In the past two weeks, we have read many Carson McCullers's short stories exploring themes such as initiations or rites of passage, human vulnerability to love, or the "immense complexity of love," a phrase that she coined for her short story, "A Domestic Dilemma." Among the short stories we read, which story plot or character intrigues you the most, and why? Use 200-250 words to respond to the question.
26 comments:
Among McCullers’ short stories, I love “A Domestic Dilemma” the most. The similar plot happened in my family, so when I was reading the story, feelings such as the "immense complexity of love" came to me; somehow I know how hard and complex McCullers is describing. It was my beloved aunt, she was an alcoholic. My aunt and my uncle fall in love with each other when they are young and they got married quickly despite of others disagreement and objection. They loved each other so much. Things begun to change about six years ago, when she started to get drunk every day and the situations gets worse. The intense love between them that I used to envy is gone, now they hated each other. My aunt body condition is getting worse and my uncle never tried to stop her instead giving her more alcohol. (Our family members are guessing that he is trying to kill her in this way) Our family have done everything to help her, but nothing works. To me, I am desperate now. When I was reading the story, I can imagine how sad and angry the father was. (Luckily my uncle and aunt have no children) We all loved her; sometimes we want to give up but we can’t. The dilemma truly exists, but it is an unsolved problem.
We have read some of the collection story of Carson Mcullers in these few weeks. Most of the stories are surrounded by the issue of transition of life of both mentally and physically.
Same as this story “A Domestic dilemma”, the transition of the family from happiness to loneliness. Although the story did not mention how happy were they before, but we can find out that Emily was happy than now before she move to New York. The story plot which I interested the most is the matter of the tooth tree; Emily came down when Martin was joking with his son. The tears dropped down when Emily talked to her husband. She was so afraid that her husband turned the kids against her. After the move from Alabama to New York, Emily had nothing but only the kids, so she was so afraid she lost the last thing she ever had. The move had caused a serious impact on Emily. She lost the matrix of the family, cousinship and childhood friends. Only alcohol can made Emily felt better and forgot about the lonesome feeling. However, Martin thought that the alcohol had cause Emily’s sickness. Although sometimes Martin felt angry to Emily, he still loved her. His anger was gone when he saw the sweet and delicate wife was sleeping. The complexity of human love is hard to tell. I would say Emily may be better if her husband would give more loves and cares to her. What Emily need was just a man who can really listened to her heart.
Two of the McCullers' short stories, Sucker and The Haunted Boy, made me fascinated. In these stories, the main characters were boys who were both less masculine. However, their destinies were totally different from each other. In Sucker, the boy was originally pure and usually tricked by his cousin. Sucker still had the admiration for the cousin until the quarrel took place. After that, Suck changed a lot no matter in physical or mental aspect. It stroke my chord because of the vulnerability of human being’s heart. Love and hatred was just separated by the tiny border. Hearts were easily got hurt and changed by the outer environment. Besides, I also took pity on Suck. He was so young that he couldn’t stand up with his cousin’s condemnation. Maybe he would go stray in the future and became a cruel man.
In the second story, The Haunted Boy, was more impressive and more dramatic than Sucker. When I read it, I thought it was kind of suspense novel. Especially, it mentioned that Hugh asked John to accompany with him to go upstairs. It made me feel gruesome and horrible. At first, I misunderstood Hugh was cold-blooded killer . He went crazy killing his mom and prepared for doing the same on John. However, after reading the whole story, I found that I thought too over. Surprisingly, it was a happy ending. Compared to other short stories, The Haunted Boy left a deep impression on my mind.
Among those stories, Sucker impresses me most. I think that Sucker is still waiting and expecting for Pete to have agreement with him. And they both wish to go back to the relationship which is very close and peaceful before. Yet, it is really hard for a person who had been hurt badly to walk out of the shadow. May be if the person who hurt you apologize to you, the terrible memory can be let go little by little.
Sometimes Pete relies on Sucker. He has a person to share his happiness and worries about love with. And Sucker is like a good listener who will always be there. I think that Pete is so angry that he hurt Sucker so bad. But he finally regrets, and feels that something important is missing from life. The relationship never coming back is really a big pity. It will haunt you forever if you don’t deal with it. It’s a wound that the person who was hurt is afraid to touch and the person who hurt doesn’t have the courage to heal. We are all not brave enough to encounter the broken relationship. What a pity!
I would like to talk about "A Domestic Dilemma." In "A Domestic Dilemma" the main role Martin intrigued me a lot. There are many conflicts inside his heart. “To leave my wife?” or “To keep be with her?” Those two questions always bother him when his wife done the things all mess. He loved his children. He blamed on her in his mind just like a drunkard and let their children face the dangerous situation. It is really dangerous for the little baby frail head hit the table. But he did not know that he had some responsibility about his wife “not been well.” Because of his work, they move to north. It cause Emily feel lonely. So she let alcohol to satisfy her in sufficient life. There must be some impact on kids about their mother problems when they grow up someday. Nevertheless, when he looked on his child face, he could find some similarities to Emily such as the little nose and the form of cheekbones. These children were definitely Emily and his own. I think this part the author really gave us the warm feeling of family. And when Martin looked at Emily sleeping face, the miserable of wake up time had somehow disappeared. Emily, his wife, his adorable wife just lay beside him. At last, he still chose to stay with her. The immense complexity of love from Martin let us feel a little sorrow.
Although the sucker’s words are much simpler than other stories made by Carson Mcullers, however, Carson Mcullers is good at describing the odd and complex relationship between the two cousins and May belle with many skills. Besides, because the situation are common in many kinds of relationship: family, lovers, friends, etc, so the story is easy to understand what she wants to explain. There are a lot of comparisons in the story, for example, at the beginning: the room was mine and I used it as I wanted to….And Sucker thought anything I did was always swell….and leave without saying a word. These setenses showed the sucker admired his cousin so much! And Pete didn’t care about him at all, treated him just as bad as Maybelle did me. It is a funny and interesting triangle which broken up few months later, the Maybelle loves some other handsome fellow on the football team, and Richard also hates Pete after Pete talked about how he disliked the sucker’s behavior with some evil attitude, in the end, the sucker turned into a popular boy, who played with other kids in the Pete and the Richard’s room, “our room isn’t mine at all anymore”. ”and I have to hang around…….” Their state in this story totally upside down. Moreover, I found that Carson Mcullers emphasized the body language, the brilliant part in the story is that” He would look at everything I did and quietly take it in.” against the last sentence” sometimes this look in his eyes makes me almost believe that if Sucker could he would kill me.”
If we still want to remain our childlike innocence, how do we adapt to adulthood? The narrator in "Like That" used to be close to her elder sister, but it changed after her sister grew up. The narrator does not understand why things changed after the coming of age. She wants to be herself, instead of being like her sister or other girls. Perhaps the dead of her aunt also makes her refuse to be a big girl. She won’t have a boyfriend since she is afraid to be like her sister. Maybe for some readers, the narrator is too nervous toward adulthood. I think it is because she was hurt in the process of growing up. In fact, she just wants to protect herself from harm. She doesn’t want to grow up if it equal to grow apart with her beloved family. After all, she was just a vulnerable thirteen-year-old child! This is her way to maintain her innocence. I still remember when I was little, my brother used to treat me tenderly. But when I gradually grow up, we won’t share our feelings anymore. We don’t do any of the things we used to, and it become harder and harder to understand each other. Though the author used simple words to compose this short story, we could still feel a slight sorrow in it. Maybe some of us share the same feeling of the narrator in this story, too.
When people realize what they lost or that they did some harm on someone, actually, it is late to get regret. Carson McCullers in one of her short stories, “Sucker,” reveals the irreparable damage to the loss of innocence and faith in other people at such a young age. The main character, also the narrator, Pete, shares a room with his younger orphaned and timid cousin, Sucker. Sucker admires Pete and believes in what Pete tells him. Once Pete tells him if he jumps off the garage, an umbrella will open up as a parachute. Sucker does but breaks his knee. In Sucker’s mind, Pete is worshiped as an idol. At sixteen, Pete becomes getting interests in a girl, Maybelle. At first, although Sucker tries to build a good bond with Pete, Pete is occupied with Maybelle. Later on, Pete treats Sucker well when he gets a good relationship with Maybelle. However, after Maybelle dumps Pete, he starts to yell at his cousin. Being brutally insulted with Pete’s hatred and neglect, Sucker begins gradually and invisibly to change. He becomes stronger and tougher. Also, he builds up his own space and seeks for his favorite things at his age instead of idolizing Pete any more. Pete does not have awareness of Sucker’s changes in mentally and physically. Finally, Pete is extremely surprised at his change, but he has no idea how to make up.
Hattie as a seemingly omniscient initiator of forbidden secrecy in the story “The Orphanage” fascinates me the most. Though the narrator does not mention whether Hattie’s from the orphanage in the beginning, Hattie’s mystic identity and grotesque figure gradually fit in the image of the “sinister bottle,” the Home. The secrecy inside the Home is invisible and untouchable because of its high board fence, iron picket gate, and narrow windows while the secrecy inside Hattie is quite uncanny yet partially true. Hattie is, on some extent, the figure of the Home without fences. She therefore serves as the only tunnel for exploring the mystery in mysterious Home. Her revelation of taboos of sexual connotation (kissing the opposite sex) and myths of giving birth then arouses wicked questions and resistance in the narrator’s mind. The narrator’s ignorance once being diminished through the gifted authority of Indian feather and the appearance of the dead pickled baby, all the invisible fear of the secrecy of sex and growing up bursts out and splits the fences of the “immense collusion” and innocence, and spoils the liquid of vile imagination to the territory of knowledge. Under the Indian feather band, Hattie with a crafty look finally leads the audience of the dead pickled baby to face the originally deformed child that lies deeply in the corner of dusty memory shelf.
I am sorry, the Anonymous one is Janet's entry.
"The Sojourner" impressed me most. The plot is close to our daily live. It have inspired me something about life. When we grow up, most of the time we're pursuing our dreams. Then we may experience the loss of success, even family. As a traveler, people usually don't have specific place to live. Just go place by place back and forth. After getting through lots of difficult times, the thirst for belonging become strong. In this story, Ferris did not be aware of the time. He finally realized the brief life after his father's death. People would have similar situations like this. Sometime we don't cherish our love until they are gone. It is no use after we are aware of it. Maybe we may feel regrettable that it is late to make up. Ferris, in this story, was afraid of facing the reality. He made up a perfect family he had. The relation between he and his ex-wife was an irony. An apparent contrast is an interesting part, especially the expression in Billy's eyes. An small reaction impact
Ferris a lot. In real life, children indeed take a important role in families. Parents would feel curious about what they act so. Because children always react in a direct way, they would not cover their emotions. Maybe Ferris just want to recall his relationship with Elizabeth, but the visit somehow change his mind a lot.
Even though “A Tree‧A Rock‧A Cloud” is not my favorite work, I am still impressed deeply by this initiative story. A lonely and naïve boy is forced to listen to a man in the café addressing his invention of “love science” in the morning. The man makes an argument that if he started his love from some simple thing as a tree, a rock, a cloud, then finally he would be able to love a woman. His theory at first seems absurd but when I read closely, I suddenly realize his motivation of “love science.” A tree, a rock, a cloud would not respond the man’s emotion but he still tries to love those “simple thing.” It is a therapy for healing himself. They asked that you would choose to love someone, and got hurt, or to love no one, but being safe. Most people would choose the former, but there was one time I had thought that I might choose the latter. The man in the story still has the courage to try to fall in love again. That is, if he were used to this kind of unrequired love, he might not be hurt again by the last step, a woman. As I realized this, I thought I had some kind of empathy with that man and I could feel tears in my nose but there was a smile on my mouth. I am touched by the struggle of love. At the end, the boy still knows nothing about the man’s words and gets a funny conclusion, “he sure has done a lot of traveling.” It makes me laugh since being naïve is as easily to live as to get bored.
The most thought-provoking plot to me is the ebb and flow of relationship between Pete and Richard after Pete was betrayed by his lover. Pete changed his attitude toward Richard back to the time before he was in love. He scolded and even treated him badly. It was just like a steep fall from grace for Richard. He thought that Pete was going to treat him well, but he was desperately wrong and finally realized that he was just Pete’s plaything from beginning to end. It is sad to know that a person was fooled by someone he or she adored. As a result, he turned into a tough boy with independent thinking. Richard's self-discover had influenced not only on his physique but also mentality, which let him get the upper hand under that situation. After the transforming of Richard, Pete found out that he was too-severe to him and felt really sorry about his bad behavior. However, they cannot go back. People always do not treasure what they have until they lose it. “If a person admires you a lot you despise him and don't care—and it is the person who doesn't notice you that you are apt to admire.” can be seen clearly in such condition. It seems that Pete is the real sucker but not Richard due to his insatiability and indifference.
After reading the short stories, I found out that I like “The Haunted Boy” the most. The story started with Hugh looking for his mother while his friend, John, was around. John wanted to leave, but Hugh persuaded him to stay and kept calling out for his mother. This gave me a feeling that Hugh was very nervous, and something must have happened to him that made him afraid to stay at home alone. As the story goes on, the atmosphere was growing much uncomfortable. From the conversation between the two boys, we gets to know the things happened to Hugh’s family, and ‘the other time’ kept coming out of his memory. Hugh was afraid of the memory about ‘the other day’, and ‘red’ kept occupied his mind. This built up the suspense in this story. When he went upstairs and opened the bathroom door, we finally know what terrible thing had happened to him and his mother. The bloody scene was too much for a child, and this had made a shadow in his heart. The part which I liked is the last pages that the family had gone through of the shadow. That’s why I like this story among all other stories, the clear, bright future for them to go on.
Among the short stories we read, John Ferris in” The Sojourner” intrigues me the most. I love the part when little boy knew that Mr. Ferris was his mom’s ex-husband then to obstruct in every possible way. This scene not only shows the kid’s innocence but also gives us a feeling of that “flowers remain the same year after year, while people change year by year. “ I assume that if I was John, I went to Georgia where I had never been for 8 years and visited my ex-wife. I couldn’t show any grief to recollect our love even infatuated with her amiabilities. It was so painful and regretful. I was an interloper to their family. I envied her husband who possessed my little butterduck. Bach’s fugue which was a catalyst recalled our lives(loves) before. However, we couldn’t back to the time. You married and had a sweet family. To retain my last dignity was to pretend that I had a better live too. Though I was not the old John who had divorce once and visited his ex-wife (also his father dead), I understand the feeling of his. Carson McCullers was really brilliant to create this character and this short story. She made the comparison between John and Elizabeth then described John’s feeling as vivid as life. I appreciate her let us experience a different kind of life.
We read some McCullers’ works these weeks. My favorite story is Sucker. Her writing is so amazing! To be honest, my mother tongue is not English, so when I read English articles, sometimes there is a gap between understanding and feeling. However, McCullers can describe the contradicted feelings and thoughts subtly. I have acted two characters before, so it seems like she read my mind. Maybe she didn’t mention much about what the sucker thought, but I can tell he regards his cousin as a perfect model, and he had no confidence and wanted to be recognized by his cousin. He was blind to follow his cousin, so he did everything his cousin said. It’s so sad to loose self-esteem. Finally, sucker got hurt terribly and armed himself. On the other side, I can also realize his cousin’s feeling. Actually, we just hate somebody who adores us so much, but we don’t know why. At the end, his cousin hurt the sucker; I think he felt not only regret but also relieved.
After reading so many impressive stories like "Sucker", "A Domestic Dilemma", "Wunderkind", and even "Reflections in a Golden Eye" written by Carson McCullers. My personal preference is A Domestic Dilemma but the Frances’ sadness and helpless in Wunderkind keep haunting me. We all know that the only way to play an instrument well is to practice a lot and it’s kind of lonely and unbearable for someone who’s got stopped from making a breakthrough. Because piano skills can be improved only by the pianist him/herself and I totally understand Frances’ feeling while I was reading the story because it reminds my relationship to my piano teacher. Frances, as an artistry prodigy, Mr. Bilderbach has a great expectation for her. In the same time Frances panics during her piano lesson and it looks like she won’t have the glorious career that had planned and this frustrated her a lot. The problem, we learn, is not that she's had just a few bad lessons – rather, Frances has been experiencing a steady decline up to the point where she, and even her supportive teacher, can't help but wonder if she has not lost the talent that had once marked her out as a promising prodigy. If there are any doubts as to just how rattled the past few months have made her, consider that when one of Mr. Bilderbach's colleagues tries to make small talk by telling her, "I gather you're doing a lot now," she bluntly replies, "No…I'm doing terribly." I feel so sorry for her.
I like “the Orphanage” the most. From how the story tells, it gives the audiences a room to imagine. There is a pickled baby used to explain where babies come from. Hattie, poses as a fortune teller, shows an immortal infant—the pickled baby--to the narrator and that gives a bridge for the narrator to explore to other side of knowledge—what adults might be too realistic to care about. In the whole story, it allows the audiences to enjoy the feeling of getting rid of common sense. As the audiences, we don’t need to find some logic connection of the rumor of colored people; a baby’s belong, to the changed image of the orphans in the narrator’s eye—for not being logical is the way how children thinks. What we have to know is that the hostile feeling of the orphans gone in the end, and that by the help of a terrifying pickled baby’s existence, an orphan finally shows up as a positive, an innocence creature that acts just like a normal kid could act. How the story composed by the author’s intuitive thinking makes me love this beyond the other stories.
Among McCullers’ short stories, “A Domestic Dilemma” intrigued me a lot. Martin forced their family to leave their original place without caring his wife. Emily always drank alcohol to control her emotions, because she couldn’t adapt the new environment. According to this reason, he hesitated to leave her or not to leave her. She let the children face the dangerous situation. Martin loved his wife, but he didn’t want her to show the bad images in front of their children. For example, Martin said “I didn’t want the children to see you in this condition.” Martin was sensitive about his reputation. He considered that parents should play the role of a good parent. However, Emily was afraid of losing children. After the quarrel, she told her husband that she was so ashamed. Suddenly in the bedroom, all thoughts of blame or blemish were distant from him. They still love each other very much because they still have to live together after all. I understood their feelings because my mom and dad always argue against arguments. I was afraid that they might divorce one day. However, Martin and Emily’s marriage relationship can be well in the end. They exist in a strange and special relationship to their follow lives.
Among Carson McCullers’ short stories, I like “The Orphange” this story. At first, the story begins in a horrible orphanage. Carson McCullers describes this part vividly. Every detail is written in this part like the color is blackish green and iron fence. The detail all is like a horrible movie. I interest in this background. Besides, my favorite part is the dead baby in this short story. When the dead baby in the bottle appears, this part is really creepy. The dead baby had little old red head with mouth and the little teensy red legs squelched up under it. Carson McCullers describes this view truly like she ever sees this dead baby before. However, the amazing part is the final part. When the find the orphanage is not like he thought, the orphanage is not dark and horrible. You could not imagine the end will be this. And, I think this story symbolizes kids all have some different ideas about this world in their childhood but they will find that the real world is not same like they thought before.
After reading many Carson McCullers’s short stories in these few weeks, I like the way she describes and deals with the relationship and interaction between the characters in her stories. My favorite story is “The Aliens”. It’s a story about a journey for a Jewish people who travel to the South America for emigrant by bus and in the journey he meets a person who is hospitality and keeps sharing his story with the Jew. The author describes the interaction and dialogue between the Jew and the person vividly and expresses the emotion of the Jew, the kind of new member in this new place or we can say he is a stranger for the place, so truly. And one of my favorite part of the stories is the hospitality characteristic of the South people. In the title of the story we can interpret that the South people are considered as the people who alienated from main stream society, but we can intensely feel about their enthusiasm and innocence, and it’s hard to feel in the main stream society, in the story the author also contrast with this two different kinks of characteristic carefully. In this short story, the author copes with every detail considerately, on the surface, the emotion and the structure of the story seems ordinary, after reading it deeply, you will feel the intense emotion between the characters and can understand what is the story really want to talk about.
Of all the short stories we have discussed in class, both the story plot and the characters in “The Haunted Boy” intrigues me the most. The story—full of love, care, and forgiveness in the family—is very healing and inviting, especially with the positive figure of the father and the bright, hopeful happy ending which are both so rare. Most important of all, the haunted boy, Hugh, is so loveable and so real. He tried to be tough and did not cry during the bad time, even though at that time, he was so frightened, confused, and hurt. He even got into a fight trying to protect his mother’s name. It is the way he tries so hard to make himself tough and grown-up during a time when he has the right to be vulnerable that makes him so loveable. Moreover, I think he is so cute to hold a grudge against his mother who made him worry so much and feel so afraid, making mean remarks about her new clothes and shoes out of anger, but then crouches down to touch those new shoes, praising them along with the new clothes after his anger passed away leaving behind nothing but love.
YA -Han Chung
As far as I am concerned, I like Reflections in the Golden Eye the most because its plot is filled with excitement and sadness Above all, the strong and queer relationship among these four characters-Leonora, Captain Penderton,Alison,and Major Langdon. Also Carson McCullers wants to deliver a phenomenon of extremely oppressive homosexuality in that time. These four people just like a unit that they can't live without one another. Although Captain Penderton observes that his wife has affair with Major Penderton;however, he still keep calm and quietly accept this truth rather than has a argument with Leonora or directly gets divorced with her. Also, Alison,to my surprise, she and Leonora just like sisters. Moreover, in the novel, these four people most of time join altogether play the cards or sometimes attend the party. It seems like they living a boring and invariable lives. Secondly, through some plot setting, I realize that what the difference between of civilized or uncivilized person. Take Captain Penderton and Private William for example, Private William is a more uncivilized person that even though in his childhood, he was instilled the viewpoint that touching women is guilty and woman is a dirty creature, he still stuck on the spot and feels comfortable as seeing Leonra's naked body because he thinks naked body is closer to nature. By contrast, Captain Penderton is too much civilized person that he can't courageously express his love toward Private William. He chooses quietly tracks behind behind Private William and observes his behaviors.
In “The Sojourner” John Ferris went back his hometown for his father’s funeral and he visited his ex-wife, Elizabeth, unexpectedly. John pulled out his address book after the funeral. Some of his friends married and some of them dead. John suffered the fear of aging and transience especially after his father’s funeral. And later he met his ex-wife. In the moment like that I believe people would grasp the time to meet old friends before leaving for the same reason –recalling their youth. I think that is why John visited his ex-wife’s home and asked her play a Bach prelude and fugue. He saw how her perfect family now is and might remember the life before their fight and divorce. It was an unexpected meeting but stimulated him to rethink his life and his relationships. In the end of the story, although John tried to rebuild the relationship which he wasted years between Valentin and him, it could not be rebuilt in one day. It also shows everything is John wishfully rebuilt it but still not concern the mind of Valentin. It would be worth discussing that is John really wanted a family or just longing for Elizabeth’s perfect family.
After reading Carson McCullers’ short novels, A Domestic Dilemma impresses me a lot. In this story, McCullers talks about an unhappy family because of the mother’s bad hobby, drinking, but by the means of the natural imagery of the tale, the author wants readers think further behind this character though this story. Therefore, I would like to talk about this character and who leads her to become this sort of awful woman.
According to this story, the readers can understand that when the family moves to New York, the family relationship becomes worse and worse. Emily is addicted to alcohol and she is not allowed to raise her own children by her husband since she almost kills her child after drinking. Before leaving Alabama, the family is happy. However, when Emily lives in New York, the duties of motherhood and housekeeping were onerous to her; one the other hand, she becomes homesick for Paris City. In fact, the author wants the readers to think if the mother should be blamed. Definitely not! The readers may think George is a good husband at the first glance since he works hard and raises his children. If the readers think behind this story, we will understand that the tragedy is caused by the husband since he needs higher salary to have a better living standard. Nevertheless, Emily does not accommodate herself to live in a new circumstance, so she needs alcohol to release herself from unknown pressure.
In conclusion, McCullers uses “dilemma” this word on title to depict the whole event. Although living in the city may gather a better living standard than living in the countryside, living in the countryside is much easier than living in the city. Therefore, the dilemma in human nature is what McCullers wants to express though her story.
Dear professor,
I am sorry for my late submission XD :((
Among the stories we have discussed in class, the story plot and the characters of “Wunderkind” intrigues me the most. It portrays the bitter transition of Frances from being a piano child prodigy to a normal adolescent girl. The author depicts the characters, settings, and motions in minute and exquisite details. It is through the subtle motions of Frances that we experience the pressure and tension she feels when she faces her tutor, Mr. Bilderbach. Her hand would twitch, curl, and sink in correspond to what impacts her tutor’s words have on her. Visualizing the oppressive winter twilight that seeps into the silent room, we can feel her anxiety and understand why she would want to cry when she sees the “slimy yellow oozing over the white” during the breakfast after practicing piano. (p.61) Frances, given by her tutor the German name Bienchen, meaning birds in English, lives in the fantasy and dream of Mr. Bilderbach. Mister Lafkowitz finds that she is not that talented as her tutor thinks she is, and Frances notices his reaction; however, she chooses to “keep her face blank and immature” because that is how Mr.bilderbach wants her to behave(p.65) As Mr.Bilderbach is childless, he somehow channels his love for child onto Bienchen and therefore unconsciously ignore the fact that she has grown up. One evidence is that the color of the dress he chooses for her is pink, the color symbolizes purity and innocence. Another evidence is that he always talks to Bienchen in the voice he speaks to children. Failing to meet her tutor’s expectations, a piano genius and a never growing girl, she feels frustrated and the emotions come to a burst when she decides to walk out the door. In conclusion, the story well depicts the anxiety of living up to others’ expectations and self- doubt.
Post a Comment