Overlooking the Cults of Cell One

In "Cell One" I found it interesting that, while his family was very aware of the many questionable actions of Nnamabia, it was his younger sister who was scolded or just simply ignored. I first really realized how much the mother especially held Nnamabia on a pedestal when Adichie talks about the person in the supermarket asking why she wasted her fair skin on a boy and left the girl so dark. The rest of that paragraph goes on to explain how Nnamabia was forgiven, or never punished in the first place, for his many misdemeanors. I feel like the author is only further emphasizing the "good" connotation that goes along with white skin.

Both the parents found a way to rationalize all of Namibia's actions, like when he stole the test answers and sold them, the parents said he needed more spending money instead of showing him it was wrong to steal the answers for profit. This leaves me to believe that jail was a much needed experience because it made Nnamabia realized that people are not invincible and that includes him. After seeing the man getting beaten and taken advantage of, I think it humbled him.

There is a pattern of what I suppose is "purposeful ignorance" because the entire town seems to be aware of the thieves and the cults, and yet they simply hide in their houses and pretend like it isn't their neighbors that are killing people and breaking into their houses. They even say that they know who the thieves are, but if they know then why do they let them get away with it? Is it just because they are always the attractive, popular boys? The narrator even admits having a crush on the boy who broke into her house. The mothers passive attitude and the narrators invisibility only acts to strengthen the male dominated attitude of "Cell One."

Mrs. Slade's Frailty of Identity

For the majority of the story the reader is positioned directly behind Mrs. Slade. Her perspective is easily the most dominant, and her thoughts the most pronounced. This dominance seems to translate into a sort of strength of will and character that reflects positively on Mrs. Slade. Her wit and intellect are displayed in the conversation that she almost single-handedly maintains with her companion Mrs. Ansley. All this constructs a weak facade that struggles to hide the true nature of her character and the life that she has lived. The reality is that Alida Slade is a immensely lonely and unfulfilled woman. 

Mrs. Slade does not shy away from the grimness of her current situation. She is fully cognizant of her idleness as a result of the passing of her husband, and the irritating perfection of her daughter that leaves her with nothing and no one to attend to. However, I would argue that her idleness after the death of her husband is not full extent of her despair, it is merely a symptom of a much larger crisis of identity that can be traced before she ever laid eyes on her husband. The manner in which she describes her relationship with her late husband is the first indicator of her weak sense of self. In the passage where she describes her life with her husband, she labels herself as, "the wife of the famous corporation lawyer", thereby linking their two identities together for lack of confidence in her own. The absence of love or sentimentality for her husband as a person, rather than a position or symbol, in her description of her marriage suggest that their relationship was more means for Slade to distinguish herself as a person. Again we see this weakness of identity in her vicious defense of her engagement with her husband. The fact that the two were engaged was, for her, not enough to ensure the solidity of their relationship, instead she felt she needed to meddle and fake a love letter to Grace from her fiance. At first glance, this seems to be an angry warning solely meant to humiliate her "friend", but Slade briefly alludes to a more malicious goal. Earlier in their conversation, Mrs. Slade refers to a story that Mrs. Ansley had once told her about an Aunt that sent her sister out at night to gather a specific flower for her collection, and consequently the sister dies from the titular fever. After bringing this up, Mrs. Slade eerily remarks, "But she really sent her their because they were in love with the same man." The parallels betweens the that story and their own, giveaway Mrs. Slades honest intent when she sent Mrs. Ansley out in the cold night on the premise of meeting with her fiance. She was aware of Ansley's frail health and wanted to exploit her love for her husband to inflict more than mere humiliation. She wanted pure, physical harm to be done. This rather story-book evil behavior, again, reflects the flimsy nature of her identity. She lets her character be a reflection of her envy for Ansley, rather than something that she has independently defined.

By recognizing Mrs. Slade's frailty of character, one will also recognize that her issue after the death of her husband is an existential crisis that is manifesting itself as boredom. This is why she refuses to let go the drama between her and Ansley decades prior. She is still fighting to preserve this decaying identity that she has built up all her life, and despite all her efforts, it crumbles between her beautifully cared-for hands.

Corruption in Nigeria

Chimamanda Ngozi's short story Cell One is a powerful story that gives us an idea of corruption in Nigeria. In the story, Nnamabia fears being sent to cell one because prisoners are sometimes beaten to death there. According to the Transparency International Movement, 41 percent of Nigerians consider the health and medical services corrupt. A top corruption case in Nigeria is Alhaji Maina who is accused of mopping up pension funds from banks and depositing the money in his private accounts.

Government One

In "Cell One" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a young man is put in jail and jokingly makes a remark that the country should be run the same way the cell is run. Over the course of his stay, he changes as a human being. He enters the cell a confident and cocky teenager, and when the time comes, he leaves a solemn and sober young man. 

It could be interpreted that he grew up at last and that what he needed was some consequences for his actions, proving the benefits of the prison system.

I think that it's because he realized that the country is run the same way as the cell, and that the system is not as nice as he first thought it to be. 

There is a hierarchy of extremity of the cells, all leading up to Cell One, where inmates (inmates' corpses, actually) are made examples of to all the other cells. 

All of society's problems are locked up, abused, and ignored.

It all becomes apparent to Nnamabia, the young inmate, when an ill old man is thrown in jail and abused for something his son was guilty of, simply because he was available and his son was not. Nnamabia is shocked and negatively impressed over this, as he is forced to understand the horrible system that is prison, as well as government.

He tries to help the old man, and is punished further, sending him to Cell One.

He was lucky to leave Cell One alive, but he left it as a different human, more aware of the horrors of the world.

Hidden Identities

At the start of Roman Fever, I didn't completely understand the direction the story was heading. The two characters were obvious enough, but their relationship and the reason they were in Rome was a bit vague and unimportant. Furthermore, the time period of the story was also hard to gauge. The language was modern enough, but the demeanors of the women seemed to fit the era of the early-to-mid twentieth century. But as the story unfolded, I began to realize that the setting and era were not the key components necessary to understand the point of the writing.
The way the author created each character's voice was as interesting as it was contrasting. Mrs. Slade had a very active voice, and the reader could always understand her exact feelings and thoughts on a subject. On the other hand, Mrs. Ansley was reserved not only externally, but her thoughts were as quiet as her vocal responses. The women seemed to be opposite each other in almost every aspect. By writing in such vastly different tones and mindsets, the author was able to create a friction within the text that paralleled the rising tension between the women.
The climax of the story was when Slade was at her peak of anger and Ansley was wrought with what seemed to be grief. But when Ansley cooly stated that she had Barbara- that was the line epitomized everything the story was trying to encompass. The line was simple, yet it held so many complexities to each character, most of which neither will every understand.

Mass Incarceration and Cell One

Cell One is a very well written story and overall I very much enjoyed it. The way Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes makes you feel like you are actually in the narrators shoes. She just makes you feel sorry the for what happens the family.

But, she also sheds light on some very important problems in not only our country but in many others around the world too: the problem of mass incarceration and violence within prisons. With her story, she helps shed light on a problem that is not often thought about in everyday life.

A Good Country Character Analysis

Good Country People is a story about some country people who are not so good. Flannery O'Connor pulls readers in and immerses them in her story with concise wording and deeply rooted background information. The story centers around four characters: Hulga, Manley Pointer, Mrs. Hopewell, and Mrs. Freeman. O’Connor establishes parallels between Hulga and her mother and also between Mrs. Freeman and Manly Pointer. Hulga and Mrs. Hopewell are two very different people, but they are similar in the sense that they both believe that the world is much simpler than it actually is. Hulga lives as if there is no meaning to life beyond what one can see on the surface, which why she remakes her entire image after she loses her leg and why she does not believe in God. She believes that there is nothing defining her life except for her deformity. Mrs. Hopewell’s world is one where everything has to operate a certain way in order to be “correct.” She says that “everybody is different” and that “nothing is perfect,” but she is unable to bring herself to accept Hulga’s disability because Hulga does not fit into a world where cliches function as truth. While their worldviews are drastically different, the fact that they see the world as black and white and expect things to be tailored to their lives make them very similar. On the other hand, Mrs. Freeman and Manly Pointer are both perceived by Mrs. Hopewell to be good, even innocent, country people, but in fact, they are both very shrewd. If Hulga and Mrs. Hopewell are blind to the ways of the world, Mrs. Freeman and Manly Pointer are their opposites. To drive this point home, O’Connor gives Mrs. Freeman some similar traits to Pointer, such as a strange fascination with Hulga’s wooden leg. At the end of the story, Pointer reveals to Hulga that he is not as simple as she believed and that he was a con artist, leaving Hulga literally stripped of everything she once was. Then, in the last few paragraphs, Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman are talking and Mrs. Freeman says “some people can’t be that simple,” and “I know I never could.” Implying that she is not as good as Mrs. Hopewell makes her out to be.

Defining a Good Person

In our class discussion of the short story "Cell One", one of the most interesting questions asked was if Nnamabia was a good person or if he became a good person after his experience in jail. It was evident that Nnamabia struggled before going to jail because he stole his mother's jewelry. When he goes to jail, I felt like he had a snobbish attitude towards his family when they visited him. These actions portray him as a bad person. However, as the story continues, there is the argument that he stands up for the old man in jail. He even sacrifices his safety because he is sent to Cell One. Does the one experience Nnamabia had in jail with the old man make him a good person? I think it shows that he has some good characteristics, but it does not demonstrate him as an overall good person. Also, since his sister is telling the story we only get her persepctive on his actions. While it seems that she thinks he is a good person, I believe he is still has his flaws and does not deserve to be labelled as a good person.

Should we run Countries like Prisons?

"If we ran Nigeria like this cell, we would have no problems."
This quote from Cell One stood out to me and I changed my opinion on it as the story progressed. When Nnamabia first made this statement I had yet to read about how violent and degrading prison life at Enugu was. I knew there was police/guard brutality, but there seemed to be more violence and chaos outside the prison so Nnamabia's idea seemed rational.

However as the story continued it became clear that people at Enugu were being killed every day and everyone there was a victim of both physical and mental abuse. This is when the quote started to bother me. If Nigeria were ran like the prison, sure it might be more organized, but the amount of violence occurring probably wouldn't change. People would continue to live in fear and if the cults were less active it would be because of violence inflicted on citizens by a higher power.

Nnamabia made the statement about running Nigeria like the cell before he knew the extent of what occurred in the prison. Yet he couldn't have been totally ignorant about what was going on so I'm surprised that he believed that no problems would arise if the country was actually run this way.

When in Rome...

Words can hardly describe my love for "Roman Fever" by Edith Wharton. This story, this little slice of fictitious cake, consists of nothing but the purest drama a lover of literature can find. Reading this story is like listening in on the greatest wine mom gossip you've ever listened in on. Reading this story is like drinking the concentrated juice of the juiciest scoop that the guy who's got the dirt on everyone ever dished out. "Roman Fever" is like manifesting the very concept of "guilty pleasures" into a short snippet of great literature. It's the ultimate 411 to end all other 411's. It's enough to make any half-decent scuttlebutt tear up with pure, unadulterated joy. Simply put, "Roman Fever" is the hottest goss to ever grace the canon of short American literature.

From the very start, you can tell that this dirt is gonna be good. The story begins with two women, Slade and Ansley, who see one another "through the wrong end of her little telescope," as the author says. It's clear that each entirely misinterprets the other. By the end of the story, we find out that: a) Slade's husband cheated on her with Ansley, b) Slade wrote the letter that set up Ansley's date with her husband, with the intention of Ansley getting sick from the cold, and c) that by doing so, Slade inadvertently arranged the conception of Barbara, Ansley's daughter that she's so envious of.

Like I said - some super high quality dirt.

When I read the story for a second time, I was amazed by the hints Wharton left for the reader. In the beginning of part II, Slade says, "I always wanted a brilliant daughter... and never quite understood why I got an angel instead," to which Ansley responds, "Babs is an angel too." This is our first hint that Barbara and Jenny (Slade's daughter) shared the same father.

The second big hint to Barbara's parentage is when Slade recounts that "...you were married to Horace Ansley two months afterward [after the affair with Slade's husband] ...As soon as you could get out of bed your mother rushed you off to Florence and married you." This is implying that Ansley's mother was in a hurry for her to get married because she was already pregnant with Barbara.

The beauty of this story is that in the beginning, it seems that Slade has all the information. She has the upper hand when she reveals to Ansley that she wrote the letter Ansley believed to be from Delphin. However, Ansley soon reveals that she in fact is the one with more information. The power dynamic slowly but very decidedly shifts from one woman to another. Because of the hints Wharton worked into her dialogue, the reader guesses what Ansley is withholding from Slade (namely, that Barbara is Delphin's daughter) before Slade ever finds out. This creates an interesting situation where Slade thinks that she is in power when both Ansley and the reader know that the opposite is true.

"Roman Fever" is ripe with irony of all sorts. Wharton creates dramatic irony when she allows the reader to guess at the secret of Barbara's parentage, although the most ironic element is the fact that Slade accidentally enabled the affair that she wanted to end and caused the conception of the girl she's so envious of.

Ansley obviously follows that age old saying: When in Rome, do it in the Colosseum. 

No White Hats

Can something be bad and good at the same time? Can we give justification to horrible actions? What does it take to change a person? Cell One by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie raises all of these questions yet leaves it to the reader to come up with an answer.

The story takes place in Nigeria, a country known for its high rates of crime.  Although he is the son of a well-to-do and educated family, Nnamabia is not a model citizen of Nigeria. He is a thief, a liar, a cult (gang) member, and maybe even a murderer. Nothing his family does seems to make him change his ways. So what does it take?

After a shooting occurs on a university campus, Nnamabia is imprisoned for possible involvement. But the police are no better than the gangs. They humiliate, beat, and even kill prisoners.

However, it is exactly this injustice that eventually has an impact on Nnamabia and changes him in a way that his parents never could.

After witnessing an innocent elderly father get beaten and humiliated by the prison guards for a crime committed by his son, Nnamabia speaks up. Annoyed at his audacity, the guards cease Nnamabia and take him to the notorious "Cell One" -- where many prisoners emerged only as corpses. When Nnamabia is finally released, he is bruised, beaten, and mentally changed.

So was this injustice justifiable? In the end one could argue that it was. After all Nnamabia was finally changed.

Mrs. Slade, Mrs. Ansley, and the Pursuit of Superiority

I think that the short story "Roman Fever" is built on the concept of binary opposition. Both Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley are essentially fighting over who is the subject and who is the object in the situation. Mrs. Slade makes herself believe that she was the crazy, more vivid of the two. She sees this as a way of establishing herself as the superior individual of the two. Mrs. Ansley, however, admits that Mrs. Slade is "...awfully brilliant; but not as brilliant as she thinks"on page 45, showing that though she believes her friend is a great individual, but also hints at the fact that Mrs. Slade has a bloated ego. Mrs. Ansley also adds that she believes that Mrs. Slade has had a sad life "full of failures and mistakes" on page 46, which demonstrates that Mrs. Ansley still believes she is superior to Mrs. Slade. Through this battle to be the subject, not the object of the relationship causes the affair fiasco to be released in order to help Mrs. Slade feel better about herself. Instead of doing this, however, the whole situation actually shows that Mrs. Ansley was equal to Mrs. Slade as she slept with Delphin, Mrs. Slade's husband. Through all their quarreling they fail to recognize they can both be subjects, as they are very much equals.

Nnamabia Doesn't Stand a Chance

In class we were discussing whether we thought Nnamabia was generally a good person or if he only became one after his experience in jail. I feel very conflicted about this. Nnamabia did steal from his own family and he knew he would be hurting his mother by doing so, but he did it anyway. However, I would blame his mischevious behavior on his living situation. People learn what is right and what is wrong as kids from their parents. Nnamabia never learned what was wrong because every time he broke the rules or did something bad, he was never reprimanded for it. Excuses were always made by his mother for his troublesome behavior. Additionally, his parents always wanted to see the best in him. For example, when Nnamabia was asked if he was in a cult he said "Of course not." His father believed him, but yet Nnamabia eventually ended up being arrested for belonging to a cult.

I think this quote supports this argument very well. When they are releasing Nnambia from jail the policeman said "You cannot raise your children properly-all of you people who feel important because you work at the university-and when your children misbehave you think they should not be punished. You are lucky they released him"(41).

I would like to think Nnamabia became a better person after what he experienced in jail. However, it is hard to tell because the story ends right after he gets released. I think being in jail made Nnamabia more mature. He was the only person to speak up and defend the old man. This was very surprising of Nnamabia to do because throughout the story he is described as a character who is selfish and self-absorbed. For once he put someone else first and became a man in the process.

Mutual Recognition in Roman Fever

      First of all, this story gave me such a shock! Edith Wharton was actually able to make a conversation between two (seemingly) boring middle-aged women exciting. And, aside from being engaged by the plot twists at the end of the story, I also found myself ensnared in Roman Fever due to Wharton's use of the theme of mutual recognition throughout the story.

     The two main characters in Roman Fever, Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade, have huge issues with mutual recognition. A big part of the story hinges on the fact that neither of these women view each other as much of anything aside from a stereotype. The both recognize this on page 44, when the narrator of the story says "for a few moments, the two ladies, who had been intimate since childhood, reflected how little they knew each other". The two women don't know each other past the surface of their personalities, and therefore neither of the two fully recognizes the other as an intelligent, thoughtful human being (although Mrs. Slade is much more guilty of failure to mutually recognize than Mrs. Ansley). Mrs. Slade's lack of mutual recognition for Mrs. Ansely is demonstrated when Mrs. Ansley reveals that she wrote a letter back to Mrs. Slade's fiancé. Mrs. Slade was shocked, because she never thought that Mrs. Ansley would reply to her fake letter. This shows that Mrs. Slade never really thought of Mrs. Ansley as an equal, because she was completely caught off guard when Mrs. Ansely did something many other people would do in that situation. Mrs. Ansley also fails to completely mutually recognize Mrs. Slade. Mrs. Ansley always thought of Mrs. Slade's life as sad, and felt sorry for her because she had many failures and mistakes in her life. Mrs. Ansley views Mrs. Slade through a narrow window, and doesn't give her life any credit; Mrs. Slade had plenty of joy in her life, and viewing her life as a failure is very shallow of Mrs. Ansley.

     I found the lack of mutual recognition in this story to be very realistic and engrossing. Roman Fever made me realize that even people who have been friends for years might not actually be true friends; it is very easy to be friends with someone and not truly recognize them as an individual. Just something to think about.

  

If the Pirates and Buccaneers All Got Along, They'd Probably Gun Me Down by the End of this Blog

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie crafts a dynamic story that speaks to many characteristics important to discuss in our contemporary society today. Adichie crafts the story of a boy named Nnambia in a University town in Nigeria. The story is told through the perspective of Nnambia's sister who serves as an interesting narrator recounting the change she sees in her brother as he enters and leaves prison. "Cell One" is littered with topics such as corruption, youth, familial relationships, and redemption. Yet the topic that captivating me was the pervasive nature of Western culture.

In this day and age, communication between people is limitless. Through radio, TV, and media, continents and cultures feel closer than ever. Yet with this, media has a greater impact around the world than I believe most people realize. This is explored in "Cell One". In the story, the narrator introduces the presence of the West felt by Nigeria through showing that the materials stolen from their house in the initial robbery were the "Purple Rain" and "Thriller" videotapes that Nnambia's father had brought from America. Additionally, the narrator states the effect American rap videos had on the university students causing "swagger" to course through their veins and commencing the season of gang like "cults". The violence that occurs in the town are horrific. "It was so abnormal that it quickly became normal" (p.34). The violence that occurs escalates to almost mirror the same violence the students see in their rap videos. And its ridiculous. Adichie does a great job showing this large presence Western culture holds to those around the world by showing the events of her Nigerian University city. 

Nnamabia: Good Person or Not?

In our discussion of Cell One, one of the big questions was whether Nnamabia was a good person at the beginning of the story or just at the end. I believe the answer is neither. At the beginning of the story we are given examples of how he robs the family, breaks a window in his classroom, sells exam answers to his father's students, and attempts to make his own key to the family car. I think that part of the problem here is that his mother refuses to punish him, but I believe his constant rule-breaking shows he isn't a good person at the beginning of the story. At the end, one major argument for his becoming a good person is referencing his helping the old man and refusal to dramatize his experiences in jail. The former is harder to argue against, but I believe even the worst people can have moments of humanity. As for the latter, I would say he is broken by his experiences in jail and doesn't wish to relive them.

Nnamabia and The Reality of Death

Situation 1: A school campus, struggling to function under the terrorism of the numerous cults it provides a home too. Nnamabia is, in a word, indifferent. He scoffs at the police's efforts to contain the violence, even seeing humor in the situation. Skipping forward in time, we as the reader are told about an incident in which four cult members stole a teachers car at gun point, killed three students, and drove off. Nnamabia's response is to go out drinking.

Situation 2: Nnamabia is now in prison, where he witnesses an old man - jailed for a crime his son committed - mercilessly bullied by the guards and forced to parade naked in the hall in exchange for water to clean himself. When Nnamabia's family comes to visit, they find their son in an emotional state that was completely unfamiliar to him. He's virtually silent, and refuses to eat the meal they have prepared for him, insisting  that some of it is saved for the old man. His entire persona has flipped, or perhaps it's just been shattered.

So question that we have to ask is why? Why does the oppression of the innocent suddenly affects him at such a deep emotional level? Why is only now sinking in? Personally, I attribute this shift to the power of the aftermath. In the first situation, Nnamabia's exposure to the cult violence was primarily through second hand stories and quick glimpses of bodies before they're taken away. But in prison, he is subjected to the entire process. That is the process of breaking a person, both physically and mentally. When he sees the old man reduced to nothing more than twisted entertainment for the guards, all in the hopes of getting something as simple as soap, the reality of the situation finally is finally realized. It shakes the very foundation of his world view, so much so that he is barely recognizable to those who only knew his former self. For better or worse, prison changed him.

Roman Fever Reactions

I thought that Roman Fever was an incredible story. While I was reading it, I was wondering what the main part of the story was going to be. It didn't really have any conflict until the way end besides Mrs. Slade being kind of snippy and thinking mean things. When Mrs. Slade finally confronted Mrs. Ansley, I didn't really think there was anything special about it until the last line. When Mrs. Slade tells Mrs. Ansley that she doesn't begrudge her for that one night with her husband because she had him for 25 years and Mrs. Ansley only had one night, Mrs. Ansley pauses and then says, "I had Barbara." I laughed out loud when I read this. It was such a perfect ending: not only did it reveal that Barbara is Mrs. Ansley's and Delphin's child, but it left us hanging. We are left only to imagine how Mrs. Slade reacted and what happened next between the two women.

I was glad when I read this because Mrs. Slade was being really annoying throughout the whole story. She was so bitter about something that she had caused even when she thought she had triumphed and had left Mrs. Slade waiting in the colosseum the whole night, but in reality Delphin had met with Mrs. Ansley and then they had a kid together. Also she sent her friend there knowing that Roman Fever was killing a lot of people and that she might catch it and die--what a horrible person. I didn't like Mrs. Slade and am glad that the story ended the way it did.

Adichie's Dark Side

I thought that "Cell One" was an incredible story. The plot was very interesting and intriguing, and I kept wanting to read. Adichie's use of words is always so great; she knows how to put words together in a way different from anything else I have ever read. As much as I loved "Cell One", I thought it was such a dark, dark story. The story was so morose and sad, I was almost surprised that it was written by Adichie.

I read Adichie's book Americanah for summer reading this past summer. Though that book had some sad parts, it was nothing close to how dark and sad "Cell One" was. Americanah was sad in different ways: the main character not being able to get a job in America or her relationships with guys. It was nothing about abuse or the Nigerian prison system. Of course, these are too different stories, but a lot of the time author's books are similar in a lot of ways, whereas with these two, there were similarities, but at the same time, they were so, so different from each other. Everything else I've read or heard from Adichie normally has an uplifting part to it, whereas there was not a lot of that in "Cell One". I just found it strange, but also interesting that the two stories by the same author could be so different from each other.

Awfully brilliant... but not as brilliant as she thinks.

In "Roman Fever," by Edith Wharton, Mrs. Ansley's description of Mrs. Slade is "Alida Slade's awfully brilliant, but not as brilliant as she thinks." Mrs. Slade's assumptions about herself and Mrs. Ansley slowly unravel over the course of the story until they're absolutely shattered. Mrs. Slade is "vivid," and she knows it. Mrs. Ansley is respectable, distinguished... boring. How terribly sad for her. No, wait. Charming and distinguished Mrs. Ansley had slept with Mrs. Slade's fiance, gotten pregnant, and then hurriedly married Horace Ansley two months later.

Mrs. Slade is clearly wrong about Mrs. Ansley-- is she wrong about herself as well? Mrs. Ansley certainly agrees with Mrs. Slade's description of herself as edgy/vivid/full of life. But, for the few moments we see her perspective, she says that "on the whole [Mrs. Slade] had had a sad life. Full of failures and mistakes; Mrs. Ansley had always been rather sorry for her..."

Failures and mistakes? Well, as far as I can tell:

• Mrs. Slade's husband was perfectly willing to cheat on her as her fiance, and easily could have been having affairs throughout their supposedly admirable marriage
• Regardless of her husband's theoretical affairs, she still enjoyed the entertaining and traveling the world that came with his job, and after he died she was left with nothing to do
• Her son had died as a child
• She doesn't understand or relate to her daughter

Also,

• Her friend, who she evidently barely knew at all despite going back for years, slept with her fiance and had his child. One would hope she has better friends than that, but it's possible that nearly all her relationships are that superficial. 

Mrs. Slade's thoughts on the surface seem to indicate a mostly happy life marred with a few tragedies, but a closer examination shows that there's a lot more wrong hiding under the surface than she's willing to admit.