The Writer As Explorer

Griet leaves the Vermeer home to find who her true self can be. Marrying Pieter, becoming with child, and working at the meat hall, are all things Greit bears in her everyday life (Chevalier 187). Though she loves the simple little life she has created, a part of her will always be at the Vermeer […]

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Throughout this story a theme of life and death arises. I mostly realized this theme when reading about Agnes’s death and the birth of Franciscus. Griets town is struck with the plague and her sister, Agnes passes away. This shows a stark contrast in the plot line. As Griet’s family shrinks and loses a member, […]

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As a character, Griet is so well written, the more I read it the more I learned just how clever she is. One of her most amazing abilities is her affinity for colors and her frankly unexplained ability to identify what a painting is missing. For example; in the opening scene, when questioned about her […]

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Tracy Chevalier’s Girl With a Pearl Earring accomplishes something with its writing that few authors have truly mastered. It exemplifies color and vivid imagery through words in such a way that we can practically see them in front of us. Chevalier uses language that—no pun intended—paints the scene before us. She dedicates such time and care […]

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Griet’s and Vermeer’s Relationship Since a majority of the book focuses on Griet and Vermeer’s relationship, it’s only right to speak on it. Griet and Vermeer’s relationship as the story progresses becomes more complex in my opinion and it’s something that makes you uncomfortable as you read more. However, what I notice from the beginning is that the […]

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Griet is a shy, quiet young lady who has many honest thoughts and deep feelings. A girl of short words and a strong work ethic. Greit becomes the maid for a wealthier family, wealthier than hers, yet poor in love, opposite of her family. From a young age, Griet had always been around art. She […]

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On her website, Tracy Chevalier describes the inspiration for Girl With A Pearl Earring: I was lying in bed one morning, idly contemplating a poster that hung across from me of the Vermeer painting Girl With a Pearl Earring. I’d had the poster since I was 19 and first discovered the painting. As I pondered […]

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In the beginning of Girl With A Pearl Earring we are introduced to Griet and her family, but the one who intrigued me most in referral to potential parallels and how class can influence interpretation was Griet’s father, a master painter of Delft tiles. Unlike Vermeer, who we can see throughout the story as a man […]

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Themes within the 16th century Reformation is a key piece to Tracy Chevalier’s Girl With A Pearl Earring. Historically, The Reformation of this time is credited to splitting Western Christianity into two different practices: Roman Catholics and Protestants. While both originating with Christianity, these two different practices expected different from their church. Separating the church in such […]

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When I look at the first third of Tracy Chevalier’s The Girl with a Pearl Earring, I see a masterclass in carefully crafting historical fiction. As a writer, it’s impossible not to appreciate Chevalier’s deliberate choices in setting, characterization, and narrative voice, all of which contribute to the novel’s immersive quality and ability to transport […]

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The first time that I read “Soir Bleu” by Robert Olen Butler, I had a hard time understanding the plot of the story. Upon a second read through, I realized that the emotional depth of the story far outweighed the slightly strange plot. When I first read the piece, I had been bored until Pierrot […]

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Michael Connelly’s “Nighthawks” dives deeply into several important themes, with systemic corruption and personal integrity standing out as central concerns. These themes are intricately interwoven throughout the novel, providing a rich landscape for analysis. Systemic corruption is a major theme in “Nighthawks.” The murder case at the novel’s center involves a high-profile individual, bringing issues […]

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Robert Olen Butler places us inside the eyes of Vachon, an artist visiting Nice to paint and sell his finished illustrations. Being both in the first-person and present tense, “Soir Bleu” keeps the reader locked in Vachon’s real-time perception of the world around him. Settling ourselves into the painter’s mind, his thoughts toward his lover, Solange, […]

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Through reading “Girlie Show” I encountered a wonderfully written story that addressed numerous societal concerns. Firstly, the mentions of domestic violence play a large role in this tale. From Pauline’s perspective we feel the weight of a loathsome marriage. Her husband, Wade, uses her as a model for his painting while telling her, “You’re not […]

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  Soir Bleu is a story of obsession and revenge. Butler is careful when crafting the inner thoughts of our narrator, who himself represents deep obsession and desire.  The narrator is in close proximity to Solange, who he feels some sort of ownership over. He credits himself as her “savior” and is obsessed with the image he […]

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“Girlie Show” by Megan Abbot covers a wide variety of topics, from the classic 1940’s housewife culture, sexuality, independence, and relationships between women. I particularly wish to focus on the history that is mentioned and teased throughout this story, working as its framework. The painting which inspired this work was done in 1941, the same […]

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