The Divine Secrets Of The Ya Ya Sisterhood Essay examples -- essays re

Rebecca Wells paints a picture of the various roles that women often must encounter in their lives: mother, daughter, friend. As said by Charlotte Observer "She [Wells] speaks eloquently to what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a wife-and somehow, at last, a person." Wells uses a captivating style to create a simple plot, memorable symbolism and a reoccurring theme of friendship. The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood teaches about the importance of giving and receiving love and finding joy in everyday life. The simplistic plot of the novel and the overall theme of love allows the author to span the lives of the main characters. The reader sees the span of the life of two of the main characters, Sidda and her mother Vivi, as they struggle to love each other based on their own childhood experiences. The reader also sees our two main characters in parallel encountering love and affairs of the heart; yet the most powerful love throughout the book is the love of four friends who stick together through the good and the bad. Vivi loves the Ya-Ya’s; as adolescents they are looking for love and someone to look up to. Vivi didn’t know how to love Sidda because Vivi’s mother didn’t know how to love her; therefore, Sidda doesn’t know how to love Connor because she has never experienced love and is now afraid to be in love. The simplicity of the novel is that everyone is always looking to be loved. The simplicity is that in real life people are always searching to be loved, or finding love. Near the beginning of the novel when the ya-ya’s are in their adolescence as young girls, going through the normal obstacles of childhood- fighting with their parents, getting into mischief, smoking and breaking curfew- they realize that by sticking together they can get through anything. They formalize this bond with a ceremony early on, "I am a member of the royal and true tribe of the Ya-Ya’s†¦I do solemnly swear to be loyal sister Ya-Ya’s, and to love and look out for them, and never forsake them through thick and thin, until I take my last human breath" (Wells 71). Wells shows the reader that the inability to show love can be passed down through generations: Sidda expresses to Connor why she is afraid to marry him, "She [Vivi] didn’t know how to love me, so I don’t know how to love you" (Wells 284). Sidda is saying that her mother couldn’t ... ...and that it really was their friendship that guided them through their whole life. And that together they really were all one. "I see lightness and ease. I see suffering somewhere in my mother’s [Vivi] eyes, but also I feel the camaraderie, laughter, friendship" (Wells 313). The Ya-Ya’s are very much at ease giving love to each other. That is what helped them to sustain their friendship for so long and helped them throughout their lives to love each other. Through the lives of five extraordinary women: Sidda, Vivi, Caro, Necie and Teensy, Wells uses a captivating style to create a simple plot. Memorable symbolism and the reoccurring themes of friendship and love in the novel The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Wells shows the reader that love and friendship, even in the smallest form, can sustain through tragedy and triumph-the bonds of the Ya-Ya’s. Works Cited Primary Source: Wells, Rebecca. The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. New York New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1996. Secondary Source: Wells, Rebecca. The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. New York New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1996.