Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

angel's pavement

Good Essays
869 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
angel's pavement
My analysis based upon category of the antropocentricity with the structural elements.
One of the problems raised in the novel and the key one is the problem of upbringing. More exactly the problem of father and sons, the problem of misunderstanding.
The plot of the extract revolves around Mr. Smeeth and his speculations about his own children. The central idea of the analyzed extract is misunderstanding between two generations. The author’s message is that many parents could not understand either intentions or inside emotional experience of their children. The tone of the extract is dramatic. It could be logically divided into two parts- the “dialogue” part and the “speculations” part.
First part begins with a dialogue, which presents us a picture of an ordinary family: the mother making some dish, the father helps her, their daughter sits and watches them. Everything seems to be fine and clear. We can only judge that mister Smith strong person through his imrerative sentences. At the same time it can be conclude that another member of his family is quite meek and gentle, because short and laconic sentences, But the second part reveals the true situation about this seem-to-be-ordinary family.
It begins with the impatient grunt of Mr. Smeeth, he is upset by his daughter. Once he was fond of her, but now he is irritated. The usage of detached construction “and, for that matter, he was still fond of her” sets some border between her childhood and adolescence. He is not satisfied by her “way of acting, of looking, of talking”, by this enumeration, the author describes almost every situation of their life. The author uses such epithets to draw the portrait of Edna: “smallish girl, greyish-greenish-bluish eyes, prettyish” and they point out that she wasn’t a complete human, according to these epithets she was still in development. It proved by the usage of the diminutive suffix “ ish” Moreover, such epithets prove the idea> that she is neither a women and she is nor a little girl so this period of life can be logically the cause of fathers irritation. The contrastive phrases “being neither child nor an adult, neither dependent nor indepen­dent” underline the previous statement. Her being at home is characterized by such epithets as “languid and complaining, shrill and resent­ful, or sullen and tearful” thus making us understand that she was, as the author said in “a very silly, awkward age”. She hasn’t the idea what she wants. But the situation changed abruptly when she receives a call from her friends, it is shown by the simile “This contrast, as sharp as a sword” the author states that her behavior at home and among her friends was very different. She was not interested in the life of her family, instead, being with her friends she “sprang into a vivid personal life of her own, became eager and vivacious”. These numerous epithets reflect her young and hoity-toity nature. We can suggest that the fact that the daughter can be connected with somebody else is the most annoying fact for farher. The idea that she become older and can leave this place.
The next paragraph is devoted to the son of Mr. Smeeth – George, who is older than Edna, she is 17 and he is 20. The age gives us a hint that he is probably set his life priorities and somehow more confident in his point of view to his own life. It is proved by his absence in the very beginning< we can imagine that he was outside . But that is only partially so, according to the author: “He had no desire to stick to anything, to serve somebody faithfully, to work himself steadily up to a good safe position”. So George just tried one thing after another, selling wireless sets, helping some pal in a ga­rage, but his father believed that even working hard he could not get any positive promotion or results. Inspite of that he goes his own way in relations with father, he hasn’t hard life position und purposes. In George description there are only few epithets “promising boy” ts but he getting nowhere. But this description belongs to the childhood, but to describe his nowdays life he uses the great amount of verbs to sgows that ne a“The point was, that to George, there was nothing wrong, and his father was well aware of the fact that he could not make him see there was anything wrong. That was the trouble with both his chil­dren.”- this is the climax of the whole extract, the description of a problem which could not be dealt with, the fact that is inevitable and unavoidable.
Their father, Mr. Smeeth “no longer understood them”, his children a kind of foreigners, because they belong to a younger generation that exists in a dif­ferent world. Their behavior, their culture, their manners and way or thinking is different from people of older generation. The generation gap problem raised in this very extract is urgent though it exists many and many years.
So the problem is not new and there is only thing that one should do – accept it, and try to undergo it.+

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    5. Identify two examples where Tom mentions his lack of ‘choice’ and explain the significance of the repetition in suggesting this is part of the reason Tom is not entering the world but is instead retreating.…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Authors often raise many issues within their novels. Tim Winton portrays this in his novel Cloudstreet. A book which tells you a story of two families forced to move to the city because of two separate catastrophes which the encounter. The Picklesfamily who, face the death of their uncle Joel and the shock of their father Sam loosing his fingers in and accident, likewise the Lamb family are challenge by the trauma of the accident when Samson (Fish) is miraculously brought back to life after a fishing incident, then the Lambs move to the city they then become the tenants of the Pickles family in their large run down mansion. From 1944 to 1964 the two families share experience and over many years they eventually form a bond and sense of belonging…

    • 1256 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In addition to the influence of the children’s perspective on the reader’s interpretation of the adults’ roles in the novel, the reader also makes inferences and conclusions about the adults based on their actions. Consider the various failures of the adult characters in this novel: moral failures, the failure to parent well, and the failure to negotiate life successfully, to name just a few. You may choose to analyze only one character and his or her failures, or write a comparative analysis of several characters, but in any case, build an essay in which you posit reasons for the failures of adults to protect children and to offer hope to the next…

    • 113 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Characters: Edna Pontellier is a twenty eight year old wife of Léonce Pontellier, a businessman from New Orleans, In the middle of the book Edna finds herself dissatisfied with her marriage and her limited lifestyle, she soon falls in love with her husbands best friend Robert Lebrun which starts trouble with her relationship with her husband and her husband's relationship with Robert. I chose dissatisfied as an adjective to describe Edna because she is not that happy with her wife role and feels disappointed with herself about falling in love with Robert.…

    • 777 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    During his childhood, the son faces exposure from two very different parents. One of which believes in the preservation of life and moral values, whereas the mother believes in self-destruction and inconsideration towards everyone. Overall, the father has the most profound impact upon the son. Through their southward journey, the father and son share several successful and horrible experiences together. Throughout occasions such as narrowly escaping death from cannibals and plundering an underground bunker, the father and son have grown a strong, loving bond. Unfortunately, this developing relationship does not last forever, due to the father’s terminal illness. After his inevitable death, a stranger graciously offers salvation to the lost son. This salvation comes in the form of a loving, holy community that graciously takes the son in as their own. The 8-year-old boy, manages the unthinkable – survival. The son owes his survival entirely to his father. In a post-apocalyptic world where resources are few and far between, protecting the son from all levels of threats, so that the son can one day become self-sufficient, is nothing short of…

    • 2407 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Other Wes Moore

    • 1687 Words
    • 7 Pages

    (Warning: This novel contains some explicit language. If this is an issue for you or your child, please contact the English Department Chair at karthur@bcps.org to discuss. An alternate assignment can be created.)…

    • 1687 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lastly, Issues of trust outline significantly all over the novel, predominantly with regard to the fathers affiliation with his son. The author states "I always believe you.... Yes I do. I have to" (Mccarthy 156). In this value the boy’s only hope in his dad is artificial out of obligation. The father is the only accompanying person along with influential figure, and he has the common sense of how life was before the unnamed tragedy.…

    • 438 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edna has a close friend whose name is Adele Ratignolle. Their philosophies and attitudes toward child rearing differ fundamentally. Adele is described “was the embodiment of every womanly grace and charm”. She has been marriage seven years and has three babies. Adele adores her husband and idolises her children. She sacrifices personal identity to devote her entire being to care of her children, husband and household. She feel delicious in the role so she can do everything because of them. She loves and take care of her brood carefully. She saw winter garment for her children openly makes references to her pregnency. Moreover, the mother is willing to extended protecting wings when she feel something or someone threatened her brood, which like the hen extend wings to save chicken from hawks. Adele is gentle and thoughtful, a ideal mother that every children wish.…

    • 768 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Inheritance of Tools

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Within the first two sentences, the reader understands this family’s gentle disposition when the narrator hits his thumb with a hammer and supposes his father’s response. The narrator hurts himself with a hammer that has been passed down through his family for three generations. Through out the essay, words and actions from different generations of the family encompass a tender sarcasm, a light humor, and an understanding nature that renders a unique patience which is passed down from generation to generation, just like the hammer. This disposition was applied to being resourceful when the narrator’s grandfather married. Even though the grandfather “had not quite finished the house” by the day of the wedding, he “took his wife home and put her to work”. Before sunset, the house was finished. Though the narrator obviously was not present for the day of his grandparents’ wedding, from his point of view, he sees his grandfather dedicated to the endeavor of building a house for his future family. The narrator emulates the same behaviors…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edna is a married woman vacationing at her summer home with her family. Edna’s husband conforms to gender stereotypes of this time and is devoted more to his work than to his family, and believes he holds dominance over his wife solely because he is male. In the first chapter of the novel Mr. Pontellier leaves Edna for Klein’s Hotel and doesn’t return for hours. This is the first of many instanced when Edna is isolated from her husband for long periods of time. Edna quickly becomes rebellious toward her husband. In her time alone she realizes that she doesn’t need him and can be perfectly happy on her own. Edna relishes in her first experience of talking back to her husband enjoying the power she suddenly feels over…

    • 968 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A conflict that is faced by the father is the struggle to hold on to his humanity in a world where only few remains and the world feels like nothingness. The father, who is trying to ensure the safety and well-being of his son, is forced to do many immoral things, but even in a destroyed society where morals are never heard of, can still survive and flourish through the person. It can be first seen when McCarthy says, “The snow lay deep and gray. Already there was a fresh fall of ash on it. He struggled on a few more feet and then turned and looked back. The boy had fallen, He dropped the armload of blankets and the tarp and went back and picked him up. He was already shivering. He picked him up and held him. I’m sorry, he said. I’m sorry”(McCarthy 99). The father is already giving up on living in such a wretched world, but for the love of his son he must endure, struggle and solicitude for his son. Reveals that through the harsh world that is faced upon the father and the boy, they can still survive in hope of a propitious future. Another conflict that is shown in the book is between the savage cannibal and thieves that are against the father and son., it is stated that, “They’re going to kill those people, aren’t they? Yes. Why do they have to do that? I don’t know. Are they going to eat them? I don’t know. They’re going to eat them, aren’t they? Yes. And we couldn’t help them because then they’d eat us too. Yes. And that’s why we couldn’t help them. Yes. Okay” (McCarthy 127). Having to live in a world full of miscreant savages; the father and boy find a place where they believe to have food and supplies for their journey, but instead found themselves with near-death people. The standards of these abhorrent people that are left in the society is unbelievably low, considering that they will devour anything in their presence. This quote…

    • 1147 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Edna was struggling to find happiness in society by feeling that she cannot be a mother and an independent woman. She followed society’s “rules” such as getting married and having children. Overall, Edna wanted more than the life she was living; she wanted to live life on her terms and not living life through a family. Therefore, she did not feel self-fulfilled. Unlike Edna’s struggle to conform to society, Adele Ratignolle is the epitome of a woman in the society. Adele is a beautiful, “idealized” creole woman. She is dedicated to her husband and has performed the wifely duties by bearing children and attending to them. Her family dictates her happiness through wanting to create a happy home. Therefore, her identity is her family; which shows that Adele represents society and the ideal happiness one can achieve. The exact opposite of Adele is Mademoiselle Reisz. Mademoiselle Reisz shows that she disregards society’ standards by not marrying or having children. She focuses on her interests such as piano playing. By not having a family, Mademoiselle Reisz is able to find her own identity. Therefore, she entices Edna’s desire to have the same life through her independence and free spirit. Mademoiselle Reisz tells Edna, that to be happy one is going to have to take risks and be courageous. Therefore,…

    • 1751 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Despite the mother’s countless efforts to oppress the need for change within the lives of her children, the narrator’s father seemed to have had the upper hand in the development of their children despite his limited efforts. An evidence of this can be witnessed in the occupation adopted by the narrator; as described by the line “I have to worry about being late and weather I have a clean shirt and weather my car will start and about all the other countless things one must worry about when he teaches at a great Midwestern university.” (Macleod 93) Portraying quite clearly that the narrator chose to pursue the path that his father had started him on. As opposed to the path that his mother had liked for him to have been on. Furthermore, proving that change is something that everyone adores, regardless of their age. And it was the father’s ability to accept that change within the lives of his children that allowed for him to have a greater impact upon their lives that their own mother.…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edna faces this struggle with her husband, Mr. Pontellier because she feels like he controls her. After her first awakening experience, Edna’s husband demands that she come inside and go to bed and it is noted that, “She wondered if her husband had ever spoken to her like that before, and if she had submitted to his command. Of course she had; she remembered that she had. But she could not realize why or how she should have yielded, feeling as she then did.” This realization that her husband used to control her and Edna’s refusal to continue obeying him demarks the first steps she takes toward taking control of her own life. The second prominent example of blatant disregard for her husband’s wishes is when Edna moves into her own house. No longer wishing to live in her husband’s house, she moves to her own as the narrator points out, “The pigeon-house pleased her. It at once assumed the intimate character of a home, while she herself invested it with a charm… Every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual.” This validates Edna’s desire to be free from her former life and highlights the fact that she is only able to truly flourish when she is on her own. Sadly, one must be willing to give up relationships in order to fully achieve this sense of…

    • 972 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Superman and Me

    • 360 Words
    • 2 Pages

    He recognizes that reading is non-discriminative. Everything contains words that can form ideas, sentences, opinions, and etc. It was a relief from understanding that words can be a source of pleasure and an escape from hatred. He determines that the love of literature had a purpose on his life, to try to save his life. He paints a picture of himself speaking to kids who remind him of the struggle to be Indian in the non-Indian environment. He points out the different peers of that class that strive for distinction or fade into the shadows that culture created for them.…

    • 360 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics