Julio’s Comments (group member since Oct 05, 2015)

Julio’s comments from the Forms of Literature (Keating's Goodreads Discussion forum) group.

“Everyday Use” and “I Stand Here Ironing” are two narratives that touch on family values and the importance to be compacted with your relatives. Both of these stories are told in the perspective of the mother, the person best known as the stronghold within the family, dealing with the hardships of motherhood. While similar in message, the situations in which our narrators are thrown in are quite different with the mother from “I Stand Here Ironing” regretting for her absence of motherly nurturing for Emily, while the mother in “Everyday Use” breaks the forbidden rule of preference over her children. Similar in character structure, each mother have an older daughter that have their own “trait” that alters the perspective of the mother, causing the mothers to fault over their skills of being a mother. However, both stories have similar plot structure in the fact in which the daughters eventually overcoming over their struggles, almost feeling the emotion of praise radiating from the mothers through the author’s use of diction. With each story’s author conveying the importance of family values, even though every family has a dilemma of their own, that a family must always stay compacted and never be torn apart.

In the story “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter” by D.H. Lawrence is repleted with variety sets of symbolisms within the lines of the text, however the overall symbolic trait of the story is rebirth. The purpose of symbolism is to use symbols, such as inanimate objects or scenarios, to represent the author’s ideas or qualities. Symbolism is useful to enhance the theme and setting of the narrative. Lawrence introduces the readers to Mabel Pervin, the “Horse Dealer’s Daughter,” who is in the state of desolation since her place of residency radiates the feeling of emptiness. With no purpose upon dwelling in the living world, she attempts to kill herself to join the other world in hopes to reunite with her mother. However, her fate was altered when Jack Fergusson rescued her from doing “such a foolish thing” and instantaneously fell in love with the man. It was with the newfound love and the exchangement of clothes that the rebirth of Mabel was initiated introducing a side of Mabel that was hidden within her to be awaken.

In “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway, we are introduced to the protagonist, Harold Krebs, who prior to enlisting himself into the Marines, was a proud member of a frat party at Methodist college in Kansas. The stereotypical definition for a frat is usually loud, full of life, and feeling like the king of the world. With Hemingway first introducing Krebs as a young man who enjoyed his life was quickly flipped when he entered the war walking out like a new man, but a new man that every soldier before him unfortunately turn into as well. What Hemingway does so excellent in his style of writing is that he puts the readers into the shoes of Krebs making the reader feel isolated. We never thoroughly get to learn about the other characters since Hemingway’s intention was to elevate the feeling of Krebs’ withdrawal from society, also writing with an emotionless tone to understand griminess that Krebs is withstanding.

In this week’s video, Mary Helen Washington touched upon the themes of isolation within the story “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell where Minnie Wright (Foster) allegedly murdered her husband, Mr. Wright. Although this piece had many themes intertwined within it, the one that is drenched with the most is isolation. From Martha Hale’s depiction of the house and it’s unwelcoming atmosphere, the reader gets the idea that Mrs. Wright who was once a happy, illuminating individual, was dwelling in an establishment where it seem odd to that she associates with such setting. With her placement there, she is isolated from her past life and having only but one beam of her hope for herself: the bird. The canary could been seen as a projection of Mrs. Wright since the bird “bright” and “luminous” and just like her is also “caged” in. With her house being described as an unwelcoming setting and the journey to her dwelling was promised with bitter, cold weather, the chances of her peers paying a visit was very low. Glaspell did an excellent job by using the setting to accentuate the characters bringing out the theme of isolation.

In “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen, the story is narrated by Emily’s mother describing the hardships of motherhood. With the mother’s perspective we are introduced to the main protagonist, Emily who is a troubling child who constantly feels outcasted from society. One would think that the Emily would fall under a flat character since it’s told in the eyes of another individual, when in fact the narrative shocks readers by making Emily the most complex character in the story while also making the narrator just as complex. With the narration of Emily’s mother, she recounts about the troubling times Emily experienced being aware that she was “frail” and “foreign looking.” Emily’s psychological state alters as well, with at first constantly pleading for the love of her absent, hardworking mother to not even desiring a speck of love from everyone. What this does to a girl mentally makes the reader’s empathetic even though the story lacks the inner thoughts of the protagonist herself. However, with the mother’s narration and thoroughly elaborating Emily, the lack of Emily’s conscious is compensated for.