The Analysis of "A Call" by Grace Macgowan

 

“A CALL”
An American short story by Grace Macgowan Cooke (1863)

SUMMARY

In the short story “A Call” author Grace Macgowan Cooke present a character “Abner” who had never called on a girl. He was an unclean boy and always ridiculed by Ross his friend and the other boy. But Ross wanted to help him. They prepared everything in Ross’ house, wore necktie, collar, vest and they became good-looking guys.
They go to Champe’s house and meet Aunt Missouri and Mr. Claibourne till noon. Abner and Ross didn’t have courage to said that they came for Champe. They were almost giving up then Ms. Claibourne – Champe came around and had a little chat with them for a few minutes and then she was going back to her room. She was back again and went out with Abner. He caught her and kissed her. And finally, they met Champe and went home with happy-face that he had made a call.

PLOT
Conflict    :
    Arguing with the other boys thay he was never call on a girl to go out.
Rising Action    :
    Going to Ms. Claiboune- Champe’s house
    Meet Aunt Missouri and Mr. Claibourne
    Stuck with them till noon
Climax        :
    They didn’t meet Champe until noon because they were talking with Mr. and Mrs. Claibourne and didn’t have courage to said why they came there.

Falling Action    :
    Champe came around and have a little chat with them and then went to her room.
Stable situation    :
    She came back then went out with Abner. Finally, Abner had made a call on a girl and went home full of happiness and try to make another social call.

CHARACTER ANALYZE
Main Character     : Abner
Flat / simple.
From the beginning of the sstory, he always did everything to made a call, to called Ms.Claiboune – Champe. He was trying to call on a girl. He only had one main character in this short story is never giving up to made a call and go out with a girl.
The other character :
    Ross        : flat
    Mrs. Pryor    : flat
    Aunt Missouri    : flat
    Mr. Claibourne : flat
    Champe    : flat

THEME
The Collateral Relative in boys life.
In this short story, the author Grace macgowan Cooke put the main character in unstable feeling that like a girl and he embraced to said that to that girl.
On the surface, “A Call” is a story of the desire of a boy to call on a girl. The main theme of the short story, however, encompasses a much larger, less romantic scape. Though all the of its action takes place a mere day in summer. A Call is a symbolic meditation on 1860s America, in particular the disintegration of the African American marked a drastic social change.
Macgowan portrays the 1860s as an era of black men decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its overarching cynicism, slavery, embrace, and fear.

SETTING
    Place    :
It took place in South American. How do I know that their African America?
Because in the short story they used their own dialect. (yo, ma say)
    Time    :
It’s about 1860s, the slavery of African America, black men as representatives voting in state and federal legislatures marked a drastic social change. black officeholders had lived outside the South before the Civil War
    Social Environment    :
The social environment in this story depends on its time-1860s. the slavery of black men/African American, made all the black men was bullied and expel from the social.
    Atmosphere    :
Their emotional reaction in this story as usual passage above is desire, fear, discourage, weariness and oppression.





Questions of Plot
    What conflicts does it dramatize?
-    Abner had never call on a girl
    What is the main conflict?
-    it is what is the problem. It s the friction between characters or between ideas of the story. The conflict means the event or problem. Conflict of a story is the struggle between the main characters that is eventually leading to a climax, a disharmony between the main forces in a story. Conflict can result from difference of opinions or an insult. Conflict can be violent or just as simple as having a small quarrel. A conflict of interest is a common phrase used in filmmaking.
    What are the minor conflicts?
-    It is how fix the conflict or the falling action to stable situation.
    How are all the conflict related?
-    The conflict sets the plot in motion. Is usually embodied by characters.
    What causes the conflict?
-    It causes by different drives of the characters or forces involved. Conflict may be internal or external—that is, it may occur within a character's mind or between a character and exterior forces
    Which conflicts are external and internal?
-    External    : the conflict between abner and his friends
-    Internail    : Abner with himself.
    Who is Protagonist?
-    Main Character : Abner
    Where does the main climax occur?
-    Between rising action and falling action. When the event intensifies the conflict so that the plot rises toward to climax.
    Why does it occur?
-    To make the story interesting.
    Is there more than one “main” cimax?
-    No. (in this story)
    How is the main conflict resolved?
-    When the event is less intense than the climax and that lead toward the resolution of the conflict and toward to stable situation. There must be solutions when the conflict had resolved.
    What are the important conflicts?
-    Without conflict, there's no story to tell because there would be no change or growth.

Questions of Character
    Are they flat, round, dynamic, or static?
-    They’re flat
    What do they learn?
-    They learned how to make a social call
    Does what they learn help or hinder them.
-    It does help them
    What problems do they have?
-    The main character-Abner never call on a girl
    Do they understands themselves?
-    Yes, they do.
    Do they have conflicting attitudes about something?
-    Yes, they do
    Does the author want us to compare one character with another?
-    Yes, she does.
    Is the character sad, happy, or in between?
-    Yes.
    Is the character mentally disturbed?
-    Yes.
Questions of Setting
     Place
    Where does the action take place?
-    South America
    Do you receive a dominant impression about the setting? What impression, and why?
-    Yes I do
-    Some boys don’t have courage to call on a girl just because they were not a good-looking man. They always afraid for what they wear, hair, shoes and everything about performance.
     Time
    What period in the history does the action take place?
-    It’s in 1863- reconstruction era of America. The black men were the slavery.
    How long does it take for the action occur?
-    Only a day
     Social Environment
    What is the social environment portrayed in work?
-    It’s about the black men in Slavery era.
    How do they affect the character?
-    The black men was bullied and expel from the social

ESSAY
In West Africa, it is either sunny or raining. Summer, here in Canada, coincide with their sunny half of the year. The raising of the sun, in this season, is usually very spectacular. The sun rises through the horizon reluctantly as though too fat to emerge through the narrow slit between the clouds and the landmass. The light produced, paint a golden hue on every creation and as it gathers confidence, it gives everything their true complexion. This comes at the price of sweltering heat.
It was on such morning; at the converging point of the River Niger with the ocean; a place called Nigeria where I spent my summer holiday; that this story began. Women, in the compound, had risen with the rooster to prepare meals while the men prepare the animal to be barbecued as the day progressed. The children were slumbering; dreaming and hoping the holidays will continue. Saint John’s Lodge was busy with the bustle of my uncles, aunts, in-laws, cousins, siblings, nieces and nephews, children, mother and husband, Julius.
The barbecue was my idea when I was relatively younger. A plan not backed unanimously by my parents. My father’s compound, Saint John’s Lodge, has been the venue for this event ever since. It is a land and a big fan of architecture, erected the conspicuous edifice in the middle of this large expanse which held a wooden work shed and a storehouse within the confines of its walls. Apart from the trees that line the drive way creating a boulevard, there is bougainvillea hanging on the high walls. Lemon grass shrubs scatter on the background of carpet grass while few orange and mango trees litter the compound. Though I grew up with my siblings in the lodge, we cannot claim complete knowledge of it. As children, we discover new hiding places anytime we play “catch”. It was exhilarating.
Early Life and London Career
A contemporary of American designers Gilbert Adrian, Norman Norell, and, on the other side of the Atlantic, Christian Dior, James was born in 1906 in Surrey, England, of English and American parentage. His mother hailed from a socially prominent Chicago family and his father was a British military officer. Raised and educated in England, he initiated his design career in 1926, at the age of nineteen, as a milliner in Chicago using the name “Boucheron.” Two years later, he set up a fledgling dressmaking business in New York, where one of his first commissions was to design sporting togs for the actress Gertrude Lawrence. Returning to his British roots in 1929, he began to establish ties with influential figures in London and Paris, which, after several failed attempts, led by the mid-1930s to a viable dressmaking business conducted from 15 Bruton Street, London, and the Lancaster Hotel in Paris. Recognized for his iconoclastic approach to dressmaking, he traveled in circles orbited by artistic and creative luminaries such as Cecil Beaton, Stephen Tennant, Pavel Tchelitchew, Jean Cocteau, and Salvador Dalí. Couturiers Paul Poiret, Elsa Schiaparelli, Cristobal Balenciaga, and Christian Dior were also among his acquaintances and early supporters. Dior in fact attributed his New Look designs to a James idea. These associations profoundly affected James’ artistic development and, on a more practical level, provided the contacts he needed to develop relationships with sartorially adventuresome women from English society. Among these were Mary St. John Hutchinson, writer and mistress of Bloomsbury artist Clive Bell; Anne, countess of Rosse, sister of the set designer Oliver Messel; the dancer Tilly Losch; and the then-debutante Marit Guinness Aschan, who later became a renowned enamelist. During the London/Paris years, James developed a lifelong fascination with complex cut and seaming, creating key design elements and forms that he would use throughout his career—the wrapover trouser skirt, the body-hugging “Sirene” dress, ribbon capes and dresses, spiral-cut garments, front-point drapery, and poufs, examples of which are shown here.

New York Career
James left London and moved permanently to New York in late 1939. By 1945, after briefly working for Elizabeth Arden, whose showroom he designed, James had gained sufficient recognition to open his own workroom and salon at 699 Madison Avenue. From there he worked in the pure couture tradition, custom-designing, fitting, and creating new forms for America’s most prominent and stylish women, among them the style-setting heiress Millicent Rogers; the art patron Dominique de Menil; Austine McDonnell Hearst, journalist and wife of publisher William Randolph Hearst Jr.; and the entertainer Gypsy Rose Lee. Although his artistic perfectionism and conflicted psychological makeup led him to behave erratically and irresponsibly in all areas of his life, his clients clamored to be dressed by him and went to great lengths to support him artistically and financially. In a 1957 letter held in the Brooklyn Museum archives, Dominique de Menil wrote to Director Edgar C. Schenck: “My husband and I consider Charles James to be one of the most original and universal designers of this period and in this country. . . . Traveling as we do . . . we are amazed to see how many dresses from the Paris Couture actually can be traced back to Charles James.”

James was at the height of his popularity and productivity in the early 1950s. The culminating design of his dressmaking career was, in his opinion, a 1953 ball gown with an undulating four-lobed skirt known as the “Abstract,” or “Four-Leaf Clover.” Created initially for Austine McDonnell Hearst to wear to the Eisenhower inaugural ball, it merged James’ skills as a sculptor, architect, and engineer in one spectacular statement. Perhaps buoyed by this achievement, he went on to design several equally memorable models in the following two years—the “Butterfly,” “Tree,” and “Swan” gowns, each having profusions of multicolored tulle, and the spare, body-hugging “Diamond,” the structural and formal opposite of the others. Aside from his ball gowns, the outstanding designs of the early 1950s were his innovative sculptural coats produced in association with the manufacturers William S. Popper and Dressmaker Casuals. These associations, like several others, were, however, short-lived, as James’ perfectionism and difficult artistic temperament ran counter to the demands of the ready-to-wear environment. He received prestigious awards from his peers in the fashion industry, including two Coty awards in 1950 and 1954, which cited his masterful skills as a colorist, draper, and sculptor. Neiman-Marcus as well bestowed acknowledgment for his outstanding contributions to the fashion industry in 1953.

In 1952, James expanded his business, moving from his cramped quarters at 699 Madison Avenue to two locations—a workroom at 716 Madison Avenue, where he instituted wholesale manufacturing along with custom work, and a showroom at the highly prestigious address 12 East 57th Street. Despite this success, his reputation began to wane mid-decade as economic woes, brought on by a lifelong pattern of fiscal irresponsibility, endless litigation, and an inability to work within the mainstream fashion industry, engulfed him. He vacated his workshop and showroom in 1958, but continued to work in reduced circumstances, tirelessly perfecting former designs and formulating new ones, and, most significantly, developing projects that would preserve his legacy. The last fourteen years of his life were spent in rooms at the Chelsea Hotel on West 23rd Street, New York’s legendary haven for artists down on their luck. There he maintained a coterie of devoted clients, friends, and admirers with whom he worked and held court until his death.
Summary of Styles and Techniques
James’ oeuvre is diverse and complex, the result of a restless creative force that was constantly pushing the boundaries of convention and his own previous accomplishments. Because his designs took many forms with countless variations, they are hard to characterize or classify. Some are elegant and timeless, while others are odd and controversial, having insectlike, vertebral, or other biomorphic features. Some incorporate the essence of modernity, while still others are updated versions of Victorian fashions.

One of James’ credos was that there are a limited number of shapes and silhouettes but innumerable variations on them. He followed this tenet throughout his career by reusing and reworking forms and components once he had developed them, but always in different combinations, a method that resulted in wholly new compositions. No matter what type of garment or shape he was creating, James used the female body as the point of reference rather than the defining factor of his formulation. Some of his designs cleave to the body, relying solely on cut, seams, and inventive ways of manipulating the fabric to achieve style and fit; others enhance and idealize its natural form with interior padding, corsetlike boning, and exterior drapery; and still others reshape the body into fantastic silhouettes that stand away from it. In these latter instances, he used one of two methods to achieve the effect: rigid, confining understructures, often modeled on Victorian prototypes such as the corset, bustle, and crinoline; or, conversely, perfectly calibrated cut, fabric choice, and variations in placement of grain and seams based on geometric principles. He considered the space between the body and the fabric to be the crucial design focus when planning these standaway shapes. Within all of this diversity there are also constants: James’ offbeat yet sublime color sense, his artistry with combining fabrics having different surfaces and textures, and the exhilarating tracery of seams that follow the curves of the body, dissect it like a knife, or taper into infinity at the end of a dart.

Because they are the epitome of elegance and originality, as much sculpture as glamorous raiment, the incomparable evening dresses James produced between 1947 and 1955 are the designs for which he is best remembered. Yet his tailored suits, coats, and more understated daywear are equal objects of admiration. In these, his methods of achieving precise fit and resolving volumetric and proportional challenges, as well as his seemingly endless variations on collars, lapels, and sleeves, are most apparent, further signifiers of the range and perfectionism of his art.

Formation of the Charles James Collection at the Brooklyn Museum
Drawn to the Brooklyn Museum’s reputation for teaching and inspiring new design through accessibility to the collections, James selected it to document his career and care for his legacy. Using his prodigious powers of persuasion, he convinced his most important clients and benefactors—Hearst, Rogers, and de Menil among them—to donate and, in some instances, purchase significant designs representing what he referred to as the “corpus” of his work. He is thereby largely responsible for the museum’s definitive holdings—nearly 200 garments and 600 related materials such as patterns, full sewn muslins, dress forms, and sketches. With the transfer of the Brooklyn Museum’s costume collection to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, this extraordinarily rich trove is now part of The Costume Institute’s collection.