Identity, Societal Norms And The American Dream - 2071 Words

Myriam Djellali Professor Shore EN 110 26 Mar. 2015 Identity, Societal Norms and the American Dream Sylvia Plath and Truman Capote throughout their work both create unique individuals with internal and external forces holding them back. In The Bell Jar, we are introduced to Ester who is a young and attractive women in college with a successful path in life but is held back by madness and depression. In Breakfast at Tiffany’s, we are introduced to a unique character who makes up most of the story. We are introduced to Holiday Golightly but is refereed to as â€Å"Holly† throughout the story, Holly is the main character of the story and the narrator writes about her life. Holly makes a living as a companion to many wealthy and important men, who lavish her with money and expensive beautiful gifts. The narrator meets Holly when she leaves her husband and moves to New York, throughout her life and the story Holly is extremely unstable and irresponsible. In both, The Bell Jar and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, societal no rms and the american dream are major themes that help the readers understand the characters lives and behaviors. Both The Bell Jar and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, are stories that take place during the 1940s and 1950s where the role of women was restricted in America. During this time, there were expectations placed on women by society. In both stories we see the female characters being torn between doing what they desire or following the stereotype and expectationsShow MoreRelatedThe Awakening By Kate Chopin1310 Words   |  6 Pagesshaped by what real life societal roles and laws are in place at that time period. This is the case for Edna Pontellier in the Awakening by Kate Chopin. She struggles between fitting into the societal norms for women at the time, the late nineteenth century, and what she feels is right for herself. 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Scott Fitzgerald s Winter Dreams Essay1521 Words   |  7 PagesThe object of affection in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s â€Å"Winter Dreams,† at the onset of the story a young girl, is described as â€Å"beautifully ugly as little girls are apt to be who are destined after a few years to be inexpressibly lovely and bring no end of misery to a great number of men† (Fitzgerald 445). In this description the perspective of the male dominates. Everything detailed is inexplicably to the endearment of the man, from the â€Å"inexpressibly lovely† to the â€Å"no end of misery.† It is from thisRead MorePressure to Conform in Miller’s Death of A Salesman and Ibsen’s A Doll House1077 Words   |  5 PagesPressure to conform to the societal norms of a culture can often be so weighty that those who balk against it are likely to be crushed. Usually the world wins in a very few cases though, the individual comes out the victor, beating the odds, a stronger human being as a result. In the case of Arthur Miller’s Death of A Salesman, the world devours Willy Loman in his search for the American Dream. It broke him down and eventually destroyed him. Nora Helmer, of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House, was also consumedRead MoreJames Weldon Johnson s Narrative Of An Former Colored Man By F. Scott Fitzgerald2191 Words   |  9 Pagesan Ex-Colored Man†, Jonhson’s narrator at face first is written to be perceived as a white male, when in fact he is inherently of colored descent in reg ards to societies principle of the one drop policy. Consequently, the narrator is faced with an identity complex who finds it difficult to understand whether he is black because of societies has categorized him on the account of his bloodline, or white because of his appearance. For in the end of the novel, he makes the conscious decision to pass as