Paragraph about A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

A young beautiful creature with wings appearing translucent descends onto the ground with an ethereal glow. This is what comes to my mind when imagining an angel falling to earth. How then can this bald old man with hardly any teeth bearing wings infested with parasites be an angel? The neighbor woman states he is a holy being, but the priest claims he is a demon. Regardless, he’s our spectacle for awhile. If we can keep our guests entertained, who knows how much more money we’ll gather! I suppose that entertainment will come to an end now that the spider woman is in town. Now what can we do with him? An incredible nuisance, the old man with enormous wings might never fly away.

The Birth Mark

Aylmer has found love. His bride is beautiful and everything he could want and need.

Nothing could go wrong, right?

That's where the theme of this short story by Hawthorne comes in-the human obsession for physical perfection. Aylmer's beloved wife is not entirely perfect, and this idea begins to fester in his mind. The hand-shaped birthmark on Georgiana's cheek was overlooked entirely until Aylmer began entertaining the idea of its ugliness.

Even though this story was written in 1843, the theme is very much in line with important themes in our culture today. Media and other outlets suggest that beauty is physicial perfection and only perfection. Some people will go to great lengths to reach that goal while putting themselves or others at physical and emotional risk. This is what I believe is clearly symbolized in The Birth Mark that concludes with the death of Georgiana. The saddest part of the story for me was the gradual decline of Georgiana's self-confidence and image. She begins by admitting she has never considered having the mark removed and stating that "it has been so often called a charm, that I was simple enought to imagine it might be so." I feel she did believe it a charm right up until the moment her husband, her love and desire, questioned it. Realizing his disdain for her appearance (which she probably took pride in before), she is willing to forfeit her life to obtain that favor her husband placed on her before.

Therefore, it can be said that this obsession for perfection is not a new idea to this age. But one should ask, why do we as humans have this obsession? Does obtaining physical perfection result in an untimely death of some part of ourselves?

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Recitatif

As I read Recitatif, I could not help but relate with the focalizer. No, I did not experience a childhood anything like Twyla did. However, I felt the relationship these two girls developed over those four months and subsequently a lifetime mirrored relationship experiences in my own life. Morrison did an excellent job of making this friendship substantial and relatable, instead of the BFF scenario we see played out incessantly.

The best example of this for me was the Howard Johnson’s meeting. I have certainly had this experience before, like many have, from both Roberta and Twyla’s point of view. You see the friend; you really don’t want to see the friend. They see you. Crap. Even Morrison’s use of “wow” by Roberta was dead on. I believed right when I read that word that Twyla would be hurt and embarrassed after their encounter. I later found that to be true, especially when Twyla recalls “Howard Johnson’s and looking for a chance to speak only to be greeted with a stingy ‘wow’.” Those were my thoughts exactly.

This story truly resonated with me simply for the realistic view of a childhood-turned-lifelong friendship between two girls. The following quote by Morrison herself is reflected perfectly in Recitatif.

"A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves, a special kind of double."