Christmas Storms and Sunshine by Valentino gomez

The novel called Christmas Storms and Sunshine written by Elizabeth Gaskell is what this essay is going to be about. Before beginning with our main topic of the essay, it is important to have a background on who the author is. Gaskell was a Victorian novelist, also notable for her biography of her friend Charlotte Brontë.
Elizabeth Stevenson was born in London on 29 September 1810, the daughter of a Unitarian minister. After her mother's early death, she was raised by an aunt who lived in Knutsford in Cheshire. In 1832, she married William Gaskell, also a Unitarian minister. However, the death of her only son inspired her to write her first novel, 'Mary Barton', which was published anonymously in 1848. It was an immediate success. Her story Mary Barton is somehow, in my opinion, related to Christmas storms and sunshine since in both we have a character named
Mary and in real life her son was sick and dies as well as in the story, mary hodgsons son gets very ill and is in the point of death.
Gaskell died on 12 November 1865, leaving her longest work, 'Wives and Daughters' incomplete.
Im going to continue with the essay by defining the values of citizenship and commitment. Citizenship is carrying out the duties and responsibilities of a member of a particular society. Commitment is when you put your mind to do something. It is the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity etc.
In this story we could see how two political families fight for a great position in the english newspaper. They are enemies because of their disagreements with politics and between the wives. The men are so commited to their job that it brings conflicts and a lot of other problems too. They both were envious families and that makes us realize that at the beginning of the story there’s no citizenship. But as the story continues, there’s a part where the son of mrs hodgson gets very ill that she has to go to her neighbours house ( the jenkins) and ask for help and advice on what to do. For an instant she did not want to help in any way but then she rethought it and decided to help mrs hodgson out with her kid. I thought to myself at that very exact moment that mrs jenkins would not help her nor her son out since she was always complaining about how the hodgsons had a son and they didn’t, how they only had a cat. She used to always show envy and jealousy towers the success of the other family, as a family and as workers. It was a bit surprising seeing an act if kindness coming from her part but it was a good thing as well. Mrs jenkins cat enters the hodgsons apartment and eats mr hodgsons plate of food that was on the table in their kitchen. At the beginning it was a mess because they got very mad about it but then the Jenkins visit the hodgsons with some food to show that they are sorry about what their cat did. It was an act to make the other family forgive them for what their baby cat had done and it also showed empathy to the readers.
This part of the story shows citizenship, as them being neighbours to help each other out and forgive. They were being kind and nice to each other for a change and the story ends with them having a peaceful Christmas dinner together and enjoying their moments as two completely different families but with pure positivity.

The Christmas storms by Valentino Gomez

To begin this essay, and to compare or relate the values of caring and patience to the story “The Lady of Shallot”, it is important for us to know the definition of these two important values. Patience is the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious. It is when you can maintain yourself calm even if something happening around you bothers you. While the value of caring is when you feel or show worry, kindness or concern about someone that might or might not be special to you. Now in the story “The Lady of Shallot” i could only find patience in the lady and care in sir Lancelot. To begin with why i found patience in the lady of shallot is because she was a young woman who was imprisoned all by herself in an island called Shallot. It is an island near a place called Camelot. She was cursed and was held there for a long while weaving a magical web. I believe she has patience because she had to go through all of that on her own. She could not look at the outside world but could only see what was happening throughout a mirror that she had in the room she was in; that mirror reflected what was going on from the outside. She could see Camelot just through there and through some shadows that passed by. I believe it is a very boring life and she had was patient about it because she knew that if she looked directly at the outside world the curse she had would be activated and she could possibly die. I believe she doesn’t care about herself since her curiosity made her look at the outside when she shouldn’t have. A man called sir Lancelot got her attention and that was when she peeked on the reality world. She had to take a look at something that was real and not just a reflection through the mirror.  She left the place where she was imprisoned and got on a boat and swam away in the river with a long white dress. She did suffer a lot in that place and that’s why i mentioned she was patient enough but if she cared about herself she would not have looked outside to Camelot since she knew what the consequences to that act where. At the end of the story sir Lancelot, the man that captivated her eye and the man that lead to the curse being activated ran up to her because he saw her body lying on that boat. He and the people that were around the river at the moment went up to her since there was a body lying there. She froze dead from the breezy weather. What sir Lancelot did showed care, even if he did not know who that lady was, he went up to her to see what was going on and said or thought to himself that she had a beautiful face.