Literary Analysis
Clarice Lispector
The daydreams of a drunk woman.
One part that stood out to me was
"She awoke late, the potatoes waiting to be peeled, the kids expected home that same evening from their visit to the country. "God, I've lost my self respect, I have! My day for washing and darning socks... What a lazy bitch you've turned out to be!" She scolded herself, inquisitive and pleased... shopping to be done, fish to remember, already so late on a hectic Sunday morning." (811)
This stood out to me because throughout this entire reading, she was very harsh on herself. She always scolded herself for oversleeping and not getting things done.
She was very flippy floppy. She was an alcoholic which can cause you to have mood swings.
Lispector talks about the women being "in love" and then soon after the women would walk up angry, dizzy, and weak.
She talks to herself alot, she does a lot of thinking to herself, most of her thoughts stay in her head.
She is self-destructive through the reading, calling her self names and then laughing.
"What a slovenly, lazy bitch you've become." (814)
She uses this term multiple times, calling herself "lazy" but she will not change.
She didn't really care about her marriage. Her husband would kiss her goodbye and she realized that she didn't even know what he had for breakfast, she doesn't make sure his clothes are clean, etc.
When her husband and kids leave for the day she feels this freedom, she has to worry about no one, including herself.
She sleeps A LOT. It seemed every other paragraph was her sleeping. This is why she was so lazy, all she wanted to do was sleep. It was almost like her escape from reality.
The daydreams of a drunk woman.
One part that stood out to me was
"She awoke late, the potatoes waiting to be peeled, the kids expected home that same evening from their visit to the country. "God, I've lost my self respect, I have! My day for washing and darning socks... What a lazy bitch you've turned out to be!" She scolded herself, inquisitive and pleased... shopping to be done, fish to remember, already so late on a hectic Sunday morning." (811)
This stood out to me because throughout this entire reading, she was very harsh on herself. She always scolded herself for oversleeping and not getting things done.
She was very flippy floppy. She was an alcoholic which can cause you to have mood swings.
Lispector talks about the women being "in love" and then soon after the women would walk up angry, dizzy, and weak.
She talks to herself alot, she does a lot of thinking to herself, most of her thoughts stay in her head.
She is self-destructive through the reading, calling her self names and then laughing.
"What a slovenly, lazy bitch you've become." (814)
She uses this term multiple times, calling herself "lazy" but she will not change.
She didn't really care about her marriage. Her husband would kiss her goodbye and she realized that she didn't even know what he had for breakfast, she doesn't make sure his clothes are clean, etc.
When her husband and kids leave for the day she feels this freedom, she has to worry about no one, including herself.
She sleeps A LOT. It seemed every other paragraph was her sleeping. This is why she was so lazy, all she wanted to do was sleep. It was almost like her escape from reality.
Hi Megan! I think this story was really illuminating as to the effects that forcing gender roles on a person can have. She is really unstable, and obviously has self-image issues. This is likely because she is told that she's supposed to be this perfect mother operating at peak efficiency at all times while being happy about it, so when she fails to live up to those expectations she degrades herself harshly, which only leads to her behavior being worse. After all the stress, she can't help but resent those around her who she has to put in all this work for, her husband and kids. It's a sad spiral into depression and anger to watch, but I think it's a good representation of how a woman would feel after being devalued for so long.
ReplyDeleteHi Megan, great close read! I think the passage you chose and analyzed really shows the woman in the story’s character. I thought this was an odd read and was curious of the point of it, if I'm being honest. It was as if she was constantly fighting with herself and flip-flopping her thoughts. It seemed as though there were two different people within one woman. Great job!
ReplyDeleteHi Megan!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your thoughts on the wife and the quotes you chose. She is very critical of herself to be sure. I also felt that she was maybe very depressed and felt trapped in the role of wife and mother, to the point where she just gave up. She is angry about being lazy but changes nothing- maybe this is because being lazy is the only thing she can think of that won't be too drastic.
Hey Megan. You did a good job producing an analysis that focused on why the woman acted the way that she did. She seems very dissatisfied with multiple aspects of her life. She's turned to alcohol and excessive sleep as a means of escape just as you mentioned. It's as though part of her wants to be completely tuned-out of her life, whereas the other part of her is heavily critical about all of her careless behavior since she has become so disconnected with her family.
ReplyDelete