Mrs. Turner Cutting the Grass
In the short story Mrs. Turner Cutting the Grass, Carol Shields states that criticism is excessively used in society. Rather than trying to make a change, people comment on the ways of innocent individuals. Whenever someone seems to be living a pleasant life, in this case, Mrs. Turner, their acquaintances, such as the neighbors, the young girls, her father and the professor, will try to pull them down to their level of misery. For instance, the Professor was one to blame everyone besides himself for his failures and was quite the pessimist. The latter is depicted through his story: "They were the three furies, the three witches, who for vulgarity and tastelessness formed a shattering counterpoint to the Professor's own state of transcendence." (lines 233-235). The characters, excluding Mrs. Turner, believed their lifestyle was correct and those who did not conform to the norm were lousy. Her clothing and behavioral choices were different; therefore, her contacts thought it was acceptable to criticize her, for, "the second week of June, the girls walking past Mrs. Turner's front yard" (lines 50-51) shuddered "over her display of cellulite" (line 51). All in all, judgement is a keynote in this story.
The Black Queen
In the short story The Black Queen, Barry Callaghan has depicted a confusing relationship between two irreconcilable people. Hughes doesn't have a grand personality, but is known to exceedingly criticize, whereas McCrae is the effeminate partner. They can both be considered superficial due to the fact that their relationship began deteriorating once they both realized that their other half was aging, primarily physically. The singular reason for not having left the other is to prove to themselves that they are divergent of society. Although they do occasionally harmonize because of their mutual cynicism, they're definitely not in a healthy relationship. They joke about bringing home younger men; they're not truly in love and they just don't want to take the first step and leave the other. However, eventually, McCrae implies that he will soon no longer be there through this citation: "...through the window he [McCrae] could see the crabapple tree in bloom and he thought how in previous years he would have begun planning to put down some jelly..." (lines 69-71). To sum up, the status of their relationship is irreparable.
Sociology
At the end of the short story Sociology by Katherine Govier, multiple events change Ellen's perception, making her seem more satisfied at the end than at the beginning. The story commences with the main character explaining that the neighbor's melancholy comforts her. She, therefore, is someone who enjoys observing all types of behaviors. Strikingly, when her house is mugged, she isn't alarmed. Indeed, she envisions violent scenarios. Moreover, she hopes the thief will shoot her in the stomach or cut out her baby, seemingly hating her pregnancy, but she is actually testing him. She can be perceived as someone who is impassive and would rather study comportment. The fact that prenatal classes deceive her ,not because of the actual material used "so much as the other people" (lines 49-50), whose common experience, she thought, "would promote instant friendship" (lines 50-51), and finally doesn't, illustrates her compulsion to verge upon others for study. And yet, after all her apathy, astonishingly, her newborn added some light in her life, particularly when she heard about June losing her baby. She recognized how fortunate she actually was; thus, she was satisfied after all the deception from unfulfilled longing.
Last Rites/Adam's Wall
In today's society, neither culture nor religion necessarily