Role of Family in Personality: A Psychoanalytic Reading of 'I Stand Here Ironing'

'I Stand Here Ironing' is a short story by American writer Tillie Olsen. The story is about struggle of a mother – who is also narrator of the story – to bring up and console her psychologically problematic child, Emily. Emily is projected as one with various psychological core issues; namely low self esteem, fear of intimacy, and sibling rivalry. As the story progresses, she is gradually healed. In this process of problematisation and healing, the mother is seen always with her. Besides, the unnamed mother too shares those core issues. In fact, it is the mother (and indirectly the father) who incorporated the psychological problems into the daughter. Thus, the story shows that parents' treatment to children during childhood in the family directly influences their personality formation.

The Battle Royal: A Story of Realisation of Individual Limitations

While reading 'The Battle Royal' by Ralph Ellison, I find the event in which the narrator is called to redeliver his speech most disturbing. The event that he is called by some people to deliver his graduation speech again at a gathering reminds me of an experience that I myself passed through more than a decade ago. Since that experience was not so good for me, I find this call in the story equally disturbing and I can predict the problems that the narrator will face later. Further, that event makes me highlight innocence of the narrator to prove that the story is depiction of an individual's limitations. Then, for me, the story is an expression of individual weaknesses and their realisation, more than the voice for racial equality. 

Review of ‘The Journey’

'The Journey' is a short story by Catherine Lim. The story revolves around movement (not only physical one!) of the character named Richard and his family. It presents a conflict between traditional life style in rural Singapore and the modern life in urban cities of the nation that Richard and his wife Mabel represent respectfully. In addition, there also lies a conflict between older traditionalist generation and newer modernist generation. All the elements of the stories – including structure, characters, actions and language – contribute to the exposition of the same geographical and generational conflicts.

Mirror or Hammer? : Different Positions of Stories in Social Change

Introduction

            "Art is not a mirror to hold up to society, but a hammer with which to shape it", says Marxist thinker and dramatist Bertold Brecht (1898-1956). His idea is that art does not passively reflect whatever happens in society, but it actively influences and guides it. Art has a role to play, a function to inspire change in human society. It is in apparent opposition to traditional view toward art and literature that they "reflect" society as mirrors. In a way, both views seem correct. Some literatures simply reflect society, whereas some dare to shape it anew. The stories in this course too are divided over it. From the basis of two stories to be interpreted here, we can claim that art doesn't only mirror society every time, but sometime it hammers existing socio-cultural norms and values.

Dr Leinsdorf: Representative of 'White-Chauvinism'

'Town and Country Lovers' by Nadine Gordimer basically deals with racial differences and its impacts in human relationships in then South African settings. It includes two independent but similar stories set in town and country of South Africa. In the first story of town, Dr Franz-Josef von Leinsdorf (white man) is the major character who has relationships with an unnamed black girl. As the title suggests, they love each other. But their love is not so simple like 'pure love', but is complicated that also presents White view toward Black women in particular and whole Black life in general. Dr Leinsdorf's views can be representatives for white's views toward lives of blacks.

Sense of Class in 'The Garden Party'

'The Garden Party' by Katherine Mansfield suggests opinions on class differences in a society as one of its many themes. Its major character Laura belongs to the upper class. However in her neighbourhood, there live many lower (working) class poor families. Laura's and her family's view on life of lower class people has a significance in understanding of the story. Thus, although ambivalent, the story presents upper class's perspective toward life of lower class nearby them.

Delphin Slade in 'Roman Fever': An Unseen yet Important Character

Though only two characters – Alida Slade and Grace Ansley – are seen in 'Roman Fever' by Edith Wharton, there are numerous characters behind the scene. Among them, Delphin Slade is the most important one, whose strong influence can be seen contributing to what appears in the story. At the end of the story, most of the readers are forced to think about his role more importantly than Alida or Grace.

Satire in Gogol's 'The Overcoat'

Nikolai Gogol's 'The Overcoat' has predominantly satirist tone.  Written by a well-known Russian satirist, the story moves around the character of Akaky Akakievich (Bashmachkin); and the writer tries to attack then Russian bureaucracy in particular, and bureaucratic weaknesses of any place of any time in general through the incidents happened in life of its character. In surface view, the story seems to be mere portrayal of hardships and pains Akaky faces; or the story's central light is on Akaky's character, than on bureaucratic misbehaviours. However, if we read it more closely, it appears to be a strong satire against faults of administrative systems and its staff in then Russia.