The pink ribbon fluttering before him is significant because it represents Faith, his wife and faith, his religion - both of which are "gone" (Hawthorne) at this point. He is changed by what he believes is truth and he can trust no one anymore. It is difficult enough that the man looses his faith but he also comes to look upon his faith with disdain. His appreciation for all that once held dear is ruined by what he might or might not have seen in the forest. The Sabbath, once a holy day, is infected to the point that Goodman cannot listen to hymns because an "anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear and drowned all the blessed strain" (Hawthorne). Everything and everyone is dirty and, unfortunately, there is no relief for Goodman.
It is important to note that while Goodman never knows the absolute truth about what his eyes beheld, it does not matter because the damage has been done. His life is permanently altered by the mere suggestion of good, honest people turning toward evil. In the same vein, Louise never gets to experience her new life because the truth on which she hung her hopes was in fact, misinformation. They are on opposite sides of the gamut when it comes to truth and consequences but the results are the same.
Louise and Goodman are examples of what can happen we are suddenly struck with...
Desiree's Baby is an 1892 story by Kate Chopin that examines how the Aubigny family falls apart due to assumptions and misunderstandings. In the story, Desiree, an orphan whose parentage is unknown and whom the Valmonde family lovingly raises, marries Armand Aubigny, a man whose father comes from a prominent family. Desiree eventually gets pregnant by and gives birth to Armand's son, who later is the cause for Armand to
societal expectations play a part in "The Sorrowful Woman." The protagonist in Gail Godwin's short story "A Sorrowful Woman" demonstrates not only the ways in which people's lives can become compromised and limited by their attempts to meet the expectations of others but also the ways in which we each internalize those expectations. This is the real harm that limiting attitudes like racism and sexism have, as Godwin shows us:
The choice cannot be repudiated or duplicated, but one makes the choice without foreknowledge, almost as if blindly. After making the selection, the traveler in Frost's poem says, "Yet knowing how way leads on to way/I doubted if I should ever come back" (14-15). And at the end, as one continues to encounter different forks along the way, the endless paths have slim chance of ever giving the traveler
This makes him question "heaven above him" (Hawthorne 594). While he does decide to take a stand against what he sees in the forest, it is too late because what he has seen has already changed him. Faith's pink ribbon flickering is important because it represents his wife and his faith, which he has seemingly lost in one night. We read that that are simply "gone" (595). Goodman is
The world would now be required to accept socialism, Leninism, and eventually Stalinism, as part of the European landscape. With the defeat of Germany, Austro-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire; the shift in the balance of power moved toward the only major participant not devastated on its own soil by war -- the United States. The U.S. grew in economic power after Versailles, assisting not only its former allies in rebuilding,
This sentence, although it talks about bowels, is really describing the mother's love of the baby. This story is written like a detective story. It is very difficult to determine which woman is telling the truth and to determine if King Solomon is actually a bad person or a good person. It does not give the names of the women. They are simple referred to as one woman and the
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