... Up until now she has splashed in the water like a baby, but now she has outgrown this situation and is seeking full development. Edna's learning how to swim can be seen as a metaphor for her awakening, her sudden terror in the middle of the ocean represents how difficult her journey to ... wife, due to some cause or cause which you and I needn't try to fathom."" This quote is a good example of the attitudes towards women at the turn of the twentieth century. As Doctor Mandelet and Mr. Pontellier's conversation makes clear, women were considered ill, or even mentally unbalanced, if they ....

• Word Count: 3098
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: High School

... gesture of a loving mother. It is the outrageous claim of a slave"(Morrison 1987). These are the words that Toni Morrison used to describe the actions of the central character within the novel, Beloved. That character, Sethe, is presented as a former slave woman who chooses to kill her baby girl rather than allowing her to be exposed to the physically, emotionally, and spiritually oppressive horrors of a life spent ... down for anybody who had to ask. If they didn't get it right off-- she could never explain. Because the truth was simple, not a long-drawn-out record of flowered shifts, ...

• Word Count: 3106
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: High School