Reflection Paper
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Instructions
For this reflection paper, you will need to choose at least one short story (NOT “Brokeback Mountian”) and one poem. Reflect on a theme or idea that connects the two. Use the text to explain and support your connection. You may choose any literary element you wish to create this connection. Your goal is to explain that connections sufficiently enough so that the reader can understand why you’ve connected the two.
Your submission needs to follow all MLA guidelines and should be 2-3 pages
ANSWER
Cross Analysis of The Other Wife and A History of Sexual Preference
The Other Wife by Colette is a short story the focuses on three people. There is Alice, Marc Seguy, and the other wife, also referred to as Marc’s ex-wife. The story begins when Alice and Marc walk into an eatery, and the waitress prompts them to select a location to sit. While Alice instantly chooses to sit by the window so that she could gaze upon the water and feel like she was having lunch in a boat, Marc is suddenly strange and mysterious when he strongly suggests they move to another table in the middle of the room. Unknown to Alice, Marc’s ex-wife is seated at the table that had instantly excited Alice. Eventually, after they settle down, Marc reveals this new information to her, and while it is reason enough not to sit by the table, an unspoken mystery hangs around like a dark cloud as the couple has their lunch. A History of Sexual Preference by Robin Becker is a poem about the complicated relations of a butch lesbian in the 1960s. The poet describes a scene where the persona and her lover are in an eatery, and the waitress pulls their seats. However, when things before this moment between the persona and her lover were good, at that moment sitting across each other, the persona starts to express her own feelings, which she does not reveal to her lover.
The two pieces of literature share a setting and a theme. The setting is in a restaurant, which can be considered French due to the constant reference of the waitresses as the maître d’. It also suggests that both restaurants are fancy. The shared by the two pieces in reference to the intricate nature of human relationships. Beyond the idea of having a good time with each other lies hidden feelings, opinions, fears, and anticipation. In A History of Sexual Preference, the persona in a lesbian relationship confesses that both of them “have the surprised look of people who have been kissing and now find themselves dressed and dining in a Locust Street townhouse turned café, who do not know one another very well” regardless the continue to pursue the relationship without a clue on where it leads.
In The Other Wife, the introduction of the ex-wife stirs all sorts of feelings for Alice, where she is generally intrigued by the other wife. We learn that Marc was married to his ex-wife until fifteen months ago. To Alice, who is seated across Marc trying to focus on lunch, all her attention is on this woman who could not settle for the man with who she was in love. We discover her unsettled emotion when she thinks of the ex-wife as “the woman in white, this dissatisfied, this difficult, this superior . . .” However, all through dinner, she tries to look calm and even hopes that Marc is not thinking the same thoughts she is having. She constantly stares at the other wife from beneath her hat, curious about her nature, her lover’s relationship with her, and the reason her lover was not good enough for her.
Human relationships are difficult, and as we learn from Robin Becker, it is not even about the heterosexuality or homosexuality of relationships that make them difficult; it is about the feelings that lay unspoken behind people who are affectionate and even in love with each other. From the two pieces, we learn that regardless of the nature of a relationship, there will always be something that stands in the way of true passion, commitment, and happiness.
References
Becker Robin. A History of Sexual Preference. Retrieved on 4th December 2020 from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50007/a-history-of-sexual-preference
Colette. The Other Wife. Retrieved on 4th December 2020 from http://www.101bananas.com/library2/otherwife.html
