Little miss sunshine Essay Example

Little miss sunshine Essay Interior of a asss family home. The dilapidated walls are a mustard color while the doors are starting to fall off their hinges. Olive stands in front of the full bodied mirror in the bathroom after the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant and look at herself in disgust. Shes wearing a light pink top and red leggings along with her red sweatband. The colors clash like two stubborn people. Theres only a small amount of light being let in by the window through the rip in the curtain and its shining right t Olive. Shes started reflecting on the Journey she has Just arrived back from and its then she realizes, shes not good enough for anything or anyone. Olive: I thought I was doing a good thing. I thought it was going to be all worthwhile. I thought I was going to win Why did you ever think you were going to win? I mean seriously Olive, look at yourself and then remember those other beauty pageant girls. You were nothing like them: their nice tans and their slim bodies, their nicely done-up hair and their makeup. You have none of that. You could never have won even if you tried. Youre a loser and thats all youll ever be (sighs). Olive keeps looking at herself in the mirror pulling at her hair and her clothes The sad thing about it is though that the one person you thought you could trust actually was the one that let you down in the end She looks up to the sky as she starts talking about granddad. She paces back in forth across the room. She is starting to harden her tone as she goes. Whod you do it grandpa? We will write a custom essay sample on Little miss sunshine specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Little miss sunshine specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Little miss sunshine specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer You made me look a fool. You made the whole family look like fools, and you werent even here to support me in the end. No, you know what I realism now? Youre a selfish coward that never cared for any of us. You Just decided that your addiction (said sarcastically) was more important than me, the most beautiful girl on the planet. Your words exactly.. How could you? I relied on you, I needed you.. Olive subtly starts to soften her tone as she goes and sits on the side of the bath with her head in her hands. Right from the beginning, I always told myself that you were always the one that was going to be my side until the end. The one that was always going to look out for me, support me. Encourage me to be the best I could be in life, but now.. Now I feel as if you have Just used me for one of your little games and its not fair on me. I dont even feel as if I belong in this family already and youve made it worse for me. Olive stands and goes back pacing back and forth and starts talking to the rest of her family. Youre all ashamed of me and I can tell. I can tell by the way o all make subtle hints about my weight and the little looks you all give me. I know Im not the winner you wanted me to be dad but Im doing the best I can, I only entered that contest because I wanted you to be proud of me. I wanted everyone to be proud of me for once. Mum, I know you wanted to let me be who I wanted to be, but I wish you had of Just told me the truth rather than lie to me. Yes, you wanted to protect me But sometimes protecting your little girl meaner having to be truthful. I can handle it, Im older now. I dont need protecting. Olive goes back to standing staring t herself in the mirror and starts talking to herself again. I guess deep down I really did know what grandpa was trying to achieve and I turned a blind eye to it. I just wanted to make him proud, make the rest of you proud. Its your fault in the end olive, I mean look at yourself. Youre nothing like those beauty pageant girls with their have none of that. So stop trying. Olive goes and sits in the corner of the bathroom huddled in a ball and starts to cry.

How does Atwood use language to convey the narrator(TM)s change in emotional state Essays

How does Atwood use language to convey the narrator(TM)s change in emotional state Essays How does Atwood use language to convey the narrator(TM)s change in emotional state Essay How does Atwood use language to convey the narrator(TM)s change in emotional state Essay After reading Surfacing it is clear to see that as the story progresses, the Surfacer has undergone a transformation that has seen her become a more complex character and therefore it has become more difficult for the reader to interpret her thoughts and actions. Her emotional state has some what deteriorated since the start and the sense of madness that the reader is now beginning to become wary of, seems to stem from her inability to cope with the standard roles of women which have been constructed in society and she becomes increasingly secluded from all the features of life as she attempts to serve as a human, a wife, a mother and a sexual being. Ultimately its the complexity of the language that helps to convey the Surfacers change in emotional state and as she is the only narrative voice that the reader can listen to it means that we too, become submerged in her psychological transformation and become able to sense a change in emotion and thought.One of the main ways that the reader can see a change in the Surfacers emotional state is through the use of semiotics. The reader knows that the narrator is constantly interpreting both verbal and non-verbal forms of communication but as she starts to feel more alien in society her reading into situations start to become more inaccurate and flawed. American flag on the front, another at the back as she recognises them she then begins to reveal strong signs of negativity towards the Americans through the use of oxymoronic comments such as friendly as a shark.As she reinforces this ill-feeling throughout, we as the reader have no option but to take her word for it but as her unreliability begins the shine through, we see that her prior judgements were incorrect. The flag turned out to be a blue and white oblong with red painting, go mets and the reader can explicitly see her change in emotional state when she begins to use quite violent and animated adjectives such as furious when she real ises she had misinterpreted the two Canadians as Americans. It is clear to see that the Surfacer is now becoming trapped in her own paranoid state of mind and the fact that she is beginning to get signs wrong shows her now constant unreliability and it reflects the narrators change both physically and mentally.Another way the audience can sense the change in the narrators emotional state is through the increasing complexity of her stream of consciousness. The complexity of this feature stems from her constant flickering between ideas, flashbacks and situations. As a result of this it is very difficult to establish what is happening as we also become lost in her mind. The themes and ideas she becomes lost in are increasingly becoming weakly linked and so the overall cohesion of the story is severely dented and leaves the reader looking for answers into why we are witnessing this decline in emotional state. If you take into consideration the chronology of her thoughts and childhood ex periences it is clear to see that the images have intensified quite significantly. In the opening chapters the reader learns that she used to play war games with her brother and pretend they were wounded. But if we contrast this to the themes of abortion and murder that she later mentions it shows that she falling is deeper into her own mental state and it is becoming inescapable.Yet again its the use of violent imagery that brings this idea of a contrast in emotional state to the forefront of the readers mind. A key example of this can be seen when she has another encounter with the Americans and she says his eyes would blossom outwards, his skull shatter like an egg. The violent streak here is highlighted through the use of the modal verb would as she is becoming more and more definitive in her mind how she would in detail, kill someone. The actual syntax of this particular quote also makes the emotional transition more explicit to the audience. The skull shatter like an egg is no t only a simile used by Atwood but she also uses alliteration to create a much harsher s sound to create an overpowering tone, and by also using the onomatopoeic word shatter, it gives the sentence overall more intensity and it more importantly it issues out a more powerful impact on the reader. The violent nature of the Surfacer is made very explicit here and it is because of Atwoods linguistic skill that the reader is able to pick up on this particular point.As the story progresses it becomes more evident to the reader that the feeling of entrapment is one of the important focal points of the story and it is ultimately contributing the Surfacers demise. Her increasing alienation from society eventually leads to her making more frequent references to animals which suggests that in order to survive she has to be an animal as they are more at peace with nature. Atwood uses personification to show how she is comparable to animals as they had no spokesman. This particular quote shows h er detachment from the surroundings she once called home, her detachment from the people around her and her detachment from the real motive behind her journey. The animal references she makes is also a hint towards her hatred for artifice and highlights this desire for her to a natural person. The Americans and artifice are closely linked through the constantly referring to this mixture as a disease. This noun obviously carries negative connotations and by creating this imagery, it highlights her struggle to deal with people interfering with nature.In conclusion, the Surfacer slowly reveals to the reader that it is ultimately her struggle to fit into society that has lead to her detrimental change in emotional state. In order to make this explicit for the reader, Atwood maintains a heavy focus on language choice and syntax which allows the different branches of negativity to dominate the story and therefore the Surfacers mind. The now evident unreliability that the Surfacer is showi ng consequently conveys that her emotional state has significantly worsened to a point where she has become a completely different person to the one we knew about in the opening chapters of Surfacing.