Just Lather That's All Analysis

Improved Essays
Proper decision making is a necessity for survival whether it is a matter of life and death, saving one’s reputation, or saving oneself from unredeemable embarrassment. In the short stories “Just Lather, That’s All”, “The Dinner Party”, and “The First Day”, the theme of grace under pressure is demonstrated in attempt to make the right decision that benefits everybody. This is prominent through the protagonist’s internal conflicts, given situations, and the circumstances. By having control, the protagonist from “Just Lather, That’s All” by Hernando Téllez saved himself from execution, the hostess from “The Dinner Party” by Mona Gardner saved her reputation, and the protagonist’s mother in “The First Day” by Edward P. Jones saved herself from …show more content…
Jones, demonstrates the theme of having grace under pressure by putting the character in tough circumstances. The mother faces the challenge of convincing the secretary to let her daughter sign up for the school. Since she is illiterate, she has a fear of being embarrassed in front of her daughter so she asks the secretary to kindly fill out the forms for her “‘I can’t read it. I don’t know how to read or write, and I’m askin you to help me.’ My mother looks at me, then looks away” (Jones, 60). She then went through the process without making a big deal with all of her stress, and kept it under control. Lastly, she faces the challenge of letting her daughter go. Since her husband left when her daughter was young, the only person she has left is her daughter. Just like any mother, she does not want to let go in fear of losing her, “her lips are quivering. ‘I’ll be back to pick you up at twelve o’clock. Don’t want you to go nowhere’” (Jones, 62). This story contrasts from the other two because once a child’s perspective on their mother changes, it is hard to go back to the way it was. In the end, the mother was able to make her daughter’s first day of school as calm as possible even though she was under very tough

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Life is a big lesson for everybody that’s live in this world. All human around the world is affected by the problems of the different situation that transforms the course of their life. To decide where to live, work or study is a choice for everybody, but there are events like death or a breakup that just happened and you need to accept like their come. These events have a major impact on our decisions in the future but sometimes can be a good turn or a terrible turn in our life. We can see those happen not only in different theater plays, or reading in the short stories and novels but also in our real life.…

    • 1049 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Glass Castle Tone

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Do you ever think about a deeper meaning or purpose for a book, or what kind of mood the author was in at that moment? In the memoir “The Glass Castle,” by Jeannette Walls, the authors purpose and tone are very clear throughout the whole novel. The authors tone ranges from happy, to sad, to angry, and Walls also makes it very evident that the intended purpose of the novel is to share her story and help the reader to want to overcome similar hardships that they may be going through. Throughout the book it is very clear that the author wants you to recognize the good and bad things in life and not take anything for granted.…

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When the daughter comes down in the morning her mother tells her that funding came and that she’s going to be going to Costa Rica in a few days and be there for two months to finish her research, which would get allow her to graduate. This means the the girl would have to leave the new house she just moved into in California and go stay with her Grandmother-who she hasn’t seen in years-in New Mexico and would be leaving in a couple days. In this situation the girl is angry because she just moved and her mother was begging her to make friends before school started so she didn’t have to be the new girl. But now with the mother leaving for Costa Rica and her having to stay in New Mexico, she couldn’t do that anymore. She feels her mother is just leaving her and not caring how she feels about the situation and talking to her.…

    • 868 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Usually in literature, an author uses an object that can be a symbol that conveys an important meaning. In “Lather or Nothing Else” and “The Gift of the Magi,” Tellez and O’Henry use symbols to express a deeper significance. Using the fob and combs that Della and Jim both give each other for Christmas, O’Henry demonstrates that love is truly what gift giving is about in “The Gift of the Magi.” The very sharp razor that the barber possesses in “Lather or Nothing Else” represents the choice the barber has to make. Both of these symbols play an extremely important role in the lives of all of the main characters throughout both of the short stories.…

    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Studying Janie Crawford Their Eyes Were Watching God is the compelling tale of Janie Crawford, a remarkably unique woman for her time. Intelligent and strong, Janie refuses to fall into societal traps set for young women regarding marriage, duty, and contentment. In appearance, she is described as extraordinarily beautiful, with long hair in braids and an attractive figure, and has no problem catching the attention of men. Janie is habitually adventurous and curious, and not pleased by doing the same thing for too long.…

    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Kent Harufs Plainsong is an inspiring novel centered around seven characters and their battles with isolation and hopelessness. Through different accounts in each chapter, you hear of seven people’s day to day struggles and the effects it has on their lives. One character who really embodied the theme of the book, was Victoria Roubideaux, or Vicky for short. Vicky, a pregnant 17-year-old girl, wasn’t able to hide the fact that she was pregnant, and was thrown out of her house by her mom. To make things worse, the father of her baby abandoned her as well.…

    • 620 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Southwestern tales, which are also known as Hispanic folktales, were first told around the early nineteenth century and are still told today. Presently, the folktales are used to instill moral lessons and the meanings of religions to people of different ages, especially young children. Jose Griego y Maestas collected and presented the tales “Los tres hermanos (The Three Brothers)” and “La comadre Sebastiana (Dona Sebastiana)” in Tales from the Hispanic Southwest. The tale of “Los tres hermanos” teaches the lesson that children should be grateful to their parents. While, the tale “La comadre Sebastiana” reveals the message of social inequity in Christianity and the lesson that people should keep their promises.…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The television series Summer Heights High follows the journey of a young boy names Jonah. Jonah is in year 8 at Summer Heights High and has previously been expelled three times because of disruptive and dangerous behaviour. He is known in the school to have anger and attention deficit problems. Jonah struggles socially as he treats his teachers and classmates with disrespect. Jonah’s also struggles academically.…

    • 1213 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The book I chose for the literary critique is Boundless Grace by Mary Hoffman. This book is a fictional narrative from the point of view of a young girl named Grace’s point of view. Grace lives with her mother and Nana in the United States. Her father resides in Gambia, Africa with his new wife, Jatou and their two younger children Neneh and Bakary. However, Grace sees her father as a distant memory.…

    • 1058 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Maria, the main character of the short story, The Daydreams of Drunk Women by Clarice Lispector, portrays the importance of self-esteem in the today’s ruthless world bound by society’s demands. Basically, Maria is an unhappy woman and she got married to escape poverty. This story gives an example of mostly many women who are convinced by the society that she should marry a man who can provide comfort and security rather than love. The story unfolds the characteristic of the protagonist from a respectful simple woman to shameless women. A drunk person is entirely responsible for their actions while drunk.…

    • 1288 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    An Octoroon Analysis

    • 660 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Women face many problems in America that have deep roots in America’s culture. In Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ An Octoroon, these issues are highlighted. An Octoroon does a good job arguing about issues that women face in everyday life by using the slave women to face these issues Grace is a pregnant field slave was leaved by her husband (Solon) and other slaves. She is talking to Minnie and Dido who are house slaves. She said “I think Solon left me....…

    • 660 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For the psychodynamic theory, we talked about how we learn from our parents and that those abused can in some cases become the abusers. The most important topic we discuss about this book is the resiliency that Julie shows throughout her life. She used school and a positive personality to get through each day of her childhood. She believed in herself enough to become the strong beautiful person that she is today.…

    • 725 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Passion and responsibility are nearly always mutually exclusive, and the balance between them often creates dangerous conflicts. Paul Coelho explores this relationship in The Alchemist, where the main character, Santiago, is repeatedly faced with decisions between passion and responsibility. Santiago is forced to make the choice between passion and responsibility when he abandons wealth after leaving the crystal merchant, personal tradition when selling his sheeps, and romance when he leaves Fatima, all of which help Santiago overcome fear and achieve his Personal Legend, reinforcing Coelho’s message that one’s Personal Legend is the most important journey that an individual can experience. For many, capitalistic greed can consume one’s life,…

    • 1084 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Choice and Accountability Essay In the short story “The Guest” by Albert Camus it shows how everyone has to make choices and decisions, and these choices will affect the person later on. Balducci a father figure to Daru comes to his house and brings an Arab man giving Daru the orders from the French to deliver the Arab to Tinguit to the police headquarters because he has committed a crime. Daru chooses that he personally does not want to be the one to bring the Arab man to his fat. However, Daru is unsure of what he should do.…

    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    According to Sheri Fink, “The moral values, ethical codes and laws that guide our choices are...important to help us navigate the confusing and disorienting time of a disaster.” Although ethics and morals are important in everyday life, they become of greater importance during a time of difficulty. In the book, The Lifeboat, by Charlotte Rogan, the morals of Grace Winter reflect the value of doing what is good for the entire community, no matter the consequences of doing so, which contradicts the ethics of her society due to the illegality of murder. The action of the fight between herself and the boat’s self deployed captain, Mr. Hardie, represents a moral dilemma because Grace is conflicted with the ethicality of killing him. Based on her…

    • 1280 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays