Melanie In The Three Ravens

In the Three Ravens, Melanie was first introduced as Tom’s wife being the youngest daughter of a wealthy Jewish family from Dallas, who had a connoisseur's knowledge of the finer things in life. Tom’s wife character was shaped as the caring, loving, knowledgeable mother of two twins who had natural skills in the kitchen. Girardi showed this clearly in the part where Tom came home drunk, “She had weaned him from it slowly, with a sure maternal hand. Without her, Tom sometimes thought, he would have ended up an alcoholic, one of those pathetic men who performed adequately at the office every day but drank a six-pack of tall boys and passed out in front of the television set at home every night.”(39) Tom was aware of her efforts and wide knowledge, …show more content…
This was clearly presented when Melanie stated “Your problem is you think too much about other people's problems...You should think more about yourself and your family.” (40). From my point of view, I won’t consider this as being selfish. Instead, Melanie is trying to minimize the amount of stress on Tom by letting him have a time off with his family far away from work stress and work problems. Which is still a part of her caring and loving personality that was described …show more content…
She would ask questions “What if..?” and discuss the predictions with her husband, she would consider more than one outcome of a single action. Her ways in solving such problems showed how rational of a person she is. At the same time, she won’t force her opinion on Tom, instead, she would give him many thoughts and possible outcomes. Her cleverness was illustrated in the way she speaks; where she won’t say what she actually wants, because she doesn’t want Tom to feel she is forcing her opinion on him; rather she would make him receive her opinion without actually saying it. Which is a smart way, because men don’t like their wives, or women in general, to force their opinion on them, this make them feel less manly. As a result, men would even tend to do and choose the wrong option just in trying to prove the woman is wrong. However, that is not always the case. But Melanie acted smart in the way she speaks- using a softer voice and the mothering tone she uses with the twins- and deals with such situations. Girardi illustrated this in the part of the tale where Tom and Melanie are discussing about the “big fat profit”(71). The discussion was ended with Melanie saying: “... this one's a no-brainer.” while Tom kept quiet and lastly nodded saying: “Yes, you're probably right.” (72). Therefore, Tom knew Melanie was right, in the end Girardi showed this when Tom was