My Modern View Of Miss Brill example essay topic

Miss Brill is a story about an old woman that lacks companionship and self-awareness. She lives by herself and goes through life in a repetitive manner. Each Sunday, Miss Brill ventures down to the park to watch and listen to the band play. She finds herself listening not only to the band, but also to strangers who walk together and converse before her.

Her interest in the lives of those around her shows the reader that Miss Brill lacks companionship. Loneliness plays an extremely large part of Miss Brill's life and can be proven by things in the story. An example of Miss Brill's lack of companionship is when she visits the park on Sunday's. Not only did she look forward to listening to the band but she also looks forward to seeing what is going on with the lives of the others. "She had become really quite expert, she thought, at listening as though she didn't listen, at sitting in other people's lives just for a minute while they talked around her". The reader can clearly see that she has perfected eves dropping as if it was a talent.

Unlike those who take interest in chess or a game of spades her game consists of listening in on others and then acting as if she isn't. She has found herself living vicariously through others by eves dropping in on conversations that do not include her. Sometimes she finds herself taking parts of these conversations and begins to role-play as if she is an actress. Here is what I think would be a modern view of Miss Brill. An old lady with worn out gray hair walks along a mostly deserted sidewalk.

As she takes tired step after tired step she thinks about how lonely life can be sometimes. Miss Brill is gingerly moving along hoping to see someone ready to talk. Maybe some words spoken to her, or perhaps someone else. As Miss Brill walks the cold winter wind pushes against her. She feels that another stiff wind would knock her down. She comes across her favorite spot, McCooley's Tavern.

It is a damp and musty place that never really has anyone in it. The grayness of the walls makes Miss Brill's hair look platinum blonde. She hopes that today someone will be there, as she enters the door. Once again it is empty except for Sal, the bartender. As she sits on the bar stool and orders her favorite drink, a ginger ale with no ice, Miss Brill cannot but wonder who will walk thru the door next.

Maybe she can hear their conversation, maybe she can be in it, or maybe they will ask her how her day was. This routine is what goes on daily for Miss Brill. She walks a cold path to a lonely bar, but does so in a timely fashion. Can she be a part of someone's conversation today? Can she listen to someone else's problems? Well, at least tomorrow is another day.

Miss Brill is portrayed as a lonely woman who likes her routine. She is used to her routine of loneliness. She goes to sit in that park bench and listen to the band play because Miss Brill is used to it. She has run her life in a straight line and still follows the same beaten path. My modern view of Miss Brill is one of an old lady that would like attention. Not attention totally to her, but to have something said in front of her.

She wants to feel like she is solving people's problems by listening. Can you fault her, I sometimes find myself doing the same thing.