Sister Carrie Essay

Later on after her first marriage has ended we can see that she eventually overcomes her desire to avoid confusion in her second marriage to Joe, after he has humiliated

Carrie practices her powers in secret, developing strength, and also finds that she is somewhat telepathic.

At the time of this story many women didn’t have any source of revenue, so in order for her to gain the money she wanted to get the freedom she finally deserved; she would have to obtain it in two ways: inherited from her husband or receive it from her family. Mrs. Mallard was on her way to becoming the free woman she needed to be but there was this one thing holding her back, money, and the only the question was how she was going to get it in a respectable way. In the later half on the 19th century women looked at as the wife and mother, keeper of the household, guardian of moral purity of all who lived there. The home was to be a haven of comfort and quiet and sheltered from the harsh realities of the working world. Children were to be cherished and nurtured, and to pulling against these traditions was the sense of urgency. Women’s roles were meant to steady, but women could not help but see opportunities for themselves in this growth. Jobs opened up in factories, retail establishments and offices, giving women new options.

When the Natives invaded Lancaster, she was but useless when it came to trying to save her family. Without her husband, there she felt useless and incapable of keeping all of her family alive. One by one most of her family was killed off which only left her a few kids (that she knew of) that managed to survive.

Unlike her other coworkers who desperately needed a job to get by. One of those coworkers was the single mother of two children who was named Colleen. After Ehrenreich had finished her time in Maine she had told Colleen who she really was and what she was doing going undercover. Ehrenreich begins to ask Colleen questions about what she thinks about poverty and those who have more than those who really need it to which she responds, “I don’t mind, really, because I guess I’m a simple person, and I don’t want what they have. I mean it’s nothing to me. But what I would like is to be able to take a day off now and then… if I had to.. And still be able to buy groceries the next day.” (p119) This reveals the importance of a simple maid’s job, it puts food on the table and helps sustain more than one person while Ehrenreich who lived alone and only had to support herself was able to go back home and not have to worry about keeping her short lived maid position. After leaving her occupation it is time to move on and go through the job process again. She had applied to Wal-mart where she had discussed what had to be done when finding a new job Ehrenreich states, “ Each potential new job requires (1) the application, (2) the interview, and (3) the drug test- which is something to ponder with gasoline running at nearly two dollars a gallon, not to mention what you may have to pay for a babysitter.” (pg135) Going back to search for a new job is a difficult task that may not

On her short home visit she was able to see the different between her formal life and her new life. She was struggling to pay rent because her jobs didn’t pay her enough. In previous life she was only concern about writing and she did have to worry about rent money or finding a job.

She describes her tenth birthday as being difficult. “But I did not have a cake times were too hard so I celebrated with ironing. I hope by my next birthday we will have peace in our land so that I can have a nice dinner.” This lack of even small luxuries such as a nice dinner, were common. It is easy to imagine that many homes were lacking in goods in the South, especially during war, because of their less industrialized economy. So, children like Carrie were often tasked with chores such as knitting, sewing, and washing. She talked about outings to church, often lamenting when she missed church on Sundays. She also missed being able to go to school. She recounts looking for her teacher, and eventually going back to school.

did her best to try and persuade the men to stay. She cut out articles of

Suddenly she feels a sense of liberation. Nature also plays a part in Mrs. Mallard feeling the way she does, just as it did with Calixta in ?The Storm.? Mrs. Mallard has just learned of a horrible death but yet she could not help but see that the trees were blooming with new spring life; there was new fallen rain, and birds were singing. The rain, as it did in ?The Storm,? replenished and allowed nature to grow just as the news would allow Mrs. Mallard to grow as a reborn, liberated women, free from bondage. ?And yet she loved him ? sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter!? (21) It seems as if she is trying to convince herself there is nothing wrong with her feeling this way. There was something about the thought of living for herself, she would no longer have anyone to answer to, she was free to be herself, and most of all free to love again. ?Free! Body and soul free!? (21) Mrs. Mallard was not making herself ill as her sister had thought. She was taking in an elixir of life. It was almost as is her body had been healed. The heavy weight that was once on her chest and heart had been lifted. Louise emerges from her bedroom a liberated woman and as she descends the stairs she is brought back to reality by Brently Mallard opening the front door. She collapses and dies perhaps from the shock of losing her freedom once again.

The story unviels its theme at this point: Mrs. Mallard, for the first time in her life, experiences a new-found freedom. Instead of dreading the future without her husband, "she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely". She could now live her life and be absolutely free of the imposing will of her husband: There would be no one to live for her during the coming years; she would live for herself. There would be now powerful will bending hers in the blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature.(15)

Mrs. Mallard was never physically unfaithful, but mentally and emotionally she lost herself in the idea of her new life without her

-What is the purpose of her character? So that women of the forties could empathize with her situation more

She sacrificed her job and life for what she believed was love. She had a dream to love before she loved herself first. She believed in the picture that was not fully painted. She dreamt too much of the future painting. In the article Confident women it gives one the cord reason why women settle for less than what they really should. The article states;

conquest and triumph. Before hearing that her husband was killed Mrs. Mallard was trapped in the life of being just a wife for the rest of her life. Now she was free of the title and could go back to living her own life. Back in the late 1900s almost all woman had felt the same way. They were almost nothing except for slaves to their own home.

But now she’s back. And she was determined to make Andrew pay for all the humiliation, degradation and abuse he’d so lovingly bestowed upon her throughout their marriage. Now he could no longer control what she wore, where she went, who she spoke