Monday, March 1, 2010
Beloved
In Beloved by Toni Morrison, there are several characters who overcome obstacles in the face of adversity while others fail to do so. Halle is one character who, when faced with difficult hardships, ends up losing himself. One example is when he sees Sethe's milk get stolen and he loses his mind and "lathers butter on his face." Instead of taking hold of the situation and defending his wife, he cowardly hides and is ultimately unable to face his responsibilities. Denver is one character who overcomes the restrictions that are placed upon her and, in a way, embraces them. Even though nobody at school will talk to her, she finds friendship at first in the ghost and later in Beloved. She cares for Beloved because she knows that she is her sister and it is her job to do so. Denver, who encounters many problems in her life because of Sethe's actions, is able to rise above them because she wills herself to do so. A second character who does this throughout the novel is Sethe. Though she must endure innumerable challenges in her life, at the end of the novel she seems to have come out one top. Even though her children, her milk, and her freedom were all taken away from her, she regains them all. She may seem like she goes crazy when she tried to kill her kids but really she is just doing what a mother must do in any situation; protect her children. Sethe does not bother with what the townspeople think because she knows, in her own heart, that she has always does what was right in order to save her family and herself. Sethe overcomes the obstacles that are put in front of her because she and her daughter have a strength and a will power that her husband never possessed.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
The Stranger
In The Stranger, Albert Camus answers this question with only one character; Meursault. he is faced with obstacles that, at the time, he is ruined by, while at the end of the story he ultimately prevails and finds what makes him "happy." After the murder, Meursault is grounded by the fact that he is no longer physically free, but he was never really mentally free to begin with. He was an observer in his own life and never knew much about himself except that he was juts a listener. Along the way, while he doesn't learn what actually interests him, he learns what "doesn't interest him." This shows that Meursualt has partially overcome the adversity that faced him earlier in his life, the fact that he never has the ability to explain what made him him, and can now somewhat understand who he really is. He knows that everyone dies in the end and he learns to accept death as it really is; something which we all must accept as an inescapable fate rather than something o overcome.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
The Metamorphosis
In Kafka's The Metamorphosis, Gregor and his whole family face adversity but, in the end, it has a totally different affect on Gregor than on his family. While they all must deal with his physical change throughout the story, Gregor dies in the face of this hardship while his family is able to eventually realize something that they would have never been able to before. In the time after Gregor's metamorphosis, before his death, he and his family must become used to this situation which none of them want to become accustomed to. Throughout the bulk of the story, they almost refuse to accept this as something that is permanent and simply brush him aside as a literal and a figurative pest. His metamorphosis is Gregor's true adversity, which he ultimately fails to overcome. However, for his family, his death allows them to beat this hardship because they finally have some freedom and actual sense of family (not just people who happen to live together) that they never allowed themselves to have when Gregor was alive.
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