– adjective
– Consisting of or measured in money
– “To this day articles are written, seriously and humorously, protesting against the increasing luxury and comfort of bachelor apartments for men, as well as against the pecuniary indepedence of women…”
– This passage is all about women and economics and how womens financial status are affected by marriage.
-adjective
– Living for several years or many years
-existing or cotinuing in the same way for a long time
– http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perennial
– ” For it is a perennial puzzle why no woman wrote a word of that extraordinary literlature when every other man, it seemed, was capable of song or sonnet.”
– Virginia Woolf uses the word perennial as it relates to women and how they were treated back then.
of or relating to a theme
adjective
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/thematic
“I think it’s Carole King’s ”Tapestry” on the record player. But which song? ”It’s Too Late” would make thematic sense – my dad’s smile has the let’s-just-get-through-this tension of a code-red marriage.”
I understand that they the Smith family was so used to their own traditions and nothing else made sense. They were listening to a song that represented this “theme” or their Christmas.
Adjective
-continuing forever or for a very long time without stopping
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perpetual
– “He has to introduce himself a state of perpetual lethargy.”
-Virginia Woolf stated that before she told us about a strange experience that we first have to understand a novelist state of mind. And as a novelist, he or she has to have a perpetual state of mind.
8)Perilous- full of danger
adjective
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perilous
“Magda was wavering in the perilous sunlight of the arena scribbling on such pitiful little bent shins.” pg2300
I understand that Magda was looking for her shawl even though it was so dangerous out.
a loud continuous noise (such as the noise made when many people are talking or shouting
Noun
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clamor
“But now Magda’s mouth was spilling a long vicious rope of clamor, “Maaaaaaa-” pg2300
(This connects to perilous) I understood that Magda felt very disoriented and upset when she lost her shawl so she started to finally scream.
dead and putrefying flesh(unfit for food)
noun
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/carrion
“Magda was dumb. Even the laugh that came when the ash-stippled wind made a clown out of Magda’s shawl was the only air-blown showing of her teeth. Even when the lice, head lice and body lice, crazed her so that she became as wild as one of the big rats that plundered the barracks at daybreak looking for carrion, she rubbed and scratched and kicked and bit and rolled without a whimper.” pg2300
I understand that Magda sort of lost all her human like qualities.
housing characterized by extreme plainness or dreary uniformity; a building or set of buildings used especially for lodging soldiers in garrison
noun
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/barrack
“Magda was mute. She never cried. Rosa hid her in the barracks, under the shawl but she knew one day someone would inform; or one day someone, not even stella would steal Magda to eat her.” pg2300
I understand that Rosa was afraid someone would find Magda in the barracks and snitch on her or use her as food.
very eager or greedy for food, satisfaction, or gratification; very hungry
adjective
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ravenous
“Stella was ravenous. Her knees were tumors on sticks, her elbows chicken bones.
Stella was famished.” pg 2299 first paragraph
I understood that Stella looked like a wild creature compared to her mom and her sister.
noun
“a dead body, especially a human body to be dissected; corpse.”
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cadaver?s=t
“This one’s cadaver, this one unconscious, this one beaten blue. Her ex-husband, her husband, her lover, her father, her brother, her uncle, her friend, her coworker. Always. The same grisly news in the pages of the dailies. She dunked her glass under the soap water for a moment- shivered.” Pg 1405
I understood from this passage on how women were always victimized and hurt by men physically because men use their strength to hurt them.
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