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At The Cadian Ball Pdf11/22/2020
Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does.LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in At the Cadian Ball, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Bobint wishes he did not love Calixta, as she does not seem to return his affections; nevertheless, her hold over him is strong. From the names of the characters, readers can gather that the story takes place in a French American community. Since Bobint is plowing cane, readers can also infer that the story takes place in the American South. It is immediately clear that Bobint is primarily fixated on Calixta outer appearance, rather than her personalityit remains to be seen, then, whether his affections are based upon love, or merely upon physical attraction. He remembers her verbally and physically fighting with Fronie. The community excused her impropriety on account of her Spanish blood. Bobint attempts to use this memory to convince himself not to go to the ball. However, upon hearing at Friedheimers store that Alce Laballire is attending, Bobint decides to go, worried that a gleam from Calixtas eyes, a flash of her ankle, a twirl of her skirts would put the devil in Alces head. Calixtas behavior is quite improper for a lady from the late-19th century American South. In a culture that values demure manners for women, her lack of verbal and physical restraint is quite far from cultural ideals. Yet, it appears that despite Calixtas impropriety, Bobint still loves her. Indeed, the sense of responsibility he has with regards to her wellbeing and his desire to shield her from Alce demonstrates that his feelings for Calixta go beyond mere attraction. The story switches focus to Alce, relating that the Creole planter put 900 acres into rice that year. His mother, Madame Laballire, and her beautiful goddaughter, Clarisse, look forward to the potential returns and often entertain guests while Alce is working the fields. Alce, in love with Clarisse, confesses to her with a volley of hot, blistering love-words one day after returning from the fields. Clarisse appears to be Calixtas foil: she is well behaved and easily scandalized by anything less than polite. Yet, for all her and Madame Laballires high-class airs, life at the plantation is still agrariana single cyclone can have a devastating effect. Readers can see this in Alces dejected behavior following the cyclone. Thus, readers can detect a sense of naturalism: in the story, nature and the environment determine characters fates, highlighting the relative powerlessness that human beings experience at the whims of their natural landscapes. One or two nights later, near midnight, Clarisse accidentally witnesses Bruce, a black servant, leading a horse to Alce, who then mounts the horse and leaves. Unsettled, calls out to Bruce from the gallery and asks him where Alce is going.
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