Two Old Women Analysis

Improved Essays
The story of Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage, and Survival by Velma Wallis is an amazing story that instill valuable lessons that still relate to today 's society. The novel is about a bedtime story a mother is telling her children about a Alaska. tribe who with harsh weather and food conditions decide to leave the older members of their group behind for the better good of the group. The most important themes that occur within this story is, gender roles, youth thinking, abd graitatuite. I strongly believe that Wallis does a great job at taking the reader through several lessons the story holds. Such lessons include that there is great value in everyone no matter their societal standing. This story is still relevant in the world we live in today and should be continued to be read by the community.
The story starts off with a winter scene in the Arctic region of Alaska. The group described as a close community, whose survival ultimately depends on hunting and gathering. Experiencing a harsh winter and decline on food supply,
…show more content…
The greatest lesson of all is found on page 14 where Wallis writes, “Younger people these days looked for easier ways out if hard times.” I can relate tremendously to this this quote. Surrounded by college students we constantly complain about our workload, myself included. When I explain my struggles to my grandparents and say I 'm close to dropping out I immediately get scolded. My grandparents grew up in a time of segregation and wasn 't fortunate enough to attend college and takes great pride in the fact that they work so hard to provide my parents with the essentials to allow us to further our education. They look down upon those who have the money and intelligence but quits school because one assignment is to hard or to long. I believe many of my peers can relate to this quote because how relevant it still is

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    How does ‘Secrets in the Fire’ show personal strength and courage? ‘Secrets in the Fire’ written by Henning Mankell and translated by Connie Stuksrud, is a story about a young girl named Sofia who goes through many struggles and shows how she can cope and deal with those situations. The book gives examples of personal strength and courage by having the characters be persistent, having Sofia cope with her struggles, having characters encourage the protagonists, etc. This will focus on the three examples mentioned and they will be explained in more detail.…

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the garret atop her grandmother’s house, in which Linda chooses to spend seven years of her life, symbolizes both the evils of slavery and the blessings of freedom. The garret, otherwise known as the loophole of retreat, measuring 9 feet long, 7 feet wide, and 3 feet sloping, fails to afford Linda with material comfort, consequently, deteriorating her physical and mental health. Lacking ventilation and light, the loophole’s narrow restraint alludes to the calamity of slavery, just as the Flints physically incarcerate Linda to domestic servitude prior to her escape. The absence of light represents the Flint’s depriving Linda, and all slaves, access to their children and self-awareness. However, through the act of choosing her retreat through a self-sought sanctuary, Linda equips herself with the tools to claim her agency by way of…

    • 1871 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Women are some of earth’s most unique and underrated creatures. They are not weak, they are not emotional, and they are not the negative stereotypes that the world describes them as. “Trifles,” “Story of an Hour,” and “My Wicked Wicked Ways,” presents us with three women who are strong, mentally and emotionally. These three women: Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Mallard, and the speaker’s mother stories all relate in a way. The three ladies all relate in the way of being emotionally and physically tied to someone they either loved or not, who does not make them happy.…

    • 921 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    From the beginning of civilization, humanity has pondered the purpose of acquiring knowledge, the purpose of education. People throughout the ages have speculated a variety of purposes and motives and have therefore created different paths to approach education. One such path formed was the liberal arts education. In his chapter “The Countercultural Quest of Christian Liberal Arts,” author Jeffery Davis explains the purpose and motive of education behind this liberal arts path. He states, “The pursuit of knowledge should start with wonder and curiosity, not the motive of controlling our destiny.…

    • 910 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Overcoming challenges in life requires one’s mental strength and courage. Though challenges are demanding, challenges can also be very rewarding and valuable. Even the most strenuous challenges prove to be beneficial. This applies to Himani Bannerji’s story “The Other Family” in which a ethnic family immigrates to Canada. The mother is often questioning her decision to immigrate her daughter to Canada and ponders if it caused more harm than help to immigrate.…

    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “The Story of an Hour,” “The Ledge,” and “The Crucible” all feature female characters who are faced with difficult internal challenges. In “The Story of an Hour,” we have Mrs. Mallard who yearns for freedom but cannot grasp it. In “The Ledge,” the fisherman’s wife often wonders what it would be like if she found another lover. Finally, in “The Crucible,” we have Abigail Williams who is in love with a married man who doesn’t want her. These three characters possess different traits and personalities, but what makes them similar is that they all seek the answer to the same question: what if?…

    • 775 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Lakota Woman, it tells a story about Mary Crow Dog who faces challenges with the Sioux tribe, and how she has a difficult time with her finding her identity and cultural background as a Sioux woman. Mary Crow Dog struggles with the identity of an Indian woman because of the domestic roles women had to play in the Native American culture. As a woman, Mary did not like how the white society would bring evilness to their Indian culture, and how the women would struggle to find their personal strength and remain loyal to their traditions. The novel discusses the issues that Indians faced with the relationship they have with the white society. The Indians were viewed as savages and didn’t have any human values, the Indians were stripped from…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Ethics of an Upbringing Guiding Question What are the ethics of writing about a place? What qualifies someone to tell a story? Overview In Velma…

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Learning as Freedom”, by Michael S. Roth, is primarily a response to recent sentiments that higher education is a waste of resources. Roth states that his opposition frequently wonder why people who aren’t going to make lots of money in their future occupation bother with going to college. (1). According to Roth, advocates of this perspective see attending higher education as “buying a customized playlist of knowledge” (1), and nothing more. Therefore, if the knowledge gained will not insure the buyer great financial success, than why expend the resources to go in the first place?…

    • 1068 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Munchausen by proxy is a sickening form of child abuse where the caregiver, usually the mother, creates symptoms for their child in order to get attention from medical professionals. In Sickened by Julie Gregory it accounts the beginning of her life made up of hospital visits and tests. Only after leaving the care of her mother, Julie Gregory realized what had actually happened to her. She was never really sick her mother was. In this memoir Julie Gregory sets out to tell the truth of Munchhausen by proxy and how devastating it can be, after all how can you tell a mother is making up symptoms.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The critical piece of literature, “A Black Feminist Statement” by the Combahee River Collective, provides its readers with the backbone of what Black feminism is. The Combahee River Collective is a collection of Black feminists that established itself in 1974. Their fundamental cause is fighting “against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression” (A Black Feminist Statement 210). The Combahee River Collective, in other words, sees Black feminism as “the logical political movement to combat the manifold and simultaneous oppression that all women of color face” (A Black Feminist Statement 210). The theory of Black Feminism found in “A Black Feminist Statement” prepares an essential foundation for the novel Corregidora.…

    • 841 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Chopin and Gilman do not only use the setting to present the profound desire of freedom and autonomy of their main female protagonists; they also employ irony to criticize and to change the misogynistic society. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” uses many deep ironies to express the desire of freedom and selfhood. For example, as other characters (Josephine and Richard) think that Louise is “making [herself] ill in her room” (Chopin 426), after her husband dead she is “she was drinking the very elixir of life through [the] open window” (Chopin 426). There is no grief and no pain associated with the loss of her husband. The irony is indicative of the need to suppress patriarchal oppression.…

    • 864 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ever since the dawn of the first written language literature has always played a huge role in understanding why do humans behave and accomplish goals some that are very adventurous and against a human’s comfort zone. Literature reflects on human 's nature and pulls at their instinct to be adventurous and go against their comfort zone of a normal life to do something extraordinary. Two examples of pieces of literature that show off people that accept the call to adventure while other folks do not ,is the New York Times Article, “A Private Dance? Four Million Web Fans Say No” written by Charles Mcgrath. As well the poem “Sadie and Maud” written by Gwendolyn Brooks.…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Keith M. Parsons, a philosopher, historian and author at the University of Houston-Clear Lake is teaching incoming college freshman in their late teens for his first time. He describes the challenges higher education professors are facing from new millennial generations who have distant priorities about college. Professor Parsons indicates they do not know how to behave because they are accustom to not working hard. Does Parsons have a particular type of favorite student? Consequently, their output is low from habits of “passive” learning.…

    • 1089 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The relationship between Christine, Heed, Junior, and May is throughout the whole novel, but the beginning starts with an omniscient character named “L” introducing them as adults to kids, and from past to present. Showing the different times of Cosey 's life after being dead to when he was still alive, and how his immediate family is living their life without him. Morrison 's non linear style is confusing and distracting, where reading and paying more attention happens over and over again. Morrison 's historical references is what defines her work and what gives readers a better understanding of her type of literature. The time frame, 1940 to 1990 provides background information of the time period in her novel where and why everything occurred.…

    • 1968 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays