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What Is The Morals In The Novitiate

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The sister in Jean Howarth’s short story “The Novitiate”, is young, eager to please and naïve. She tries to win her brothers approval on the afternoon he is forced to take his sister along with him. Initially, she is naïve about how gopher tails are obtained and that they require the life of the gopher to be sacrificed. Her desire for a relationship with her brother clouds her ability to recognize the reality of the afternoon; however, when she witnesses the cruel and dramatic death of the gopher, she realizes what she is going to have to do to make her brother proud. Consequently, she must decide whether to sacrifice her morals in order to please her brother or to stand firm in her beliefs. Finally, she decides to snare the gopher in the hopes …show more content…

Witnessing the cold blooded killing of the gopher, disturbs her greatly: “And then he had swung it in a wide arc and it thudded on the ground, and still struggled and thudded again.” Although this gory act upsets the sister, it allows for her to recognize the true motive of her brother. However, she still doesn’t understand why the gopher had to die if they were just getting the tails: “‘Why did you have to kill it?’ she whispered.” All she knows is that “Stewie Grant doesn’t kill his” which means that she knows no other way to obtain the tails. Her connection to the gopher releases intense sorrow for the death of her beloved, sought after “pet”: “She did not look at the dead gopher, but her body felt it through the ground.” The connection that she has for living things will dictate how she interprets what is going to have to be done to please her …show more content…

Her eagerness to snare the gopher for her brother causes her to pull the string too quickly, therefore not truly catching him: “But he was gone, dodging back to safety. She had pulled too soon.” This hurried action signifies her ambition to bring happiness to her brother. Even if there was a minor setback in her goal, she has not lost hope, she remains patient in her quest: “She got up and draped the noose carefully once more about the hole. She went down and lay still.” This therefore displays her determination to finish what she started. Following the snaring of the gopher, she is left experiencing a variety of emotions: “She was lone and crying and hated; but she saw her brother and he lifted his arm to her and waved, in the urgent friendship of this one afternoon.” The sister is left feeling sorrowful at the loss of her beliefs, yet joyous as she has formed a new found friendship with her beloved brother.

Although the short story “The Novitiate” is purely fictional, men and women can relate to the underlying message of the story. Throughout our lives we, as a society, make choices that will betray our beliefs or strengthen them. These choices begin at a young age and they shape who we become as adults. As the authors’ title suggests, the sister may suffer as a result of her unknowing decision but hopefully she will eventually make a decision that’s more true to her

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