Servants in Madame Butterfly and their portrayal in A Gate at the Stairs

Answer each question in a complete sentence. Include textual evidence to support 6 answers.

1. Summarize the plot of the opera, "Madame Butterfly," in your own words. Why would Moore include an Depigraph that quotes this opera?

In Madame Butterfly the plot of the opera is that a birth mother loses her a child an adoptive mother who later on loses the baby. The whole time Suzuki, the servant, witnesses everything, but can do nothing to help. Moore quoted this opera in the epigraph because much in Madame Butterfly where Suzuki is very relied by Madame Butterfly to do basically everything for her. This is Just like how Sarah relies on Tassie to do everything for her, such as raising Emmie.

2. What do the three epigraphs fit together? Or contrast with each other?

The first two epigraphs fit together because they both relate to the subject of servants and both are related to Madame Butterfly. The first two contrast to the third because if you're a servant then you don't see the world from the same point of view as someone that you're a servant for.

3. In addition to her sense of humor and intelligence, what are Tassie's strengths as a narrator? How does Owhat she describes as "an unseemly collection of Jostling former elves" (p. 3) affect the narrative and Ocontribute to the appeal of her tale?

In addition to Tassie's sense of humor and intelligence, her other strengths as a narrator are that she describes everything in great detail such as "Though the interior of the casket was quilted white, like a beautiful suitcase, what I could see of my brother looked like garbage tossed inside" (Moore 298-299). When Tassie describes herself as "an unseemly collection of Jostling former selves", it affects the narrative because she was playing a different role and had a different personality in Troy and Dellacrosse. When she is in Troy she is playing the role of a servant for the Thornwood-Brink family. While in Dellacrosse she's playing the role of an average college girl, not ready to grow up. She's basically living a double life.

4. How does the initial meeting between Tassie and Sarah create a real, if hesitant, connection Obetween them? What aspects of their personalities come out in their conversation?

Tassie and Sarah's first meeting created a hesitant connection between them because they didn't know each other at all and because of this, they did not understand each other's sense of humor and couldn't talk to each other ithout it being awkward.

Sarah seemed to bring up everything they could ever talk about except for why they were adopting a child and any other aspects of it. Many aspects of their personalities came through in their conversation. One of the aspects was that they were both extremely talkative, but they both werent using they talkativeness in an appropriate manor for the situation. They couldn't stay on topic at all during their conversation. Another aspect that came out was that Sarah was overall very proud of her wealth and what she has done.

She didn't seem too modest or humble. This showed especially when Sarah randomly said in a conversation "'l ou n'" (Moore 1) wltnout even Delng asked. DescrlDe tne aaoptlon process through Tassie's eyes. What aspects of her personality come out during Othis process? Tassie describes the adoption process as "... Adoption seemed like both a cruel Joke and a lovely day-dream - a nice way of avoiding the blood and pain of giving birth, or, from a child's perspective, a realized fantasy of your parents not really being your parents. " (Moore 16).

At the beginning of the novel Tassie didn't really know what to think about the adoption, but at the end Tassie really starts to ecome attached to Emmie and she realizes that it doesn't matter where Emmie came from.

6. Describe the evolution of Tassie's relationship with her brother, Robert, from the beginning of the novel Ountil the end.

Tassie's relationship with her brother Robert changed from the beginning to the end of the book because at the beginning they were really close, compared to other brother and sister relationships. They were both very unguided, while growing up, so Robert would always look up to Tassie.

When Tassie went to Troy for college, Robert had a hard time getting through his last ear of high school because he had no one to look up to. When Tassie said "Robert, it had often seemed to me, failed to apply himself-musically or academically' (Moore 41). They basically grew more and more apart until Tassie received an email from him one day saying that he wants to Join the military. When she shows up in Dellacrosse for his graduation, she finds out that Robert is actually Joining the military. What she doesn't know is that this will be the last time she will ever see him. When Robert dies, Tassie felt more distant from him than ever.

7. What do you make of Edward? Does Edward's behavior at dinner and the "small conspiracy' he and 0 Tassie establish (pp. 112-114) offer a more sympathetic (or at least more understandable) view of him?

I think Edward was really uninterested in being a father again. He didn't seem very into Emmie at all, adopting her or playing with her after they adopted her. I feel like he Just didn't seem too fond of having a biracial baby. He didn't even come to any of the adoption meetings until the middle of the one with Bonnie. It seemed like he was always missing in action in some sort of way, throughout the adoption process and at home.

He seemed to be a big flirt towards Tassie. He would always look at her with a certain look and then all my thoughts were confirmed at the end of the book when he asked her to go to coffee with him. I dont think the "small conspiracy' offered a more sympathetic view of him. It was kind of weird because from the start of the book basically Tassie and Edward had a secret that they wouldn't tell Sarah. I think Tassie realized the kind of person Edward was during this conspiracy and how he probably keeps a lot of secrets from Tassie, Sarah, and probably other people.

This came up especially when he said "'Let's not tell Sarah,' said Edward. 'She's got a slightly obsessive side'" (Moore 113). Also I think Edward didn't want to get to know the child because I think it brought back bad memories from the first child.

8. Does A Gate at the Stairs accurately reflect the persistence of racism in America? What do the comments Dand encounters sprinkled throughout in the novel (80, 1 12, 151, 167, 229) show about the various forms Oracism takes in our society?

A Gate at the Stairs accurately reflects the persistence of racism in America because of how all of the events in the book took place after 9/1 1 . Once 9/1 1 occurred, racism grew in America, yet it was still there before it occurred. When Tassie would take Emmie out for errands, she would be looked down upon for Instance wnen lassle sala "l nls was all sala In looks, so tne trutn could not De uttered, but I saw again and again what it was simply to walk into a store for a doughnut and have a wordless racial experience (Moore 167-168).

She especially got looks from white people such as when she said "To the white woman I was a whoring girl messing around with anyone (Moore 167). The comments and encounters in the ovel showed that there are many forms of racism in our society. The first way that I stated was more of a looking down upon way while "Instead, he glared right at little Mary-Emma and shouted, 'Nigger! " (Moore 1 51) was more of a verbal way.

9.What is the importance of Tassie's description of Mary-Emma's affection for Reynaldo: "the colorblindness of Osmall children is a myth; she noticed difference and sameness, with almost equal interest; there was no O'Dilemma of Difference' as my alliteration- loving professors occasionally put it" (p. 169)?

The importance of Tassie's description f Mary-Emma's affection for Reynaldo is that she didn't care about the color of Reynaldo's skin color or what he looked like and she only cared about his personality.

10.On page 296, Tassie offers a thoughtful explanation of the purpose of religion in people's lives. Are there Oother lessons about the meaning of religion or faith to be found in the novel?

Yes, there are other lessons on religion on faith and an example would be when Bonnie Amber wanted to have Mary-Emma raised Catholic. This shows that many people are Judgmental about religion, and even though shes giving p her baby to another family of a possible other religion, they still want their baby to be Catholic no matter if the new parents arent Catholic.

11. Does the novel prepare you for Sarah's dreadful confession (232-242)? What particular incidents or conversations foreshadow the revelations?

I think the novel does prepare us for Sarah's dreadful confession because you can tell that something is missing throughout the book. You can tell that they're not telling Tassie something about their past because they never even told her why they were adopting and why they idn't Just have a child on her own. I think the whole hiding something makes Tassie feel on edge throughout the whole book which was probably why Tassie wasn't even that surprised and didn't really have a reaction when Sarah told her the story. I especially saw when Sarah said " " (Moore ) that she was hiding something. Also, Edward always being missing seemed kind of suspicious and it might have been cause of his guilt towards the first child, which we didn't know about then.

12. Was their decision to move and start anew the best solution under the circumstances?

It depends on how you look at it. If you look at it like they were Just two parents that made a horrible parenting mistake and it was Just an accident and they deserve a second chance, then yes you could argue that that was probably their only chance of getting another chance. If you look at it Just from the fact that they killed their child, then no. They shouldn't have changed their names and moved on Just like that to try and forget their horrible past which was obviously bound to come back and bite them eventually.

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Servants in Madame Butterfly and their portrayal in A Gate at the Stairs. (2018, Jul 23). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/evil-inside/

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