Skip to main content

#13 A Manual for Cleaning Women (Lucia Berlin, 2015)

 Rating: 6/10

    Multiple industrial revolutions won't change how people of distinct echelons are treated differently. The juxtaposition of Maggie's life and the glimpses into the lives of rich people magnified the problematic distribution of advantage even during the third Industrial Revolution. While Maggie was trying to deal with the harsh realities of her fractured life (economically, mentally, etc.), she had to lower her self-respect and pride to blend in the capitalistic society. In Ms. Dr. Blum's house, Maggie's sullen attitude quickly turns into an understanding and respectful attitude the second she gets reminded of the fact that she's merely a cleaning lady.

    Personally, narrating style of this story was not favorable since I could find no solid development nor an incidental event. The story of a cleaning woman gazing out the bus window is prone to be monotonous if the reader finds it hard to realize her representation of overlooked working women. On the other hand, I liked how the author juxtaposed people of opposite lives, as it maximized the misery of cleaning women. I could temporarily sympathize with Maggie's helpless feelings when she was forced not to discipline kids in Dr. Blum's house. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#1 A Sound of Thunder - Imperfection may be a part of perfection

A sound of Thunder, By Rad Bradbury(1952) Rating: 8.2/10      After some regretful events, I sometimes imagine how I would've done if I were given another chance. Picturing every situation that my mistakes may be undone, wrongdoings forgotten. Indeed, there exist moments where I would gladly use the time machine to change the past without the slightest hesitation. Fantasizing how everything could have been better and overthinking the imperfect aspect, I fail to consider that the reality I face may be the finest situation out of all possibilities.      Eckels from A Sound of Thunder interacts with his past and completely changes the future. Election results let the anarchists rule the country, and there exists confusing orthography. The confusion Eckels feels before he dies makes me connect with him and think, "Maybe past mistakes I've made were the least worst mistakes. If I am given another chance and undo the past mistakes, maybe harsher obstacles await f...
Post a Comment
Read more

#22 My Wonderful Description of Flowers (Danielle Dutton)

 Rating: 6/10     Danielle Dutton's short story reminded me of " Cat Person" by Kristen Roupenian. In "Cat Person," a male character representing toxic masculinity develops an intimate relationship with an underage college student. When the girl starts rejecting him, he shows signs of obsession and eventually calls the girl a 'whore’. Similarly, in Danielle Dutton's story, a taste of feminism is foreshadowed by introducing a man who visits random houses and attempts to assault women. When the protagonist asserts that she doesn't recognize an unknown man who visited her home, the man gradually becomes impatient and turns out to be hostile. The two stories seemed similar in how women were victimized by male manipulations. (Although the severity of male manipulations differs at each level.)     Apart from Danielle Dutton's method of development   used in the story, this could have been more favorable for me. Although the story had a clear developmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

#10 The Swimmer (John Cheever, 1964)

 Rating: 8.6/10      A surprisingly significant amount of people still find intoxication as a refugee from the painful reality. In fact, society is adding reasons for people to lose complete consciousness so they can’t perceive feelings of inferiority. In this short story, Neddy perhaps escaped into alcoholism from the painful facts, as Cheevers quoted, “Had his gift for concealing painful facts let him forget that … and that his friend had been ill?”      In this short story, I found it intriguing to read through the author’s delicate usage of symbolism. As Neddy decides to swim southwest from the pool he was with Lucinda, directions of south and west provide specific tones for this story. Whilst ‘south’ provided connotations of warmth, hospitality, and strength, ‘west’ added images of darker intimations as it is the location of the dead in many mythologies. Eventually, the darkness is confirmed as Neddy reaches his destination, only to find it locked...
Post a Comment
Read more