In "Superman and Paula Browns New Snowsuit" the main character feels betrayed by others. Compare how feelings of betrayal are shown in this story and another story of your choice.

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In “Superman and Paula Browns New Snowsuit” the main character feels betrayed by others. Compare how feelings of betrayal are shown in this story and another story of your choice.

a) The ways in which the main character is let down by others.

b) How the authors show the feelings of betrayal by the way in which they write.

c) Differences in the stories.

I am going to talk about themes of betrayal, comparing “Superman and Paula Browns New Snowsuit” and “Chemistry”. In both of these stories, some characters are betrayed. The narrator in “Superman and Paula Browns New Snowsuit” is betrayed by her community when they think she is guilty of pushing over Paula Brown and ruining her new coat. She felt especially betrayed by her Uncle Frank, whom she compares with Superman, as he is her hero in the story. When he does not believe her, she describes it as; “the year the war began and the real world, and the difference.” The experience taught her lesson, and marks the end of her childhood. In “Chemistry”, it is Grandfather, who is betrayed by his daughter and Ralph. The narrator, his widowed mother and grandfather once lived together in harmony in the grandfathers’ house. Their harmony is disturbed by the arrival of Ralph, his mothers’ boyfriend. Grandfather becomes increasingly isolated when his daughter and Ralph are mean to him so he retires to his shed, and eventually commits suicide, leaving the others to begin a new life.

The stories are both about themes of betrayal, and at the same time are very contrasting stories. “Superman and Paula Browns New Snowsuit” is about more trivial things, a Snowsuit being ruined, but it was important to the narrator because it showed her the “real world”, and taught her that she could trust nobody. It was about how the community did not believe her, nor did her hero, Uncle Frank save her. “Chemistry” is in some ways different as the story was about a family, with no references to the community, “We scarcely made contact with the outside world”. The story is much more serious, it has much death, and there never seems to be any fantasy or happiness like there is in “Superman and Paula Browns New Snowsuit”. The narrators’ family circumstances at the beginning, he has no father or grandmother, show us that the theme of loss of life in the story is very significant. It shows how all the characters betray each other in different ways.

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The two authors show feelings of betrayal by using particular language and metaphors. Sylvia Plath uses the term, “strange joy flickering in their eyes”, to describe the look the children gave the narrator when they all turned against her. When David Sterling answered the door to tell the narrator’s mother about the Snowsuit being ruined, she shows the betrayal as she says, “There was a cold draught from the open doorway”. This describes what she thought he was doing to her, and what sort of a person he is. In “Chemistry” the writer uses the metaphor of the sinking ...

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