Thomas H. Raddall The Wedding Gift: Kezia's Character

The Wedding Gift-Thomas H. Raddall

5. What is your opinion of Kezia? Be sure to include reasons to support your opinion. Kezia is a character to who most young girls in the early 19th century would admire. Though living in a male- dominating society she holds the traits which make her exceptional from all. Kezia is intelligent, bold, and strong.
Intelligence is one of Kezia strongest traits. Bundling with Mr.Mears throughout the night is an event where her intelligence was showcased. Kezia was well-knowing that since Mr.Mears was a man of the god it was not appropriate for him to spend the night with a young women, however, Kezia thought if Mr.Mears did spend the night he would feel as if he had committed a sin and would agree into marrying her. Furthermore, the whole journey Kezia carried a tinderbox, she could have made a fire to warm herself and Mr.Mears. Though if she done that they would not have had a chance to bundle. Mr. Barclay had thought wrong of Kezia, she was anything but meek and naive.
While intelligence helped Kezia throughout her journey in the woods, her bold character allowed her to decide her own fate. Kezia went against society and followed her own wishes and desires. She had to take up the role of a man in order to do so though. This is showcased further when Kezia rolls up her skirt in order to rid the horse properly. As society’s rules say a women is to ride a horse with her legs dangling on one side, Kezia breaks society’s rules without thinking of the consequences. Furthermore, it is not right for a young women to spend a night alone with any man. Kezia not only spent the night with Mr.Mears though she bundled with him which was seen as a much more severe sin. Just when the readers thought the story was done Kezia surprises them by proposing to Mr.Mears, yet, again conveying her boldness.
Alongside her other many traits, Kezia is a women of strength. Kezia was not only fighting the forces of nature though she was fighting an inner struggle as well. Marrying Mr. Hathaway was against her wishes, she was dying on the inside. Her happiness, hopes, desires were all shattered in a few moments. However, this did not limit her from doing as she pleases. She is strong-willed along with being physically strong. The harsh weather conditions made her journey to freedom even crueler, still, she kept her focus and went ahead to reach her hopes.
Kezia is a role model to me as she is everything a women in the 20th century should be like.
7. What is your opinion of Mr. Mears? Be sure to include reasons to support your opinion. A man of god, Mr.Mears, is a noble and naïve person. His nobility is exposed when Kezia came riding on the horse with her legs on both sides of the horse, he avoided to make eye contact. He respected Kezia as a women, thus, he acted as any gentlemen should. Furthermore, while with Kezia in the hut he did not try anything on her. He easily could being the man and all, however, that was not his character. To ad on to the bundling with Kezia, Mr.Mears had refused to bundle with her once again showing that he had no such intentions. In addition, his nobility was shown right at the beginning of the story, courting Kezia to her marriage shows that Mr.Mears does noble work. Mr.Mears is a man of noble mind and heart. Kezia planned everything out very slyly and Mr.Mears never suspected a thing. His character is naive and not-knowing. Mr.Mears obeyed every command Kezia threw out, Kezia told him to bundle with her and he did as he was told without asking anything.
10. Classify both Kezia and Mr.Mears as either static or dynamic. Explain your evaluations.
Kezia
The wedding gift has many writing elements infused within it, though the most bursting element was the hero cycle. This story started off with Kezia being shown as a meek, hopeless, and pathetic girl but after crossing the creek-a threshold, her character drastically changes. The old Kezia had died and a new Kezia had emerged. Kezia had taken upon a male role, riding the horse in a manly manner, proposing to Mr.Mears. In addition, instead of being someone’s rejected puppet she had a new identity-identity of a respected women. Kezia had become fierce and strong within the green world-the woods. The green world is where conflicts are resolved, coincidently in this short story Kezia’s inner struggles and conflicts are resolved. Kezia was renovated into a dynamic personality.
Mr.Mears
Mr.Mears character remained uniform throughout the whole story. The author conveyed him as a neutral character who is naive and noble. Mr.Mears however, plays a huge role in the story, if it was not for him Kezia’s manly qualities would not have been put in the spotlight. Mr. Mears is a static character.
11. Explain what it is that enables the dynamic character to develop-what occurs that helps the character change? As mentioned before, Kezia is the dynamic in this story. The plot line of the story is written in such a way that forces Kezia’s Character to take on a new personality. Barclay’s decision to marry Kezia off to Mr. Hathaway was foreshadow that Kezia’s Character will be molded into something unexpected. Kezia was disinclined to marrying Mr. Hathaway, which is why she had to plan her escape. Kezia had to take upon the male role,

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