The Dew Breaker

How are our characters connected to the world?

The Dew Breaker is a novel published in 2004 by Edwidge Danticat. This book has a collection of 9 short stories that has no connection superficially. Characters from each stories had pain directly from the dew breaker. The dew breaker character is a barber in America.  Before he moved into America, he worked for Haitian government helping dictate and torture people. He is important man in the Haitian community like a leader in America. He is a respected leader helping people well settled.  But he was the person murdered their parents, daughter and son. In Bridal Seamstress, The father who is the dew breaker wanted to rape her, she said no, he whipped bottom of her feet and made her walk long trip with bloody bare feet. In the funeral singer, the woman who sings at the funeral whose husband he killed. By telling individual chapters different stories we see how crossed over and interrelated the crimes people, places are. We learn more about the father.

Author didn’t judge character.  The dew breaker is in both their life in Haiti and America. He is the reason why they couldn’t live and could live. Even though he did not reveal himself to them and say that he was the dew breaker, he pays off and repents what he has done in his country by his own way.

Story of An Hour

The story is about a woman having heart disease whose life is dominated by her husband. One day, the railroad disaster happened. People thought her husband was on the list of killed and they told her hesitating since they were worried the case her heart attack happening by getting shock. However, her reaction was dull. Later after she realizes her husband is alive by looking at him came back to home, she gets heart attack.

This story has some points to discuss; economically, politically, socially and psychologically of patriarchy. Economically, her husband had all the power. He worked and controlled money. Women had no jobs; she just stayed home and did household things. She was relying on her husband entirely. If her husband dies, it means money dies and she looses everything. Politically, She used to getting controlled by her husband. Death of husband is birth of her independence of herself. Reading the story, I found one thing interesting. In the book, main character’s sister who called as Josephine told her that her husband died by accident. In reality, Josephine Henry who was a major activist in the fight for women’s equality made the Married Woman’s Property Act in 1894 when this story published. I think this is meaningful. Socially, the main character is protected from stress. Even heart issues, everything about her shows her as frail, weak and breakable. Psychologically, her emotion has been changed from sad and dominated with no freedom to happy and self-controlled.  Her life is getting freedom back. People think the reason of her death is that she got heart attack cause she was so happy to see him which is not true. The fact is that she died because she was sad to see him.

Wonder Woman

There are several categories when I can talk about hero; physical such as age and race, talent, history, abilities, strengths and weakness.  Also how they solve their problem is important. I am not huge fan of hero genre and I’ve never though about designing my own hero character. I would rather have brilliant problem solver than physically fighting hero.  My hero is young female who likes reading books. She was famous as spelling bee when she was young. She can spell all the words.  She understood physics when she was 7. She has no limitation of brain capacity. She also has one special talent that other people never have. She can listen people inner voice. She can read people’s thought. She is going to solve the things using her intellectual power. 

True Grit

’True Grit' is a novel written by Charles Portis in 1968. It is about a fourteen year old girl named Mattie Ross who avenges her father’s murder. Mattie’s father is killed by Tom Chaney, while on his way to buy some horses. After killing him, Chaney escaped by running onto Indian territory. Mattie meets Marshal Reuben Coburn and a Texas Ranger called LaBoeuf who are also looking for Chaney. They join together and long story short, they find Chaney. Mattie shoots Chaney in the chest and kills him. After her successful revenge, she is bitten by a snake which results in the loss of her arm.

This book was quite interesting because I was able to learn about several new things, such as American Western culture and cowboys. I noticed some words/terms I am unfamiliar with, such as ‘bunk-house’, ‘marshal’, ‘Henry rifle’ and ‘bottom land’. On the story side, it was interesting (find a better word for this, you’ve used it already) to read about this 14 year old girl who walked 75 miles to avenge her father’s death.  I think the title suggests Mattie’s persistence and her actions reveal the meaning of ‘True Grit’. Mattie never gave up and stayed true to her ethics and moral ideas. She was successful in her execution of her revenge, but in return, she lost her arm. Mattie’s fate reminds me of a quote from the book: “You must pay for everything in this world one way or another. There is nothing free except the Grace of God. You cannot earn that or deserve it.”

I think the author found it appropriate to use a young female to tell the story. In respect of understanding the Mythology of the text, I read an article on our course blog about ‘The Child Savior Myth’, where people identify the image of youth as innocent and incapable of dishonesty. In ’True Grit’, Mattie exemplifies this myth; to the common man, she did not look like a child on a murder mission. In ‘The American Eve Myth’, females use their own beauty as their attribute. However, in ‘True Grit’, Mattie has characteristics such as intelligence and bravery that are not generally talked about in the ‘American Eve Myth’.  I think this what makes ‘True Grit’ interesting in a Mythology perspective.

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen published in 1813. It is a text that describes the manners, education, social classes, money and marriage issues of England during that time, which are quite different from today. In comparison to today’s life, I think this novel has several interesting points to talk about.    

  The novel shows that there was an obvious social class difference based on occupation, wealth and gender. The Bennets are middle class while the Bingleys and Darcys are upper class. The upper class treated the middle class as inferiors socially. Women could not own properties. There was an idealized type of woman in England at the time. Elisabeth, who is protagonist of this novel, is a strong, independent and smart woman, was considered socially unacceptable in that time period. However, her personality is loved by millions of modern readers. Regardless of the gender of readers, they consider the character an attractive woman due to her philosophies and her actions/because she went against the norm. 

The concept of courtship is also really different from today. Modern conventions such as living together or having sex before marriage were banned and looked down upon. Courtship was considered as a step toward marriage as that was the ultimate goal. If we compare these ideals to the age we live in, people these days have relationships far more freely without thinking about marriage. 

            The main story of this book is that Elisabeth and Darcy recognize the error. Elizabeth misjudged Darcy based on a poor first impression, Darcy had prejudice on Elizabeth’s poor social class. They made these error based on their pride and prejudice, overcome all obstacles and achieved their love. I think people have issues or make errors caused by pride and prejudice all the time, not just in 18th century England. Judging people hastily for some reasons, even if not based on social class like the book, causes many issues in terms of human relationships especially those that are romantically based.

            I enjoyed reading story in different time period. It was interesting to understand the values they believed right at the moment and how peoples mind changed through the time.