Because we have had so many absences recently, this post is due to be answered by Friday, January 22.
Please submit your "SCASI" essay for "On Her Knees" here.
Here's a reminder of how we do this.
1. Intro
2. S - Setting
3. C - Characters
4. A - Action
5. S - Style
6. I - Ideas
7. Conclusion
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
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SCASI ESSAY: “ON HER KNEES”
ReplyDelete“On Her Knees” is a short story written by Tim Winton the year of 2004. Its key themes are family, proof and pride.
The setting of “On her Knees” Is supposedly to be in New Zealand since Tim Winton is from New Zealand. Most of the story takes part in this wealthy woman's home where the cleaner there is the narrator's mom. The house contains a lot of 'knick-knacks' and normal modern/expensive stuff that wealthy people own in their houses. The year of the story is probably the same year as it was written, in 2004.
The main characters in this story is the narrator, Victor, and his mom who is a cleaner. Another character which is not actually 'live' in the story, but since they are both in her house cleaning, we learn a lot about this 'snobby' rich woman which in fact doesn't look so mean as she seems to be in the pictures of her in the house. Victor is a young adult in University who is very skeptic about things, especially rich people who he for sure is not really fond of. His mother is a very friendly but also a hard-working mom with cleaning all of these rich peoples houses. She is as well very proud of her fame around the rich ladies with cleaning houses and likes to keep that pride.
The plot of “On her Knees” is about the narrator and his mom who cleans for a living. In the story she then gets a note from one of the rich women she cleans for saying that she suspects that the narrator's mom stole her 500-dollar earrings and that she is fired but that she first needs her to clean her house once more until she is fired. When the narrator hears about this he thinks its crazy and that his mom shouldn't go but his mom wants to keep her cleaning- pride so she goes anyway. Victor as well volunteers to come with and help her clean, but really he wants to snoop around to see what kind of lady this is. But when he's there he can't find anything specifically bad that proves that this woman is this mean. While they clean the house they find the 500-dollar earrings as well and then puts them next to the letter of money that his mom didn't want to accept for the job by the end of the story.
The language style of the story is in 1st person and in the point of view of the narrator, a.k.a Victor the son of the cleaner. It is in quite an objective voice throughout the story showing what the narrator thinks of this woman and the other rich people. The dialogue between the narrator and his mom is not like other dialogues actually. It sounds more realistic and what they would say if this was real-life.
The theme of “On Her Knees” are to show that people shouldn't always choose their first instinct of things- for e.g. when losing something you think someone stole it- but that you should think about it first and make sure of your accusation and that you have proof for it.
As a conclusion I thought this was a very good and smartly-written story. It also had a good satisfying ending by the narrator finding a good place to put the earrings so that the woman wouldn't feel shameful for herself, but regretful that she lost such a good clean lady. I as well liked this story because It sounded very realistic and showed a real-life situation. It was different from the other short stories we have read.
In class this week we have been reading ‘On Her Knees’ by Tim Winton written in 2004. It tells the story of a woman , who has nothing to be proud of but her dignity and her name. In this story her name is put on the line, and she must work to make sure her name doesn’t get ruined.
ReplyDeleteThe story is set in the United States of America. We know this because there is a constant referral to dollars, and Americans. It is set in the city, near a law school .
The main character in this story would be the mother. The story tells about her life, and pride of her job and life. There is also Victor. He is a young , twenty year old Law student who lives with his mother.
Victor’s father leaves when Victor is sixteen. Victor and his Mother move to the city. His mother starts cleaning houses to pay off his father’s debts and to keep Victor in college. One day, Victor’s mother is accused of stealing one of her clients $500 earrings. There are some weird circumstances however, one was that the woman didn’t report the ‘theft’ and the second was that she asked his mother to come back the next week to clean as her last job for that client. Victor tells his mother not to go but, to keep her dignity she goes . They clean the apartment, and Victor goes through the lady’s house to find out about her and why she is being so mean to his mother. When he is cleaning up the bedroom, he finds the earrings under the bed. His mother says she must have swept them off the pillow by accident and that the earrings definitly werent worth $500. Victor then puts the earrings in the cat litter, muttering that she could find them herself. When his mother refuses to take the money her client left for her , victor then puts the earrings next to the money and they leave .
This story is written in the first person . It is a simple story with reported speech . The themes and Ideas would be , principles, accusations and dignity. Also perservierence , she never gave up on her son.
I quite enjoyed this story. It was a bit confusing at places but I thought it had a nice idea and plot and I really admired the mother. :)
On her knees was written by Tim Winton in 2004. The main themes of this story are family, pride and making a point.
ReplyDelete“On her knees” is supposedly set in New Zealand because the author is from that country, but we are not entirely sure. The story mainly takes place in a house owned by a wealthy woman. It is a large house with many items, and full of valuables. What you would normally think of a house owned by someone wealthy. It is probably set in 2004 the same year the story was written.
The main characters are the narrator Victor who is a young man and his mother who is a cleaner. Another character would be the women that owns the house, but we don’t see her at all but we do find out some things about her. Victor’s mother is a very proud women who cleans housed to perfection. She is loyal and very trustworthy maid and is the best in their town but she is quite poor and works very hard just to make ends meet since it’s just her and her son Victor. Victor as a mentioned is quite young and he goes to university he is very skeptic about things and find’s this wealthy women very odd and tries to find out more about her so we can conclude he’s very nosey.
The main action in this story is when the mother is accused of stealing a very expensive pair of earrings and is told she is fired.. But she must come back and clean the house one last time. When she goes to clean the house she takes along Victor to help and she is determined to clean this house to perfection. Victor doesn’t understand why his mother is doing this, but we think it is mostly to keep her reputation well and make sure she doesn’t lose her jobs in other houses. As they are cleaning Victor starts snooping around and looks in her bedroom and spots one of the 500 Dollar earrings, and his mother and him end up finding the pair, and look to be very tacky cheep earrings. Victor gets really angry and chucks them into the litter tray, but then takes them out and place’s them next to the check. His mum doesn’t bother taking the check, and leaves the earrings there without hassle, and that’s how the story ends.
The language of this story is in 1st person, and is told by the narrator Victor. It is very easy to understand as it sounds like something anyone would say in real life, and the dialogue between Victor and his mother are very realistic. So I think the author has done a good job of making this story sound real.
The main theme of this story is trust and loyalty I would say, and how people can blame other people easy for their own mistakes and actions without knowing, it could also be because of class differences since the women was rich and the made was poor, it made Victor’s mum an easy target to be accused of theft but everyone should learn never to blame anyone unless they have proof.
To conclude this I think the story was very interesting to read and I enjoyed it very well the only thing that annoys me about it is we never actually find out what happens in the end , whether she gets the job back or not etc.. on the whole it was a very good story and it gave out its point very well.
The story “On Her Knees” is a short story which was written by Tim Winton in the year of 2004 and Its main themes are pride, family and proof.
ReplyDeleteThe setting of the story “On her Knees” was taken place in this wealthy house where the cleaner there is the narrator's mother. The house contains a lot of normal modern as well as expensive that furniture, cutlery and what so ever, everything wealthy people would own in their homes.
The main characters of this story are the narrator (of course), Victor, and the narrator’s mother who is working as a cleaner. Victor is a young adult in University; his mother is a very hard-working person as well as friendly, she is very well known in her town for her great cleaning skills.
The story “On her Knees” is about a young man who is studying at University, (who is also known as the narrator) his mother, who is a well known cleaner in the town and very proud of her fame. She cleans rich people’s homes. However, the life for her might not sound as sweet as it really is, she receives a sudden note from one of her rich women she cleans for – that she is suspected about stealing a 500 dollar earrings so she gets fired, but first she needs to come one more day for her to work and then shes fired. Later in the story, Victor, the narrator will get to know about this and finds it truly insane! He tells his mother not to go clean once more at that place, but she refuses and still goes. The narrator offers his mother to come and help, but when he arrives at this place he does not see anything eye-catching to proof that this woman is a mean person, since this is the whole point why he even volunteered. In the end, the earrings will be found and put on a table next to the money coming from the woman who suspected Victors mother in stealing the earrings.
The style in this story can be identified as being written in 1st person, in the eyes of the narrator, Victor. The conversation between the mother of the narrator and the narrator itself was much more realistic than any other conversation that had been written in any story we have read so far. It seemed much more real and understandable compared to what we usually read.
The themes in the story of “On Her Knees” were already mentioned above, however I will mention them once again and explain in more detail each and one of them. The main themes of this story were family, proof and pride. By this I mean, that in my opinion, family should always come first no matter how important the job is to the person, and by this I also mean that the cleaner did not listen to her son when he told her not to go again to that woman’s house to clean once more until she would’ve been fired. Then we have, pride, by which I mean that she was feeling and thinking she was much more than being a cleaner because she mentions that she is the most known cleaner in the town, I don’t think this is right however other people might not think so. And at last, proof, because you always need proof for something you have done or either did not do – or else people might not believe you.
In my conclusion I would like to say that I actually enjoyed this story much more than other stories so far, this story to me seemed like it was much more realistic than other stories we have read because this might have been based on a true story since things like this happen. Wish to read more stories like this.
By Christina Lomakina
“On Her Knees” is a story written by Tim Winton in 2004. It is set (presumably as there is no definite date or location given) in mid 80s New Zealand. The story itself takes place over one day from morning to afternoon and in only two locations. Firstly there is the house where the main character (Victor) and his mother live. It is a humble working class home; however the second area the story visits is the home of a wealthy University professor. Winton makes it a point to describe the luxuries of the house that Victor’s house does not have.
ReplyDeleteThere are two main characters that physically appear and one other character that plays a big part in to the reason of the story, but does not actually appear. Firstly there is Victor, a 20 year-old male law student who lives with his Mother. Victor is a working class man but has greater ambitions. Victor’s mother earns money by cleaning other people’s houses, which is something she is well known for. She is supposedly the best house cleaner one could have in that area and she is very proud of the title and she does an excellent job of keeping it there, despite the labor intensive work. The third character in this story is a wealthy University professor who, as victor finds out in the story, is a good-natured woman that has some ‘naughtier’ aspects to her lifestyle. Despite this, she also seems rude whenever she fires Victor’s mother with a scrawled note over a stolen pair of earrings that she doesn’t report to the police.
“On Her Knees” starts off with Victor describing his life at the time, his dad left when he was sixteen and his mother works as a house cleaner to help pay for his university fees. However one of her wealthy clients has fired her and accused her of stealing a pair of 500$ earrings, and still wants her to go back and clean the house one more time. The story is set on that day. Victor simply cannot understand why his mother wants to go back and clean the house for the last time, even though the woman wrongly and rudely accused her of stealing a pair of earrings, he especially does not want to help her do it, however he knows if he does help her, and it will take half the time. In the end he ends up going with his mother to help her clean the house, even though she tells him it is for the company not the help.
When they arrive and begin cleaning the house, Victor tries to gather some insight into the person’s life by snooping around and looking at her things. He desperately tries to find something that he can use to hate her with, but in the end he realizes that she is actually a nice woman. Whilst cleaning the house, Victor tries to figure out why the woman hasn’t reported the missing earrings to police, as she would need to do so to claim insurance, when he vacuums under the professor’s bed and finds the two earrings. His mother scoffs at their supposed 500$ price tag when she sees them and places them on the professor’s pillow. Victor grabs the earrings and puts them in the cat litter, trying to figure out whether to tell the woman or leave her to find them herself. Before they leave the meticulously cleaned house, victor runs back to get the earrings and places them in the envelope containing the ‘lump-sum’.
The story is written from the first person, this perspective provides insight to Victor’s thoughts and speculations as he wonders the house. Victor’s views and opinions are related to his status and the way he lives. He finds it weird the way other people can let strangers into their houses to see their personal trails they leave behind; to let strangers wonder you’re most personal space.
Victor’s mother presents a strong principled character whose actions give an idea of Loyalty and Pride. She would go back to a house and clean it to keep up her name even though the client wrongly accused her of stealing something. As well as this theme of loyalty and pride, there is also the idea of working class life and family. There is also the father-who-runs-away-leaving-the-mother-to-take-care-of-the-son aspect to this story, Victor’s mother works hard every day to keep up her name, her pride and provide for her family.
ReplyDeleteOn her knees
ReplyDeleteThe short story ‘On her knees’ was written by Tim Winton in 2004. The story is a lot about pride and how the rich people differ from the poor people or what they think about each other.
The story is most likely set in New Zealand, because the author, Tim Winton lived there. Most of the story takes place in a rich person’s house. This house is filled with a lot of things that seem to be expensive and a cat. The time this story is set in is supposedly 2004, because the story was written in that year.
The two main characters are the narrator, Viktor, and his mother. Victor is a young man who goes to university. He also really likes his mother because he wants to help her with her job all the time though he hates doing that. And he can be very curious, too. His mother is a housecleaner, but once was a doctor’s surgery. Now she cleans houses but is a very good one. She is proud of her name. His mother is also a very strict person and honest. Then there is another person though this one doesn’t show herself, she is only talked about a lot. It is the owner of the house the mother is cleaning. This person is really rich and has a cat and a lot of valuable things. She is teacher and probably she is American. She doesn’t seem to be a very mean person, probably a bit naughty because she has some hash. But on the photos we always see that she smiles and is around friends. Then we also learn about her that she likes popular people like Martin Luther Kings.
The story’s action is that the narrator’s mother has been accused of stealing expensive earrings. She got fired, but she still had to come back one more time and clean the house. Victor comes with her, though he doesn’t really want to. He also doesn’t want that his mother goes back because he thinks that was unacceptable that she went back and cleaned a woman’s house but this woman has fired her and accused her for something she hasn’t done. But the mother wants to go back and not only this, she also wants to clean the house really, really, good this time to show her how good she was. In the house, the mother finds an envelope with money from the woman for her, but she doesn’t want it. The son looks around. He doesn’t say it, but he seems to be looking for something that shows him that this owner was a mean woman. But he just finds stuff that makes her probably even nicer to her. He cleans the cat’s toilet and then goes to clean the bedroom. There he then finds the earrings. He wants to give them to the owner and tell her that she was wrong. But his mother doesn’t like that idea because she thinks that the woman will think that this was an act of guilt and probably the rich woman will then make their name bad which would be the worst because her good was all she had. And then she puts the earrings on the bed. But he takes them from there and puts them in the cat’s toilet. But tehn he changed his mind and took the earrings and put them in the envelope with the money that the woman gave them and left it there.
The story is written in 1st person and the narrator is Victor. The story is written quite realistic e.g. the conversation in the car the mother and the son had, was very real and also because the time in this story isn’t that long ago it seems to us that this really happened or could happen. Also the way he describes the cat stink makes the story very realistic.
CAROLINE 1
The story shows us a lot about rich and poor people. The son always talks about rich people badly. He says that they stink like rich and that he uses the word objets. He uses this French word because French sounds a bit snobby. Then the son also tries to understand how the owner can live with it that someone is cleaning her house, that someone is touching her stuff and cleaning after her. IT seems to him that this must be very embarrassing and that they only can live with that because she was confident. The mother doesn’t really care about money that much. She seems to think that her name was much more important than any money in the world. That then also is about pride. And then the story is a lot about how other people would understand what you do. When the boy decides to put the earrings into the cat’s toilet, he seems to make that because of anger or to make her angry or to show her that he was angry with her. But then he puts them into the envelope which is better for her because earrings that are that important seem to belong between money and not in a cat’s toilet. Why he did it so nice, was probably to make her feel bad. That they didn’t took the money AND found her earrings AND she fired the woman because of thinking she has stolen the earrings that would definitely make her feel guilty.
ReplyDeleteI like the story. It made me think a lot about it and it was interesting to think about what the things meant that the people did.
CAROLINE 2
On Her Knees
ReplyDeleteOn her knees was written by Tin Winton in 2004. It is a short story about a mother who was accused of stealing a valuable possession. The main point of the story is pride.
“On her knees” is set in New Zealand (well that’s what we think, it doesn’t really tell us) because the author is from that country. The story takes place in a house owned by a wealthy woman. It is very large and too posh for the young man, Victor. The lady owns many items. It is probably set in 2004 the same year the story was written.
The main characters are the narrator Victor who is a young man who is in law school and his mother who is a maid. Another character would be the women that owns the house. She is a very mysterious woman but we find out more about her as we go along. Victor has a very proud woman who punishes people by showing how good she is and cleaning everything perfectly. She is loyal and very trustworthy. Victor does not understand how wealthy women live with people in their houses and he tries to find out more about her, this shows that he is very rude because he pokes his nose in other people’s business.
This story is written in the first person as it is told by Victor. It is very, very easy to understand and it is like an everyday life speech. The dialogue between Victor and his mum is extremely realistic and the job being done is realistic too.
The main plot of the story is when Victor’s mother is accused of stealing an expensive pair of earrings and she is unfortunately fired. She is then told that she must come back and clean the house one last time because she needs to find a new maid, which I find pathetic because she just accused her of theft so its really stupid. Victor goes with her so that she can finish earlier. He does not understand why she went but he still goes to help her. Whilst cleaning they find the earring and get a little annoyed. Victor then, when his mum is waiting for him chucks them in the cat litter box for the owner to find them after his mum put them neatly on the bed, but goes back, cleans them, and putts them in the money envelope the owner left for them that she did not take to maintain pride. He did this so that she (the owner) can see that she did not search properly for them and just blamed someone else of her own mistake. And that’s how the story ends.
I think the main theme of the story is loyalty as it shows how people deal with being blamed with what they did in a loyal way and always putting the person they are working for first. It also shows how people can blame other people for their own mistakes and actions. This story also shows the different classes and ways people live, rich and poor.
In the end I think this story was interesting, it was fun to read and nothing difficult to understand but it was different in a way. I really enjoyed reading it. It really surprised me as it had many different ways of seeing the story.
"On her knees."
ReplyDeleteIn the class we were reading a short story called "On her knees". This story was written in 2004 by Tim Winton. The main themes of this story are pride and the family.
This story can be set in New Zealand because author was from there. Nearly whole story we were in the rich house of wealth women. It was big house with very expensive and modern stuff.
The main characters of this story are Victor twenty-year-old law student who is a narrator of this story. We also know that his father leave him when Victor was 16 years old. His mother who is cleaner of the houses. She is honest hard-working women with good reputation which was after blamed for thing she never did. The owner of the house rich women probably teacher. Also she is the women who blamed Victor's mother for stealing the ear rings.
This story "On her knees" is a life story of one person Victor who is the narrator. Firs he is writing about his father how he leaves him. Then about his hard-working mother which was doing everything for her son. Victor's mother was working a cleaner but she was proud of it. She worked on many houses just for her son to get education. This entire story is how one women owner of the house where Victor's mother was working blamed her in stealing the 500 dollar earrings. After what Victor is trying to understand what kind of person could do such a thing to his mother because for her to be called a thief was beyond imagining. He is searching for his answer in her house everywhere just to find something to proof that she is wrong. Victor and his mother were cleaning the house like they never did before maybe to make the owner miss them. In the last room they found the "stolen" earrings which probably the owner forgets on the pillow and then they fall under the bed. At the end they put earrings on the table near the money and went away like saying take your money and earring we are leaving this place.
"On her knees" was written from first person. Narrator of this story was Victor. Language was informal really easy to read. Conversations between mother and son were realistic like we talk every day which made the story understand more clearly. Author describes all his feelings on the paper and now we can have the same reactions and thoughts like he had.
This story is about different people. Poor and reach about their ways of life. We can see that they all have different reaction on the same things. This story showed how people are different because of their lifes. It saying that not always rich people are good and always right. That poor people have their pride too and you have to respect every one equally. Also it is teaching us not to tell things on people when you are not sure about and don’t have proofs.
This is a real story which can happened any time and we have to learn not to blame people for things they never done just because we thing that they did it. "On her knees" is a very smart story which makes you think about things you never though before. I like stories which can teach you something new and this story one of them.
Scasi- On her knees
ReplyDeleteOn her knees was written by Tim Winton in 2004. The themes of the story are family, pride and trust.
The setting of this story is suppose to be set in New Zeland. Most of the Story is set in the rich woman’s house where the mother and son clean. The house is a very expensive place with a lot of objects around.
The main character’s in the story is the Mother and the son (Victor). The mother is a proud woman who has dedication in her work and has just been accused of stealing a pair of earring’s and has been told that she has one week’s notice to leave. The son Victor is a law student at university and is really determined to reach the top. Some days when he is not at university he goes and helps his mother clean the houses.
The main action of the story is all around this certain house that the mother has to clean for one last time before she is fired. The mother has been accused of stealing a pair of 500 pound earrings. The mother is really annoyed that she has been accused but has agreed to clean the house one more time to show the lady that she will be missing her. The son Victor agrees sadly to go with her to help her, but when they arrive he goes and looks round the house and pokes his nose into all the things there. In the End Victor finds the earrings but they leave them there with the money too.
The language of the story is written in first person, but in the point of view from the narrator. The narrator includes a lot of his own personal opinions and ideas, like the way he comments about the rich ladies house and belongings. Also in the story, dialogue is used a lot between the son and the mother.
The theme of the story, is there to show us that people should not always believe their first instincts, and to be sure before making a statement. And also have proof about it first.
As a conclusion, I liked this story, it was written very well and included a lot of description to describe different places and objects. I liked the way that the son sometimes took control and explained to the mother that she was wrong. Also this story was quite realistic which made it more affective.
‘On her knees’ SCASI essay
ReplyDeleteTim Winton is an Australian author and ‘The Turning’ is an collection of short stories. It was published in April 2005. The story ‘On her Knees’ is written by him and published in 2004.
The setting is in an apartment of someone where his mother cleans. The apartment is near by a river. When his mum was driving to the apartment they pulled up a leafy street beneath a block of Art Deco flats. The story not telling where they live in what kind of country but I’m thinking maybe in Australia, or something in that way.
The characters in the story are not much people the main characters is Victor who is twenty years old. When his father went away he was 16 years old. His mother is the cleaner who it is about in the story she is very discreet and deadly honest.
The action in this story is that the mothers cleans a house of a woman and get accused because the woman is saying that she had stolen earrings of her and they are worth five hundred dollars. Victor his mom is very honest so she wants to go back to that house and she goes cleaning because she is scared that her good name is going away. But victor is saying to his mother that she don’t have to go. But she is going and he is going with her and he is snooping around. On the end he founds the earrings and they leave the earrings in the house and the money too.
The style in this story is realistic it is not an old story and it is something that everyone could happen. And I understand it more than what I read in the other stories. Also it is written in the first person; Viktor is the narrator and tells us what happened with his mother and more. It was also very easy to get the story because it was what I already said very realistic and how he described the relationship between mother and son is really good and clearly to understand.
The main theme is loyalty. Loyalty is what you see that the mother blamed of what she didn’t do but she did come back to clean the house of her client and she had her pride because she did go back and clean the house to safe her good name and that she has more people to clean. And because that she did that she could let the woman see that she didn’t do it but that it was her own mistake about the earrings. And she didn’t gave up her son she has to work for him but she did it and she never said a word about it. And also that you see a good difference about rich people and poor people.
I liked the story! It was nice and easy to read and it was very nice how you saw the relationship between mother and son which I liked to see, and that the mother does so much for her child and that she is very honest in several things.
Anne-Mieke
On Her Knees is a short story written by Tim Winton. It was written recently in 2004. It is basically about the life of a cleaner.
ReplyDeleteThe setting of On Her Knees is set in New Zealand probably because Tim Winton is from New Zealand. It is set in the cleaners house which is full of ‘knick knacks’ little things which have personal value, but also in house’s that she cleans in full of ornaments and fancy stuff. It is probably set in around the same time as it is modern and she drives a Toyota carola,
There are 2 main characters in this story. There is the cleaner mother of Victor the narrator. The cleaner or mother seems to be a caring mother and a very dedicated, proud and loyal cleaner. We know this because of her behaviour, for example she is accused of being a thief but still goes to work and does her best despite the fact of them calling her a thief. Victor has to be a bright kid as he is studying law in University. I don’t think he really likes ‘rich’ people.
The story is about a cleaner who is well known amongst cleaners and is accused of stealing 500 dollar ear-rings. She tells her son about this who is very upset that she still wants to go to clean this woman’s house. Victor still goes with her to help out just to see what kind of person she is but finds nothing bad about her but he does find the ear-rings and he puts them near the money which his mother won’t except.
The language style of the story is written in 1st person and is being narrated by Victor. Victor is narrating a story of his past. It is written in a positive way. It sounds very real and is just a story about the life of a loyal cleaner.
The theme of “On Her Knees” is to show that people shouldn’t straight away accuse someone of doing something just because of this permutation you have given them. That one should get to know someone before accusing them of being a bad person.
I really liked this story it was to the point no description just reality. It wasn’t a hard read and no ‘read between the lines’ needed. Good story
On Her Knees
ReplyDelete“On Her Knees” is written by Tim Winton in 2004, and it the story is about this young man (The Narrator) that is in his early 20’s, he studies Law at his University and lives with his mother who is a cleaner that is widely known as the best cleaner in the town. The story is told 20 years in the past as the narrator is talking about how his mother was accused of stealing “500” dollar-earrings.
The story is set somewhere in New Zealand and it is in the mid 1980’s; it mostly takes place in a rich neighborhood in a very rich apartment. There is mention of the University and the Narrators home but it mostly takes place in the rich apartment. The narrator also describes the smell as being old money when he enters the rich neighborhood as he goes past the river near the University where he goes to school.
There are only two main character in this story, the narrator and his mother but there are mention of other minor characters such as the father who just shoots through town and the rich woman that owns the house and seems to be a teacher at Victors University, she also seems to have a thing for cats as she has quite a few pictures and ‘Objets’ of them. The Narrator is around 20 years old, is called Victor and is a Law student in the University; he seems to be a kind man and looks out for his mother but also has a curious side when he tries to find out what type of person would accuse her mother of stealing earrings. His Mother has a lot of Personal Pride and she is strong headed, she also is an honest person and when she is accused of stealing she still feels as if she has to work even after she is fired and is asked to come back one more time the following week.
In the beginning of the story it talks about how Victor’s mother got into the cleaning job, and that Victors father just came into town and almost immediately left. When Victor’s Mother gets home one day she is found crying under her lemon tree as she has just been sacked but gets to go back for one day the following week, Victor and his mother have an argument about going back for the one day and Victor finally gives in and decides to go with her because he thinks that it will be the most difficult 4 hours of her job. They enter the rich neighborhood and he describes the smell of when he enters the neighborhood as being the smell of old money, when they reach the house he enters and starts snooping around the house by looking at the paintings on the walls and by looking at these paintings he notices that she has a taste for cats, he then proceeds to clean the house as his mother has commanded him and while he is cleaning he does some more snooping and comes across a bookshelf and notices that she has left some ‘Naughty’ books out such as The Kennedy Reports and Erotica, there are other books but these are biographies about people such as Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and so on. He then goes and cleans the bedroom where he chases the cats out of the room so he can clean behind the curtains as they are covered in cat hairs, victor then finds his mom coming into the room asking for the window cleaning but when she asks for this cleaner he is vacuuming underneath the bed and he then hears something that sounds like metal coming up the vacuum pipe, when Victor opens the vacuum cleaner he finds an earring and then finds the other one near the skirting board, Victors mother places the earrings back onto the bed were presumably is where she lost the earrings in this first place. When their cleaning day comes to an end the boy chucks the earrings into the cats litter box and leaves the house, his mother asks him if he’s forgotten anything and he goes back and places the earrings next to the envelope with the money and leaves with the vacuum.
ReplyDeleteThe story is written in first person and is also told as a flashback since it starts with “I was sixteen when the old man shot through” and it seems that the narrator is atleast 40 as the story is 20 years in the past. There is a morale behind why Tim did not use quotation marks and that was to probably keep the story flowing rather than having “Said this and Said that.” “As far as we know In that postcode? Believe me we’d know she must know I didn’t steal them” is an example of Tim not using quotation marks.
The ideas of “On Her Knees” is that mainly one shouldn’t steal (although we know that Victor’s mother didn’t steal them it’s still implied that is has its consequences) and that you shouldn’t really accuse anyone falsely, always have proof otherwise it is pointless, another idea that was in “On Her Knees” is Loyalty and Pride; Victor’s mother was honest and had a great sense of pride that was above everything else, so even sometimes having some pride is worth every moment.
To conclude, I enjoyed this short story very much as it was different to the others as it was about Pride, Loyalty, Honesty and False Accusations so it was interesting to read how Victor’s mother had so much Pride that doing her work and not taking the money is something to admire.
On Her Knees
ReplyDelete“On Her Knees” is a short story that was written by Tim Winton in 2004. It is about a young man, who is 20, and his mother. The young man is the narrator and he is talking about this 20 years later. The story was written in the first person.
It was set in New Zealand around the 1980s. It mostly takes place in a rich neighborhood, inside one of the houses that they are cleaning. This place is also near a river, which the narrator finds gives the area a ‘Smell of money’ just like the university where he goes to school.
There are two main characters, Victor; the narrator is a 20 year old law student who lives here in New Zealand. His father left when he was 16. There is also his mother who is a very principled and firm minded person. When she gets fired and told to go back one more time, she says that she must go back as it is a matter of personal pride. She is also a very cautious driver, driving VERY slowly and carefully. We also have a character we don’t meet, the owner of this house that they are cleaning. We know that she is a professor in the same school that Victor goes to, and it seems like she teaches something about African-American history. She seems to be a good person, by what Victor sees. But she is also a strange person, firing her and then asking her to come back once more. She also likes cats.
In the beginning of the story, he states that when he was 16, his father left. He then explains his situation and his mother, a cleaner. We then learn about how his mother is accused of stealing the earrings. His mother was about to leave fir the last job, but then he guilted himself into going, as he knew it was a 4 hour job and she would be miserable and it was only a 2 hour job with 2 people. They go into the house and he immediately smells the woman’s cats. Then he goes through the fridge and is told not to snoop. He does different things around the house like clean the cat tray and dust things. He seems to be snooping, but it isn’t really snooping as he is just making different observations. There are lots of different things like porcelain figures of cats and framed pictures of cats. Later on he starts snooping; he looks through her papers, finding her comments to be very nice and helpful. He finds lots about her and it really seems as if she was a very nice person. When he cleans her bedroom, he finds her cats, Persians. When is vacuuming he hears something metal be sucked up, the earrings. His mother leaves them on the bed and then he takes them and puts them in the cat tray. Later on, when he goes back to get the vacuum cleaner he takes the earrings and puts them next to the envelope of money his mother wouldn’t accept.
The story was written in the first person, by Victor, at least 20 years later. He seems to make the narrator notice many details, quite a few for over 20 years after. He makes it clear when you realize this that the writer was not happy when they were cleaning the house.
This is defiantly a story that concerns morals. The principled mother doesn’t want to ruin her “personal pride”. Throughout the story there is a recurring theme of morals and ethics, stealing earrings and not taking money after being accused, coming back after being fired and all of those situations.
I very much enjoyed reading this story, it was very well written in my opinion. I liked how the writer made the mother and son he portrayed them well as you would imagine. The writer did a very good job with this story, and it makes me want to read his other stories.
Essay of ‘On Her Knees’
ReplyDeleteThe title of this short story is called ‘On Her Knees’ which was written in the year of 2004 by a famous Australian writer (both for short stories and novels) known as Tim Winton. He was born on the 4th of August in 1960, and still alive till today (around 49 to 50 years old). Tim Winton has written about 9 novels in his life.
This short story is set in 2004, as it was the time it was written in. The place is set in a rich and peaceful neighbor-hood somewhere in New Zealand. It takes place in a rich woman’s house most of the time during the story.
There characters from ‘On Her Knees’ are Carol Lang, who is a housecleaner who is not very well – off when it comes to money and payments. She cleans for a very rich person for the possibility of better payments. She’s also the main character of the story. Then there is a boy who is 20 years old as told in the story. This character is the son of Carol Lang, and seems to have a rough past, as his father had been shot when he was 16 years old. Another character in the story is the owner of the house. She wouldn’t really be an important role in the story, as the only thing she says is that she is firing Carol Lang as she thought that Carol was stealing her expensive ear rings.
The plot is basically about Carol Lang and her son. Carol Lang makes her living by cleaning for people. Carol Lang then receives a note from a very rich woman, who was accusing her that her son had stolen five hundred dollar ear rings from the desk in the living room where she had been cleaning. Carol Lang was told that she is fired, but would have to come back and clean the next day as she would need her for the last time. Her son tries to convince her not to go. Since she was going to get fired by the rich woman, she shouldn’t go and work for her at all anymore, but she went anyway to earn the last bit of money she could get off her. A man, who is probably a friend of Carol and other people help her with the cleaning for a little bit the next day. While cleaning that day, she finds the five hundred dollar ear rings that the owner of the house thought had been stolen by her son. She doesn’t accept the money after the day was done, all she did was put the ear rings near the money on the desk, probably to show how wrong the owner of the house was. The story had ended like that.
The style of this story would be more of a ‘coming of age’ story, as it sort of links to a grown man looking back in the past of his childhood, and what had once happened during those years. It seems like the story that hints a learning experience which was experienced by a young man. Also for the dialogue, he hadn’t used any quotations which were done in a way that it makes the conversation feel real. The language that was used made it feel realistic because when her son swore, his mother responded saying “Language!” very quickly. It makes a feeling of realism because it is something that practically all mothers would say if you swore in any way.
Overall, I liked the story quite a lot; especially the way Carol Lang expressed her honesty and humbleness by putting the ear rings on the desk, to prove that she didn’t steal them. It shows her character, and that she was a good woman who didn’t care too much about money, even though she struggled to make a living in life. Also, her doing so, it also hinted some drama, which was good too. Her son begging his mum not to go again also hinted some drama, as of the way he expressed his words.
On her knees is a story written by Tim Winton in 2004. The story is mainly about ethics and morals.
ReplyDeleteThe story set in New Zealand as in the being of the story he mentions a flower which indigenous to New Zealand. The story starts at the Victor’s house which he shares with his mother. The story continues in an apartment which is owned by a rich woman. The apartment is decorated with pictures of cats, and not only are there cat pictures, but also real cats. The apartment is probably full of expensive furniture. The story is probably set in 2004 as it is the year in which the story was written.
The main characters are Victor and his mother. We never have the opportunity to learn her name. Victor is a University student studying law; he is very stubborn and protective of his mother. The mother is very good at her job which is cleaning. She is very protective of her good name and reputation. The other invisible character which we never meant in the story but is mentioned often is the rich apartment owner. She is a university professor who coincidentally teaches at Victor’s school.
The story is about Victor and his mother, the story is after his mother loses a cleaning job at the rich women’s apartment. She was devastated but still had to go and clean the place one more time. Victor goes with her because he can’t bare the thought of her cleaning that place alone, even though he isn’t happy that she is going to clean the apartment again. He is not happy that she was going back because she had been falsely accused that she stole a pair of earrings. They go and start cleaning when while he was hovering the bed room he finds the earrings and then his mother leaves them on the pillow. Then he puts them in the litter box. After he realizes the point his mother was trying to make by not taking the money and leaving the earrings on the pillow, he puts the earring in the kitchen by the envelope which contained the money.
The language style in the story is written in the first person. This gives a clear view of what Victor was thinking. The dialogue between the victor and the mother is not like ordinary dialogue it does not use speech marks and the only way you are able distinguish who is talking is because the writer starts a new line when a new person is talking. This is effective because the dialogue is more realistic.
The theme of On her Knees is ethic, morals and family. The story teaches that you must thrust your family’s opinion. The ethics and morals part is seen through the whole story, the dilemma should he go it his mother or not?
The story also teaches that people shouldn't be quick to judge people. I thought that the story was very well written and showed a softer side of a human beings, how we feel protective of the ones we love. I think that Tim Winton is a very good writer and knows how to display emotion very well.
By Valentina Spiteri
The story “On Her Knees” was published in 2004, written by Tim Winton. The story was taken from the novel called “The Turning”, where other narratives by him are found.
ReplyDeleteThe setting of the story is mainly set in one apartment of the employer, where the narrator’s mother was hired to clean. A best guess would be that it is placed somewhere in New Zealand, but that is an unsure fact. I think it could also, possibly, be set in Australia. The apartment is placed near a river, but since the writer was based in either Australia or New Zealand at the time, that’s the best guess to give. The apartment that it is based in is decorated with porcelain cats and tacky furniture, not well decorated. There are many books that crowd around in a shelf, and it’s owned by the employer who works at the college.
The characters in the story are mainly Victor (the narrator himself) and Victor’s mother. Victor is twenty years old and is told (by his mom) not to take any extra jobs, because his studying is what comes first right now (with him being in college.)He is also a law student, so he works hard with studying, and he thinks of many other possibilities of what could’ve happened in the case with his mother and the employer. Victors mother had taken the job of a cleaning lady ever since their father walked out on them. Victor feels bad for this, and wants to bring in some money of his own, but his mother is stubborn and head-strong, and would not allow him. His mother seems to look old because of all the work she does, but once in the past she was beautiful.
Basically what happens in the story is, Victor’s (the narrator’s) mother gets accused of stealing/pocketing a pair of earrings that are supposedly around five-hundred dollars. The son is outraged at that fact, because his mother did not actually steal anything at all. So, the employer lady decides to fire Victor’s mother, but wants her to come back one more time while she searches for another cleaning lady. Of course, this makes Victor angry and he doesn’t think that his mother should go back, seeing as how she was falsely accused of stealing a pair of earrings. But the mother still decides to go, so Victor tags along with her. His mother is too much of a safe-driver, though, so he doesn’t really enjoy the ride over. So they arrive there, Victor’s mother taking out all of her equipment and then they venture inside to clean. Victor still doesn’t like the idea of his mother coming back to clean for this lady, but he doesn’t want to leave his mom to a job that, by herself, would take four hours. While Victor is cleaning he snoops around, taking in every little detail just to find out how the employer’s personality might be as if he’d met her. It turns out she’s a college professor, though what she teaches is unknown, and she owns both volumes of the Kinsey Report, and some other books by some popular authors such as Germaine Greer, Erica Jong, and Betty Freidan. There are also some erotica books, that Victor quickly thumbs through. But there are also many essays made by college students resting on the employers desk, and then you find comments on them written by her. Or at least, Victor takes a guess that she works in the very same college that he goes to, but he takes different classes from the ones she teaches. In the end, Victors mother doesn’t take the money, and finds the earrings that she was accused of stealing on the floor next to the lady’s bed. Victor puts them in the cat box at first, but then the earrings end up next to the envelope of money, leaving a sort of message to the lady.
Part 1 --Tatiana
PART 2
ReplyDeleteThe story is written in the first person narrative, from Victor’s point of view. It clearly shows what he’s thinking and what he sees when he sees them. Also, when the narrator speaks to his mother speech marks are not used, and the only way to tell if they are speaking is that there is a new line every time.
The dialogue is written very realistically, which is also another clue to whether they are speaking or not, because it sounds like a mother-son conversation.
I’d say the main theme for “On Her Knees” is morals. Rather, thinking about your actions before taking them. Or, in this case/story, thinking of where your lost object could be instead of automatically assuming someone (like the cleaning lady) had stolen it.
I did enjoy reading this story, and it made me think how smart the mother of Victor was, even if she was quite the cautious driver. I thought that the ending was particularly smart because of how they had placed the earrings next to the money, to give a message to the lady that had fired Victor’s mother. I enjoyed the conversations that were held between the mother and son, because they were so realistic and the way that Victor thought was also more realistic than fictional. I liked how it was quite different, and not too sad, from the other stories.
-- Tatiana T.
SCASI of On Her Knees
ReplyDelete“On Her Knees” was written by Tim Winton in 2004. The story is quite recent in date and it did not take place so long ago (around the 1980s).
The story is said to take place in New Zealand because the author is from New Zealand and the story comes from a collections of stories that take place in New Zealand. The Setting is in an apartment of a rich lady and the apartment is located in a rich neighborhood close to the University of the main character. The house is decorated tackily.
There are three main characters in the story the first one is Victor he is a law student in a university his dad left his mother and him when he was sixteen and his mother had to work. Victor has long hair and he is the narrator of the story. It takes place when he is twenty years old but he wrote it twenty years after it took place so he is forty years old when the story was written. The second character is Victor’s mum she had to start working when Victor was sixteen because her husband left the family. She is very strong headed, Principled and rigid. She works as a cleaning lady and she is extremely skilled at her job. The last character is the lady that owns the apartment. She is well of and is a teacher at the university that Victor goes to and she accused Victors mum of stealing her 500 dollar earrings and instead of reporting the incident to the police she tells her she is fired but that she should come back the next week. She has naughty books in her study and has a cat fetish, she also smokes hash.
The action that takes place is that Victor's mum is accused of stealing 500 dollar earrings from the lady’s apartment and instead of reporting the incident to the police the lady tell the mum that she is fired but she should come back the week after to clean the apartment . the job is a 4hour job and the son Victor feels really angry that his mum has decided to go back and do the job and he finds it stupid that the lady would not report the incident and tell his mum to go back and clean the apartment. Victor and his mum argue about it but in the end Victor gives up and decided to go along with his mum and his mum is quite happy about him going along.They get to the apartment and they clean it while cleaning Victor looks and some of her things and then he goes to vaccum clean the ladys bedroom and he hears a sound that comes from the Vacumm he opens it up and there he and his mum finds the pair of 500dollar earrings. Victor then says they should show it too the lady and clear the mums name but the mum disagrees and says that she could have brought them to the house so what he does out of anger is he throws tham into the Cat litter but then when he sees that his mum doesn’t take the money in the envelope for the job he picks up the earrings and puts them oh the table next to the envelope.
The story is first person narration and it is written in the past tense. The writing style is very specific he does not state explicitly how he feels about his mother but he shows it and show that he loves her but also feels sad for her because she has gotten old and people don’t treat her the right way.The way speech is written give the sense that it is an actual conversation that a mother and son would have and that the action is taking place in real life. It is also written so we can tell who is speaking.
The ideas the story conveys is that you should you should stand strong like the mom did. Even though she was accused of stealing the earings and was told to go back but her son protested against it she still went back and worked extreamly hard and when she found the earrings she left them near the envelope with the money for the job and didn’t taking it he the money too. Plus the son hated the lady that accussed his mum and he was determined to find something that he could use to actually hate her but in the end he got really frusstrated because he could find anything eventhough he looked and looked.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the story because I could imagine it happening in real life and also it was quiet amussing to read.
By Evita Otigbah
On her knees was written by Tim Winton in 2004. The main themes of this story are family, pride and making a point.
ReplyDeleteOn her knees is set in new zeland we think as we said in class, but this isnt a definate, we assumed this because the author is from new zeland. The story takes place in a rich womans house, who the narators mother works for.
The main characters are Victor, Victors Mum and a rich lady who we dont find out the name of, or even meet, but we find things out about her. Victors Mums job is to be a cleaner. Victors Mum is also very proud of herself and how she cleans houses to perfection. She is very poor and works very hard just to make Victor able to go to collage. Victor is around 20 years old and he goes to collage he is very nosey in this wealthy womens house and looks at her private things.
The action in this story is when Victors Mum is accused of stealing a very expensive pair of earrings and is told she is fired by the rich woman, but she must come back and clean the house one last time before she leaves for good. When she goes to clean the house she takes along Victor to help and she is determined to clean this house to perfection to show the woman who is firing her up for sacking her for somthing she didnt even do. Victor doesn’t understand why his mother is doing this, he thinks she shouldnt go back and just leave the woman. but she thinks she is doing it to keep up her reputation and make sure she doesn’t lose her jobs in other houses. As they are cleaning, Victor starts snooping around and finds some personal stuff on the shelf. When they are cleaning the womans bedroom, they find the pair of earing. Victor gets really mad and throws them into the litter box, but then takes them out and place’s them next to the money. His mum left the money behind, she said she didnt want to take it from her, and she left the earrings there.
The story is told in first person, by the narrator Victor. It is very easy to understand as it is something that could happen in real life, and the speach between Victor and his mother are very realistic.
The main theme of the story is how people blame people for things, but just because there too lazy to confirm the truth first, they just leave it in somebody elses hands. it could also be that the woman is trying to show Victos mum up and go round telling people shes a theif.
To conclude this I think the story was very interesting and easy to read and I enjoyed reading it. i think the base of the story is really good and the author wrote it very cleverly.
On Her Knees
ReplyDeleteThe story “On Her Knees” was written by Tim Winton in 2004. The story is presumably set in New Zealand, and it flashes back into the 1980s, when the main character and his mother are cleaning house together.
The story is set in New Zealand, and in the flashback, the date is presumed to be in about the 1980s. The main area that the story focuses on is a rich suberb, and the main character tells the reader about his feelings on the area, and how he thought it reeked of money, and how he did not like the people living there. The story is mostly set in a house, where the two are cleaning.
There are two main characters in this story. Victor, the main character, is a 20 year old law-student (in his flashback about 20 years). His father left the household when he was only 16, and now, four years later, he is helping his mother at a job, cleaning. His motheris a house-cleaner, and is a very highly-respected cleaner around this area. She has a high pride, and seems very self-respectful. She seems to be a careful person too, and doesn’t want to loose any other jobs, and she also drives very carefully. She tries to make her point that firing her was a bad idea by cleaning the house as good as she could, not accepting the money, and doing the best she could, which seems pointless to Victor. A character that we never meet isthe owner of the house. She is a university teacher, and teaches at the same university that Victor goes to. She is American, and seems to be a regular person, so it seems weird why she doesn’t report the ‘Theft’ of her earrings.
The main action in this story starts when the mother and Victor arrive at the house to clean it one last time, after the owner fired the mother, for ‘stealing’ her $500 earrings. When they arrive at the house, the mother starts cleaning, and Victor helps elsewhere, and snoops around, looking for reasons to not like the house owner, and why she would accuse his mother of stealing the earrings that she didn’t steal. When he is looking around, he can’t find anything really unusual about this woman, and she isn’t really a bad person, although he found a small amount of drugs in her room. When the two come around to cleaning the bedroom, they hear a clanking noise while using the hoover, and when they search through the hoover bag, they find the earrings. The mother looks at them, thinking that they look like they aren’t actually worth $500, and she leaves them on her bed. Out of anger, Victor takes the earrings, and throws them into the cat litter box, saying that she should look for them in there. Then, when they are about to leave, he decides that he should move them, and put them with the money that the mother didn’t take for the job, and they leave.
The story is written in 1st person, from the opinion of Victor, flashing back about 20 years into the past. This gives his opinions and views about certain things throughout the story, such as his anger towards the woman. The story implies morals, and about stealing, and how you should react, and what not to do, and how to act with certain things. This also shows his emotions, and feelings towards things too.
The story implies that before you make conclusions, you should make sure that you are certain about what you are about to do, and if you have checked everything. The story also hints about stealing being morally wrong, and how to deal with it. This is evident when Victor moves the earrings from the pillow, and then, realising his actions, he moves them to the front door, in clear view of the owner.
I enjoyed reading this story, and i felt that the author had used very good ideas, and he had written the story very well. The story seemed very realistic, even like something that could happen any day to anybody.
On her knees was written by Tim Winton in 2004.
ReplyDeleteWe believe that the story is set in New Zealand as that is where the author comes from. The main part of the story is in an home owned by a wealthy lady in a rich suburban area. We believe that because the story is a flashback from about 20 years ago, the story is probably set in the mid 1980s.
There are 2 main characters in the story. They are Victor, a 20 year old law student and his mother Carol. They come from a working class background. The father left their home when Victor was 16. His mother is a cleaner.
The story starts with Victor's mother being accused of stealing a pair of earrings. Ironically, the person accusing her wants Carol to come back 1 more time to clean the apartment. Victor is simply outraged by this as he believes it's demeaning for his mother to go back. She however, is very proud of her name and believes that to prove herself, she needs to clean the home better than ever. She wants Victor to come with her, after a while, he reluctantly agrees. Victor despises this woman that lives in this home, but after a while, he realises that she is a professor at his university. He then finds the woman's earrings under her bed. He decides to be cheeky and place them in the cat litter. Instead, his Mum tells him to put them by the money on the counter as it is the morally correct thing to do.
The story is written in first person. Victor seems to think in a very negative way towards the owner. However, the conversations between him and his mum seem to be very realistic in the circumstances.
The main themes of the story seem to be trust and morality. There is also a theme of mother and son togetherness. The bond between the 2 does become stronger as the story progresses.
I thought that the story was well written and had interesting points. Some parts seemed very predictable but some parts didn't so that was good. I enjoyed reading it.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSCASI Essay- On Her Knees
ReplyDeletePart 1:
The title of this story is ‘On Her Knees’ and the author is Tim Winton. This story was written in the year 2004 and it is not set in the future or the past. The story is basically about a boy and his mother working to clean a house with some problems going on. Tim Winton is an Australian novelist and short story writer.
The time this story is set could very well be the time it was written, because the year 2004 is when there was technology such as vacuum cleaners and machines and it is not futuristic because there are no unknown machines or anything. It is not set in the past because there probably weren’t vacuum cleaners like this in the past. The place it is set is probably New Zealand because the author wrote a bunch of stories about these families that live in New Zealand, so that must be the place that this story is set. Most of the story is set in a house by the river that has many weird things in it and has many cats and also has shisha and some erotica magazines, but the beginning of the story is set in the house of the boy and his mother.
The characters in this story are the boy who is 20 years old and was 16 when his dad shot through, and he is going to university. He lives only with his mother and they are not a rich family. We know this because his mother must work as a cleaner to provide the money for her son to be able to go through university. Another character in the story is the boy’s mother. She is the main character in the story because she is the one that gets blamed for stealing the earrings. Her name is Carol Lang. She works as a cleaner and after her husband moved out, she is forced to work as a cleaner to earn the money to pay for her son’s education until he graduates from university. Another character in the story is, although she has no lines and is never seen by anyone in the story, the woman who owns the house. She is presumably a very rich woman seeing that she owns a house by the river and she can afford cleaners to clean her house for her. She is the one that blames Carol Lang for stealing her earrings. She has many interesting things in her house. The boy finds her erotica and her shisha. She also seems to have an obsession with cats, because they are all around the house.
Part 2:
ReplyDeleteThe story begins in the boy’s and the mother’s house and they are discussing whether the mother should go back to work in the house that she recently got fired from. She works as a cleaner and she is very known in the neighborhood that she is a very good cleaner and it even says ‘Carol Lang went through a house like a dose of salts’. The mother decides to go back to the house that she was fired from because of being accused of stealing the owner’s earrings. She goes back and starts cleaning the house and the boy looks through some of the owner’s stuff while he is cleaning the house and he finds lots of books and some erotica that he believes the owner looks at, and he finds shisha which is basically the Arabic way of smoking. He continues cleaning the house and gets angry at the cats for being everywhere and letting their hair fall everywhere. He is vacuuming a room when he hears a click in the metal tube of the vacuum cleaner. His mother tells him to open it up and they open it up and he looks through the dust and he finds one of the earrings that the owner accused his mother of stealing. He looks around the area and he finds the other earring and him and his mother leave the earrings and the money and they leave the house. He describes that his mother looks as though light is pouring out of her limbs as she stands in the doorway, and they both walk out into the hot afternoon.
The story is narrated in first person and the author seems to write the story in a way that does not let the reader know what is going on until the very end, and it seems the author likes to put a lot of words that describe the emotion of the characters. Also his way of showing speech is different than in other stories. In this story the speech is just in lines whereas usually they would be in quotes.
The idea of this story is that it is kind of a coming of age story, because the boy describes that he was 16 and then he is 20 years old and the problems that he had with his mum which may be a usual problem with adults and their parents. Also, the author tries to make the conversations as realistic as possible, as in the conversations between the boy and his mother are how a conversation would be between a boy and his mother in real life.
I liked reading this story. Although I did not understand the story at first because I missed a few days of school but when I got the story I really found the style interesting and the plot was really good and I never got bored of reading it, which is really what I look for in a story.
The Story on her knees is written by Tim Winton during the year of 2004, its main theme is that of family, pride and proof.
ReplyDeleteIt can be assumed that it is set in New Zealand, due to the writer being a kiwi. The story takes place in a wealthy family house setting, the house is large and contains many valuables, stuff a typical wealthy person would have. It is set in modern times.
The main characters are Viktor, a curious young university student who loves his mother. The other main character is his mother, who is a very good house cleaner, very proud of her name. Also another unnamed person is talked about a lot in the story, the owner of the house who is extremely rich and is a stoner (the presence of hash seems to confirm this).
The story starts with Viktor narrating his life so far and why his dad left and his hard working mother (the former is the reason why he does that latter). We then hear that “apparently” the mother stole earrings worth 500 and that she is getting fired because of this. Obviously the mother didn’t, and in order to appease the house owner they clean the house like never before, and in the process they find that the “stolen” earrings under the owners bed. They then, very annoyed leave the money and earrings their like, yeah the hell with you.
I t is a realistic first person narrative; it is something which could happen to anyone. The way the story is written shows how deep the mother and son relationship is.
The main theme of the story is to think beyond your premonitions about something and to analyze the situation, as in this case the owner just came to the conclusion that the cleaner stole the earrings and simply fired them without consulting any evidence, and as such he loses an honest and hard working house maid.
I personally enjoyed it, and it shows that sometimes you need to think abit before you make your decisions something which these days people are doing less and less.
by mike :P
The story "On her Knees" is written by Tim Winton. It is written in 2004, and i think that it is the most recently written sotries we have read so far.
ReplyDeleteThe setting of the story might be in New Zeland because the author is from New Zeland. It is most probably about 2004 or about then, because that is the time it was written. It sets during daytime, a bit in the car, and also mostly in the woman's house. The narrator is there because he is helping his mom, who is the cleaner in that house.
The main character of the story is Victor. He is a univercity student, he has got no father but only mom. His mom is a very honest, full of pride(in a good way) and hardorking woman ho is a cleaner. He hates helping her, but he has to. The other charcter who we never meet in this lady, who is about to fire his mom because she thinks that his mom stole the earrings(she didn't because she is very honest). The lady is actually a cat lover, and not as bad as the narrator tries to make her.
What happens in the story is that the narrator's mom a cleaner. She is bein blamed by the lady she works at, that she stole the earrings. Even though that happened, she wants his mom to clean her house once more before she actually fires her. So the narrator and his mom go to clean the house of that lady. He is trying to find some evidence that the lady is a bad person, but after all he understands that she isn't that bad. At the end we are left with a dilemma whether the lady will take change her mind about the narrator's mom or not.
I really liked the style of the story. Th way it was written was amazing, because it was not too long and not too short. Also it was very easy to understand, for me as a second language english speaker.
The main ideas of the story are honesty, pride, blaming people and being wrong. His mom as a very hones erson, and she was not shy of the work she was doing, she maybe not have liked it, but she was proud of it because it was an honest job. The lady was blaming the narrator's mom for stealing her earrings. The narrator was blaming the lady for blaming his mom, and he was wrong because by her personal belongings she seemed very nice.
I really enjoyed this story. I thought of ho strange it actually is to let unknown people come and clean your house, and also how people can be wrong at times. I think that the lady did not loose her earrings, but probably could not afford a cleaner anymore so decided to blame her instead. It was a good story.
I have a question concerning this story:
ReplyDeleteComment on the situation of the narrator's mother in "On her knees" and explain in detail with appropriate justifications the ending of the story.
How do i answer this question?
I am from Mauritius.