Ayman Zangariya
I.D.#: 0 2997205 6
To: Helen Paloge-Isenberg
Style & Composition A
Assignment NO. 3
A Wound From The Past
People's life and personality are affected by their relationship with parents. This effect can be positive or negative. Negative effect could leave psychological wounds in human's soul. Physical wounds can heal by time leaving no scars, where psychological ones could never heal and leave scar forever. "Spilt Wine," by Mekya McBee, is a story about a woman who has just lost her husband. After her husband's death, she is living alone in their house. Although it could seem odd, she is enjoying living alone in her empty house. This woman is "surrounded" with a friend called Bith. Bith is trying to help her getting through the crisis of the death of the woman's husband. Through reading "Split Wine" we are able to apprehend the protagonist's miserable life. The heroine of "Spilt Wine" has a bad luck with men. Her flashbacks reveal the bad relationship she has with her father. Furthermore, the protagonist tries to steer clear of men trying to get closer to her. These two facts clarify why the protagonist desires to be alone in her house. The bad experience she had with men left her with an unhealed wound and fear of getting hurt again.
The protagonist's relationship with her father affected enormously, but in an unconstructive way. One the most beautiful metaphor in this story is when her father pushed her with the swing set. This metaphor could imply to the father pushing her to do things she is not willing to do.
"When she was a child she / had broken her arm on the swingset. Her father pushed her so high; she / called for him to stop but he must not have heard her for he pushed / again. Her small, frightened body shuddered and slipped?she landed on ...
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The protagonist's relationship with her father affected enormously, but in an unconstructive way. One the most beautiful metaphor in this story is when her father pushed her with the swing set. This metaphor could imply to the father pushing her to do things she is not willing to do.
"When she was a child she / had broken her arm on the swingset. Her father pushed her so high; she / called for him to stop but he must not have heard her for he pushed / again. Her small, frightened body shuddered and slipped?she landed on / her arm. Such pain, yet now she easily used that same arm to lift her / wine to her mouth. Her arm had healed?this amazed her. It amazed her / that her bruises always healed" (6,61-67). The father is not ready to listen to his own daughter. Quite the opposite, the father pushes her even higher and higher until she fells down and breaks her arm. This incident leaves the protagonist not with physical wounds, but with an emotional one as well. This emotional pain felled the leading character vulnerable body, building a passive personality. There are motives that evidently indicate to this fact. The central character in the "Spilt Wine" is nameless; through the entire plot the only mentioned is the protagonist's friend, Beth. The woman's anonymousness cue to her inert role. In her life and the life of the ones surrounding her.
Beth, the protagonist's friend, is trying to help the protagonist to get through her husband death. Nevertheless, Beth is forcing her to go out and go on with her life. Although she is trying to help the heroine, she is talking control of the woman's life, and she is pushing her forward. "It was such a big house for just herself /,..., / but she
could not imagine a single reason why she should be worse off now" (2,9-13). The protagonist finally finds freedom and independence and freedom after her husband death. She feels that she does not have live in a man's shadow. Nonetheless, she allows Beth to lead her life.
Nevertheless, deep in her self, the heroine decides to keep her reward. For years she lives in the shadow of men, first her father and then her husband. But now she was at a party, and there was a man talking to her. "She did not much like him; she couldn't imagine how she would./.../ She'd heard those words / before: as a child, as a wife. She could not stand to hear those words / again" (5,35-42). These words: "Your eyes are beautiful" represented to our heroine the dominant of the men in her life. But now she is not willing to submissive to a man. She cannot stand to fall to the same trap, leaving in a cage once again like a beautiful bird.
Although the protagonist seems that she finally got her independence from men, she cannot unleash the past. The flashbacks indicate to the distress she had in the past; the relationship with her father created a passive figure. This passiveness of the protagonist allowed her husband to take control on her life as well. On the one hand, Such pain, yet now she easily used that same arm to lift her / wine to her mouth. Her arm had healed?this amazed her. It amazed her / that her bruises always healed" (6,65-67) this lines could hint that the protagonist's physical pain is healed, but she cannot let go of the past; she still emotionally in pain. On the other hand, "It was amazing to her, that so much could ever heal" (6, 61-62), which indicates that she believes that all of her pain can be healed, and she build her self a new life. Although she spilt the wine she did not break the glass.
