the Heroins Gaze

   "No, she must keep silence! What is it that suddenly forbids her and makes her dumb? Has she been nine years growing and now, when the great world for the first time puts out a hand to her, must she thrust it aside for a bird's sake? The murmur of the pine's green branches is in her ears, she remembers how the white heron came flying through the golden air and how they watched the sea and the morning together, and Sylvia cannot speak; she cannot tell the heron's secret and give its life away."

Sarah Orne Jewett's short story "A White Heron" portrayed a nine year old girl named Sylvia and her love for nature, animals and the wilderness. Her and her grandmother are poor and were offered an amount of money that would significantly boost their life style. Sylvia was questioned to reveal the location of the majestic white heron in the forest that a hunter has been attempting to seek out and kill. Climbing the tallest tree in the forest, Sylvia spots the beautiful bird and came to a superior moral viewpoint. She saw "the gaze" in this white heron and realized the life and the freedom of nature and its creatures was worth saving, rather than receiving money to better off her and her grandmother. 

Throughout the whole story, the passage above stood out the most because it is the moment that Sylvia comes to realization that nature's freedom holds a greater significance to her than receiving money to improve her well being. The theme freedom of nature holds a strong hold throughout Jewett's story. Nature is a majority of Sylvia's life and what brings her happiness besides her grandmother. She is happy being out in the woods with the animals and climbing trees. Climbing the tallest pine tree brought her to appreciate and visualize the beauty of the white Heron and its life. In the passage, Jewett says, "...the watched the sea and morning together... she cannot tell the heron's secret..." reveals the continuous idea that Sylvia relates to these animals as her friends and how strongly nature plays a role in her life away from the city. Correlating to that example, Jewett's passage above also states, "...the murmur of the pines green branches is in her ear..." almost as if the tree tells her secrets and helps her make the decision of keeping the heron's location a secret from life outside of the woods. 

The beauty, appearance and the "gaze" of the heron at the end of the story in the passage chosen above was most significant in bringing the entire story together. Sylvia wasn't familiar with the birds true appearance, beauty and uniqueness until she climbed the tree and became one with the bird's atmosphere. Money could not by her happiness because what brought Sylvia true joy was concealing the bird's location from the hunter and letting him continue to search in confusion. Sylvia, the heroin of this story, protected and save the heron's beauty and life all through a simple gaze up on the tops of the tallest pine tree of them all. 

The Life of a James

Henry James, the author of "The Real Thing" was an American-born writer who was known as a key figure of the 19th century literary realism. In his short story "The Real Thing," he exposes the significant theme of illusion vs. reality.

In James's story, "The Real Thing," he exposes the struggle a middle class artist has with four different types of people to create artwork around. Mr. and Mrs. Monarch were from a wealthy socioeconomic status but lost their money and now are secretly begging to be the artist's models for his paintings. Mr. and Mrs. Monarch are clung to their used-to-be high social status, making it difficult for them to transform through his artwork for a specific job. Miss Chum and Oronte are two characters of a lower socioeconomic class, openly looking for a job to pay the bills. Miss Chum and Oronte also come for the modeling job and end up fitting the modeling position better than the Monarchs, leading to the artist keeping them for his paintings instead of the Monarchs. Mr. and Mrs. Monarch are illustrated as being "the real thing," but because they are too cookie-cutter; they cannot give the artist versatile poses or transform into anything beside themselves.

The theme of illusion vs. reality illuminates throughout James's short story "The Real Thing." The Monarchs continue to portray themselves as prestigious high social class citizens, asking for this middle class artist's modeling job as last result. James describes them as "the real thing" but in reality this illustration is just an illusion because they cannot mold themselves or transform in the way the artist needs for his paintings. The monarchs may be "the real thing" for country homes or classy conversations, but Oronte and Miss Chum are just as much impressive candids for professional modeling. This theme also connects to the fact that the Monarchs are so desperate for their jobs that they are willing to be servants for Oronte and Miss Chum. In reality, these two would never stoop to being someone else's servants because when they had money, they were the people who hired servants. They are hidden behind the illusion of striving for "the real thing" to model for money, but end up not being fit for the job.

James was able to reveal the underlying theme of illusion vs. reality through his unique writing techniques. James was able to expose that the "real thing" is not always found in the high socioeconomic well class citizens, but can be found in an "average Joe."

The Needle in the Haystack

"I dig out the pictures, stare into the faces, which one was I? Survivors do hate themselves, I know, over the core of fierce self-love, never understanding, always asking, “Why me and not her, not him?” There is such mystery in it, and I have hated myself as much as I have loved others, hated the simple fact of my own survival. Having survived, am I supposed to say something, do something, be something?"

Dorothy Allison's short story 'River of Names' is bold, violent, grotesque and flat out barbaric. Each passage of her story gave me chills. Each death was descriptive, yet simply revealed among several others on the narrator's list. The author's writing style locked me in from beginning to end, but the passage above caught my eye significantly and kept me thinking long after the story was over.

In this passage, the narrator reveals her raw feelings of why she ended up being the lone survivor of the family. Should she be receiving praise for her accomplishment of escaping this malicious lifestyle amongst her family members? Her love for others, such as her girlfriend Jesse is as passionate as her hatred towards herself. Her isolation from the violence should be a triumph, but it consequently has become a set back for her to move on happily. 

In this passage, as the reader, I pointed out her repetition of 'survival' and 'hate'. Both words hold a strong meaning to the narrator and when Allison repeats them, it caught my attention to the emotion behind the writing. Surviving a tragedy or obstacle is looked at positively, but the narrator truly believes her survival was falsely handed over. Why was it she and not one of her cousins that suffered such brutality? She was viciously raped and beaten by her stepfather in her mother's bed repeatedly; yet she still does not praise her own survival. 

Closing the passage, the narrator says "...am I supposed to say something, do something, be something? The narrator 'says something' by not saying anything at all. If her sensitivity of the matter is exposed, for example when she woke up screaming in bed, she covers it up with humor. The comfort and sympathy Jesse wants to give to the narrator is constantly rejected. She says nothing about her genuine feelings and continues telling theses stories because she has "such a fascination with violence." 

She questions if she should become something, yet she holds on to these horrific memories that hold her back from a future with her lover. These memories will never disappear, but continuing to tell these stories to get a laugh from whoever wants to listen will keep her from being something she truly deserves. 

The names of the narrator's family hold such an impact on her life, however, why did Dorothy Allison not name the narrator herself? 

Revelation

About the Author 

Flannery O'Connor, author of the short story Revelation, was a southern writer born in Savannah, Georgia. Her biography stated that as a writer, she relied heavily on regional settings and grotesque characters. In her short story Revelation, Mrs. Turpin was illustrated as a heavy southern woman who identified others by their social class and threw around the word nigger nonchalantly. O'Connor portrayed Mrs. Turpin as a wealthy southern woman of a high social class who owned several African Americans to work on her cotton farm. This high social status woman truly held no class based on her attitude towards others, making her a grotesque and hated character throughout the story.

Flannery O'Connor also corresponded her heavy Roman Catholic faith with her writing. Along with her religion holding a strong part in her writing, O'Connor also tied in the idea of morality into her stories and novels. This holds an influential role in Revelation because morality is the differentiation of intentions or actions of those who are good, right, bad or wrong. Throughout the story, Mrs. Turpin strongly believed her views, beliefs and her way of life was right and no one else had a say to argue it. At the end, when she herd Mary Grace call her "an old wart hog from hell," she realized that the way she had been carrying herself had been wrong along with being quite bad. In the biography, O'Connor described herself as a "pigeon-toed child with a receding chin and a you-leave-me-alone-or-I'll-bite-you complex." This description can be seen as grotesque and ugly, tying into the way she portrays Mrs. Turpin, Mary Grace and the white trash woman in Revelation. O'Connor's father died from systemic lupus erythematosus and died when she was only fifteen. This tragic accident that happened to O'Connor can have a connection with her grotesque and bold writing style with somewhat of an aggressive feel.

One of O'Connor's trademarks is foreshadowing, giving the reader an idea of what will happen to a character before it happens. This came up several times in the beginning of Revelation when Mary Grace continuously stared at Mrs. Turpin with an aggressively vicious look. Each time it happened, the stares at Mrs. Turpin became more violent and flustered Mrs. Turpin, not knowing what she did wrong to this young girl. Finally, Mary Grace could not take Mrs. Turpin's crude behavior and wailed a book at her head. O'Connor's texts mostly take place in the south, always revolving around a morally flawed character. One of the quotes about her emphasis of the grotesque that stood out most to me was, "anything that comes out of the south is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic."

Costume Jewels

I found Guy de Maupassant’s short story, “The Necklace” very intriguing. This story was striking to me because I found it relatable and I strongly connected to the main character Mathilde Loisel. The ending of the story was the most surprising to me because I didn’t expect the necklace to be costume jewelry. I also learned a lot through the underlying themes about the superficiality of our society today.

Throughout the story, I assumed that Mathilde’s necklace that she borrowed from Madame Forestier was authentic. I was caught off guard when I found out the necklace was costume jewelry. I believe this has a lot to say about how society is materialistic and finds happiness only in shallow manners. I feel this relates significantly to the world we live in today because many people value items rather than personal relationships. After reading this story, I felt that I learned a lot about myself as well as others. Mathilde learned that the real value of life isn’t all about ones socio-economic status but should be focused on family and internal happiness.

During the story, I felt a lot of anger towards Mathilde because she took for granted what she had and was only centered on making herself appear better to others. The focus that she held on her outward appearance made me frustrated because it had a full effect on her husband, Monsieur Loisel. Mr. Loisel went out of his way to make Mathilde happy and it seemed like she was never satisfied. I felt a lot of sympathy towards Mr. Loisel because he was trying to fulfill her needs for high culture, but these needs were unattainable at their level of income.

This story impacted me as a reader because it taught me to never jump to conclusions before I finish the story entirely. I automatically assumed that the jewelry was real, which was obviously incorrect, meaning that a lot can change towards the end. I enjoyed the style of writing that the author used throughout his story. I also thought that Guy de Maupassant used a spontaneous writing technique of adding a twist at the end. This twist at the end of the story changed the meaning and kept me thinking even after the story was over. By the end of the story, I felt that I learned a lot about myself and the world around me. I also felt that I learned a lot about the different writing techniques that an author can use to strengthen a story.