The book "The girl with the
pearl earring" by Tracy Chevalier is a historical fiction book about a
girl and her journey of joining a family as a work girl. Griet is a
hard-working girl who had to leave home because of her families' poverty struggle.
She moves into a home where there are many obstacles such as, 6 children. Another
obstacle that she has to endure, are the adults, many for different reasons.
Throughout her work, she becomes part of a wider circle of the family but only
one person accepts her for who she is, the master. The master understands her
love for art and for that he lets her admire his paintings, which no one is
allowed to do. This causes a jealous and unenthusiastic household, which brings
much danger to the Griet, as she is only a maid. But one day, Griet has to step
in to be the 'object' of the painting and this decides her future forever. The
tory takes place at many different times, and we follow the stages of Griet’s
life when she is at most danger or at her highest point. Throughout the story,
we follow the path of Griet, and we are always aware of how her family and her
persevere with her new job.
One way in which Griet shows
perseverance is when she reflects back on her old life and compares it to her
new. "I had walked along that street all my life, but had never been so
aware that my back was to my home." (Chevalier 68.) This quotation
carefully shows the reflection and feelings in which Griet has. She is thinking
about her worries and not only about her actions but also about her emotional
intent. We can tell by her 'reflection tense' that she is feeling guilty of the
way she is acting and that she thinks she is acting in a selfish way. She is
reflecting on the present but also the past, as she makes it clear how her
actions have changed for the worse. We can infer that she is mesmerized by the
thought of the money of her working family but she isn't thinking about her
actual family. She is so caught up in the ‘rich’ world that now she has some
time to think, she realizes whom she had hurt by thinking about these things,
including herself. This makes her believe that she is becoming unaware of her
feelings for her real family and she is feeling ignorance and regret. 'My back'
shows a very strong piece of her body that symbolizes how she is feeling,
'back-stabbing', ignorance and regret. It is a symbol for the emotion that
Griet is feeling and the regret of not being loyal to her own family. It shows
perseverance because it makes us realize how Griet has to become loyal to one
family but not to the other, in order for everyone to benefit.
Another way in which Griet
perseveres with her new life is by respecting her parents' wishes. “I felt as if my parents had pushed me into the
street, that a deal had been made and I was being passed into the hands of a
man. At least he is a good man, I thought, even if his hands are not as clean
as they could be.” (Chevalier 52.) This quotation is very intriguing
because not only does it tell us about her perseverance but also her previous
attitude. It shows how Griet commonly reflects back on her life before working
with the family and how her parent’s have sometimes influenced where she is
now. Her previous attitude shows that she felt useless to her parents and
that they were denying her happiness for money. But then as the story
progresses and as the quote suggests, Griet looks at the positive and just
tries to please her family. This shows perseverance because she is willing to
sacrifice her own happiness to try and make the best out of the position that
she is in. Griet has been thrown into a situation that has expected a lot from
her, and she has tried to deal with the events in a realistic way, even if it
means forgetting someone’s weaknesses and looking at the positivity. The quote above suggests that Greit puts her
parents’ happiness and well being before her own. It shows that she perseveres
with her struggles in order to benefit even if it may hurt her along the way.
She is portrayed as this strong woman but if you really look at everything she
says, we can infer that her situation and the people who are influencing her
are taking her happiness away.
Lastly, we learn how Griet's
family perseveres with the 'new Griet' and the new girl that she has become.
“You know I don’t listen to market gossip,” she began, “but it is hard
not to hear it when my daughter’s name is mentioned.” (Chevalier 134.) This
shows us that Griet's mother, especially, is finding it hard to adapt to
her new daughter's lifestyle. We are shown not just a way that Griet has
to persevere with the new her and her lifestyle but also how other people in
her family who are finding it hard to accept the new Griet. With Griet in a
'rich household', we can infer that her mother seems jealous and just wants her
daughter back. She isn’t jealous of Griet being in a rich house and getting
great care. Although it would seem that she would want this, we are more
commonly shown that Griet’s mother is actually jealous of her daughter’s
working family, and jealous of the fact that they get to see her everyday and
be a ‘mother’ to Griet, where she feels like they are taking away her role as
Griet’s mother. It seems as if Griet hasn't got time for her mother and
therefore, her mother is learning about her through other people. We feel some
sympathy for Griet here because it is showing how she is in the middle of all
this emotion but unaware of everybody’s feelings. We feel sympathy for the
mother because it just seems as if Griet disowns her mother and is taking her
for granted, although this isn’t a common theme in the book. It shows how
Griet’s mother has to persevere with the fact that Griet is growing up and
supporting the family in ways that the mother isn’t, which is another reason
for the jealously that Griet’s mother shows.
In conclusion, 'The girl with the
pearl earring' by Tracy Chevalier, really shows the feelings of others and how
they persevere with the new Griet. There are many different perspectives that
are shown, with different sides and opinions, but in the end, everyone is debating
how they are going to live there life with the new Griet, rather than the old
one. It shows a connection that has been transformed just because of a reason
to get out of poverty. The journey of Griet has changed from just being about
poverty, but now it is about how people have to connect with each other in
order to learn about the reality. This is the underlining topic of the book,
and each person has to persevere while they find out how to stick by Griet and
acknowledge her for who she has become and how she has changed. The book
teaches us that there are many ways to persevere with things, but along the way
you may upset people. It’s just common ground that you have to find and ways
that you are similar to the person and you shouldn’t just dwell on the
differences. In this case, this was Griet and each different one of her family
members took the intuition differently.
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