is connected to the larger issues in the text which is how her disorder and her unhappy marriage makes her feel unwanted. Also due to her disorder she was kept in her bedroom isotlated form the outdie world which made her go crazy

Midterm exam prep

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1) “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.”

 

 

The Story of An Hour by Kate Chopin

This quote comes from a time in the story when Mrs. Mallard was thinking about her life after hearing the news of the death of her husband.

This quote connects with the theme of Mrs. Mallard being free from her marriage. Before the death of her husband, she was trapped in her marriage. She felt like she couldn’t have her own opinion because her husband would have one for her. Now that he was dead, she could finally think for herself and be truly happy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2) “But does it matter, I ask? Does it matter? Has he spent an evening at home? Has he so much as complimented my gowns this season or noticed that I’ve painted the damn boudoir vermilion red? Just look at this awful color, looks like a bohemian garret. But, does he notice? ”

Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage

In this quote, Mrs. Van Buren is trying on lingerie that Ester has made for her. while trying on the clothes, she expresses her feelings about the lack of Mr. Van Buren’s attention to her.

This quote connects to the issue of low self esteem. Mrs. Van Buren’s lack of self worth leads her to believe that if she changes things about herself, that her husband will notice and pay more attention. the quote shows the moment that she questions whether or not the changes she is making makes a difference to her husband. No matter how outfits she wears to impress him, she wonders if he notices anything. This can also be deeper than if he notices the changes she’s making, but if he notices that she’s trying something different about herself to try to save their relationship. Does he notice that her change of appearance is a cry for help, a plea for attention and love?

 

 

Midterm – Passage 2

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“She didn’t know. Couldn’t tell. But there was, she knew something else.  Happiness, she supposed. Whatever that might be. What exactly, she wondered, was happiness. Very positively she wanted it. Yet her conception of it had no tangibility. She couldn’t define it. Isolate it, and contemplate it as she could some other abstract things. Hatred, for instance. Or kindness.”

 

 

 

  1. Quicksand
  2. By Nella Larsen
  3. In this passage it is made clear that Helga becomes plagued with feelings of doubt, insecurity, and alienation once again. Helga, born of a white mother and a black father, has not been able to identify herself as either white or black. Since her sense of self is always censored by society’s restrictions and expectations she does not feel happy. As a result, she is constantly fleeing from place to place in search of a society wherein she can fit in. Because she does not belong to one race completely, she never truly finds a place where she belongs. Helga is questioning her own identity and her connections to the community around her. She can’t even identify her feelings as hatred or kindness.
  4. As a half black half white educated women Helga’s inner conflict and peace and her loneliness connects to a larger issue experienced by many biracial people. Race and gender are the forefront of Quicksand. Although it appears that the biracial person may have the best of both worlds, there will always be questions regarding their belonging and acceptance to their environment. Helga did not feel completely as a part of a certain community. She fled from her surroundings every time she thought things didn’t go well for her. Self identity crisis, acceptance issues, and not being able to identify oneself under one group as black or white becomes an issue in this case.

Midterm :quotation 2

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1. Quicksand

2. Nella Larsen

“sitting there in her room ,longhours after, helga  again felt a surge of hot anger  and seething resentment. And again it subsided in amazement at the memory of the consider-able applause which had greeted the speaker just before he had asked Gods blessing upon them. The South. Naxos Negros education. Suddenly she hated them all”

3. In this passage we come across the beginning of Helga’s journey to her own happiness. After realizing that the school that she has taught in was only a racial and hypocritical environment she felt the need to leave. She didn’t want to be part of something were students we’re being taught to be something other then themselves . This was the moment the she decides to quit her job and move to another place. A place where she will feel comfortable with her race. A place that she wouldn’t be judge for being black.s

4. This relates to the  larger issues of the story because helga is a biracial women who is trying to find a place where she feels comfortable with herself and the people surrounding her. After moving multiple times she always ended up being unhappy and trying to find something knew. She was looking for a sense of freedoma which at the end she never achieved because she hated what her life turned out to be. In reality she didn’t have to moved as much tO feel as if she belonged somewhere she just had to look into her inner self and become proud of who she was.