On a daily basis, the mind is altered through occurrences and everyday happenings, making it a vast, never ending region for exploration and discovery, similar to the world. Even though both the world and the mind are depths of both endless beauty and endless comfort, unpleasant and potentially detrimental experiences are still impossible to avoid and can play an integral role in shaping one's character. While Ann-Marie MacDonalds’ Fall on Your Knees and Carol Shields’ Unless both revolve around the role of adversity in shaping a character, the extent to which the protagonist Nora struggles in Shields’ story permits progression, whereas in MacDonalds’ story, the protagonist Francis’ struggles consume her entirely. Due to the nature of their
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One of the easiest ways to cope with issues that are difficult to face, is to run away, which is a route that both Nora and Frances take, while neglecting their wellbeings in the process. While Nora is troubled, she must still find ways to cope, however, her mechanisms are not extremely drastic as she is “Talented, hard-working and sensitive, has a caring boyfriend, a place at university, affectionate sisters and two nice, happily married parents” (Michèle Roberts, “Unless by Carol Shields”, 2002) to downplay the impact. Frances on the other hand, is “...fixated on both past experiences, and trauma that unfolds more and more everyday” (Candida Rifkind, “Screening Modernity: Cinema and Sexuality in Ann-Marie MacDonalds’ Fall On Your Knees”, 2002), making the extent to which she goes to in order to belittle her issues substantial and desperate. In hopes of being on the path of “goodness”, Nora runs away from her family, but decides to reside on the streets of Toronto - a place not too far. During her absence, Nora’s mother dwells on her condition and on ways to get her back home; she even pictures “...Nora sleeping. In [her] mental movie she has come home, exhausted, hitching a ride from Toronto” (Shields, 52). Nora’s mother is able to have such a vivid fantasy, as she knows that what she invisions is plausible. In a different manner, Frances runs …show more content…
Due to the traumatization Nora faces, she “...somehow makes an inexplicable leap from her attempt to intervene in the self-immolation of the Muslim woman, to an embodiment and demonstration of ‘goodness’”(Margaret Steffler, “A Human Conversation about Goodness: Carol Shields’ Unless”, 2010). Although Nora is altered on a personal level from what she experiences, one could argue that it is for the better. On the opposite end of the spectrum, “Frances’s sexual cynicism, manifest first in the deception of her dancing and then in the economic pragmatism of her sex work, later shifts into another kind of deception which at once acknowledges and disrupts the community’s moral standards” (Candida Rifkind, “Screening Modernity: Cinema and Sexuality in Ann-Marie MacDonalds’ Fall On Your Knees”, 2002), representing a decline in character growth. Due to the injustice she witnesses, Nora decides to follow the path of “goodness”. In her pursuit, Nora becomes even more innocent and pure than prior to viewing the incident, and while “...asleep, is like Snow White in her glass case” (Shields, 301). Clearly Nora’s innocence is not only preserved, but also magnified, as she is viewed in a similar manner to a selfless, loved character - Snow
One of the easiest ways to cope with issues that are difficult to face, is to run away, which is a route that both Nora and Frances take, while neglecting their wellbeings in the process. While Nora is troubled, she must still find ways to cope, however, her mechanisms are not extremely drastic as she is “Talented, hard-working and sensitive, has a caring boyfriend, a place at university, affectionate sisters and two nice, happily married parents” (Michèle Roberts, “Unless by Carol Shields”, 2002) to downplay the impact. Frances on the other hand, is “...fixated on both past experiences, and trauma that unfolds more and more everyday” (Candida Rifkind, “Screening Modernity: Cinema and Sexuality in Ann-Marie MacDonalds’ Fall On Your Knees”, 2002), making the extent to which she goes to in order to belittle her issues substantial and desperate. In hopes of being on the path of “goodness”, Nora runs away from her family, but decides to reside on the streets of Toronto - a place not too far. During her absence, Nora’s mother dwells on her condition and on ways to get her back home; she even pictures “...Nora sleeping. In [her] mental movie she has come home, exhausted, hitching a ride from Toronto” (Shields, 52). Nora’s mother is able to have such a vivid fantasy, as she knows that what she invisions is plausible. In a different manner, Frances runs …show more content…
Due to the traumatization Nora faces, she “...somehow makes an inexplicable leap from her attempt to intervene in the self-immolation of the Muslim woman, to an embodiment and demonstration of ‘goodness’”(Margaret Steffler, “A Human Conversation about Goodness: Carol Shields’ Unless”, 2010). Although Nora is altered on a personal level from what she experiences, one could argue that it is for the better. On the opposite end of the spectrum, “Frances’s sexual cynicism, manifest first in the deception of her dancing and then in the economic pragmatism of her sex work, later shifts into another kind of deception which at once acknowledges and disrupts the community’s moral standards” (Candida Rifkind, “Screening Modernity: Cinema and Sexuality in Ann-Marie MacDonalds’ Fall On Your Knees”, 2002), representing a decline in character growth. Due to the injustice she witnesses, Nora decides to follow the path of “goodness”. In her pursuit, Nora becomes even more innocent and pure than prior to viewing the incident, and while “...asleep, is like Snow White in her glass case” (Shields, 301). Clearly Nora’s innocence is not only preserved, but also magnified, as she is viewed in a similar manner to a selfless, loved character - Snow