Cultures and Traditions Essay

   She doesn’t seem to be ashamed and there is no emotion in her voice. â€Å"Is he dead? † â€Å"Of course. † They are still trying to make light of a bad situation. Their history has been described because nobody would go up to a person and say I have just killed one of my guests and I would make sense if she told this to someone closer to her. She has a very bold approach, is not afraid to say what she thinks, she doesn’t think before she acts. Her devotion is very strong for her son and is a very independent woman and has a sense of discipline. For example, she â€Å"applied to him the same norms of discipline† and â€Å"She did not want anyone to be able to say she had brought him up badly†. Riad suggests that she should start a guest house. He is like her saviour in a way. She seems to be a very forthright person, â€Å"Girls brought their boyfriends for her approval. † She isn’t afraid to speak her mind and can be a very blunt person at times. When she says, â€Å"In one of the back rooms. † she shows no fear of being caught, she doesn’t even lower her voice. Ines must have had a very strong stomach shown by the description of the murder. For example, â€Å"his head hanging by a strip of ashen flesh. † The conversation between Halabi and Ines shows Ines does not have much respect for the authorities, â€Å"An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,† She seems to think along the terms that someone killed her son and she is going to kill the murderer. Riad always seems to be taking care of the situation, for example, â€Å"calming the people to prevent them from tearing the perpetrator limb from limb. † and I think Ines likes that quality in him. â€Å"Ines had scrubbed the walls and furniture,† It is just like a chore for Ines to do, something to keep her occupied while the body was being taken care of. Ines thought the murder wasn’t particularly â€Å"barbaric† compared to the â€Å"latest cockfights†. Near the end you see a more soft side to Ines, â€Å"you are the person I love†¦ you should have been the father of my son. † She might think that all of this might not of happened if Riad was the father of her child. The community of Agua Santa seem to be like a cult. Riad had to â€Å"prevent them tearing the perpetrator limb from limb. † This shows they are behind Ines every step of the way, for example, â€Å"All the inhabitants of Agua Santa had spent the day hauling mangoes, which they throw through the windows until the house was filled floor to ceiling†. Ines is a very powerful figure in the town. She was higher than the doctor, the priest and the police. The community looked up to her. They turned the perpetrator house into an â€Å"enormous beast in the process of putrefaction† It gives the house a very grotesque form. Its like its had the life sucked out of it and has been turned into a ferocious beast. The people of Agua Santa seem to liven up once something started happening in their â€Å"insignificant backwater† town. The Lieutenant and his men even arrived so you might it was important but â€Å"they accepted an invitation of the girls at the who were celebrating a birthday, they said† it makes it seem deceiving. â€Å"There were more people on the street than on All Saints’ Day,† this shows that even a spark of activity can cause big difference the people’s attitudes and lift their spirits. â€Å"they seemed to be practising a part in a movie† its like the whole scene was surreal and this could not really be happening. â€Å"The priest lighted up the lamps†¦ but no one was in the mood for that type of devotion. † Everybody is so excited and that they don’t concentrate on anything else, not even their religion, just on the news they heard. The body was â€Å"stuffed† in to a canvas sack, â€Å"wrestled out† into the street, â€Å"unceremoniously† thrown into a sack and put into the back of Riad’s truck. The body didn’t seem to have been shown respect at all since it was the killer of Ines’ son. The house had further developed into a monstrosity and no one could get through the â€Å"impenetrable jungle†. â€Å"When they got back to at midnight, they found no one had gone to bed†. Everybody seemed to be so ecstatic and full of energy that the perpetrator was gone. â€Å"Agua Santa returned to their usual chores exalted by a magnificent complicity, by a secret kept by good neighbours,† the community know they can trust each other and work together in any situation. Both mothers know what they want and how to get it and both have a level of determination. Their love for their sons is a strong motive to their revenge and are ruthless in their ways of dealing with it. Both mothers don’t show a lot of emotion throughout the stories until the very end because they finally know they have done what they needed to do. The endings of the stories are both effective because they are both short and straight to the point and they both end on a happy note and the mothers can live their lives since both of them get their revenge. The characters are firmly rooted in time and place. For example, I think Vendetta had a strong belief about family but not about the community while The Schoolteacher’s Guest was the opposite. The communities reacted to the killings in different ways. The people of Agua Santa supported Ines and were right behind her and resulted in violent behaviour by vandalising the perpetrator’s house whilst in Vendetta , the community thought nothing of it and just continued with their lives and took no interest. Ines waits and speculates for things to start up while Widow Saverini gets right on with the task of dealing with the problem. In all, the stories both symbolise revenge and on how the mothers deal with the same situation. By Rio Small 10K1 Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Miscellaneous section.