Virginia Woolf
...e does not think before she acts. She is full of pizzazz, and she believes that life is wonderful. Her personality influences her life. She does things out of the ordinary in order to create action. One day she went up to a stranger who was with his girlfriend at the zoo, and acted as though they were dating. “Where have you been? “(Dillard 76.) Said Pam. The man was flabbergasted and the lady he was with quickly removed her hand from his. She lives everyday to its fullest, not allowing anyone to get in her way or stop her from the adventures she makes for herself. The characters’ creative abilities led them in different directions. Stephen is a scholar who has written books on serious subjects on philosophy and religion: The History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century, and the Science of Ethics. He is a man on a mission. He is self-determined and serious with his writing. He thinks along theoretical lines. He lives in a conservative, sober society. Dillard is more contemporary and her focus is on the practical things in life. She invented a corkscrew, redesigned kitchen cabinets, and added sand paper under the counter tops. The parenting styles of these individuals are different. Stephen is firm with his children. They feel only comfortable speaking with their father when they have something to say that interests him. Through my eyes, I believe Stephen is a good father for only a few reasons: making origami figures and telling adventure stories. The standards Stephen has for women are different than for men. For example, he smokes but he tells Virginia, his daughter, not to smoke. “If at one moment he rebuked a daughter sharply for smoking a cigarette- smoking was not in his opinion a nice habit in the opposite sex-…”(Woolf 62). When Virginia asked if she could be a painter “…he assured her that so long as she took her work seriously he would give her all the help he could” (Woolf 62). Dillard wants the best for her children, and she encourages them to think for themselves. One instance at the dinner table, her daughter gave an opinion about a film she had never seen. The mother rebuked the daughter for not stating her own opinion. Even though at times Dillard may be crude or even embarrassing, as when she rolled in the sand, I can tell that she cares ...