Anne Rice A Fascinating Story Essays - Anne Rice, Existentialists

Anne Rice: A Fascinating Story Because of her fascination with the supernatural, her life in New Orleans, and her daughter's death, Anne Rice exhibits powerful and dark emotions in her writings. Anne Rice's family life was not always a happy one. Her family was one of the lower middle class, struggling to make it. Katherine, her mother, became stressed over keeping a household and took to drinking. (Ramsland, 41) Anne's mom continued this habit throughout her life. I feel that this drinking had a major effect on Anne's writing style. Anne's books are full of vivid detail. They are written as if they were seen through the eyes of a drunk. Lamz 2 Anne's mother continued drinking until the day of her death in 1956. (Ramsland, 383) Katherine's death hit her daughter very hard. Since her mother had died, Anne had to become a mother to her two younger sisters, Tamara and Karen. Anne hated to assume this role and looked for a way out. Her father gave this to her in the form of St. Joseph Academy, a boarding school. (Ramsland, 53) This was not a very good solution considering how much Anne hated the school. She cried every night for about a year, and would later write about her experiences an a novel, The Witching Hour. When Anne became sixteen her father remarried. Howard(Anne's father) and his new wife, Dorothy, decided to move to Texas to follow Howard's' work. This decision shocked Anne and she was very opposed; the move still took place. At her new school, Anne met a boy named Stan Rice. Stan was very involved with poetry and he and Anne instantly hit it off. Stan had an influence on Anne like no other person had. He was the first boy she kissed which was an experience she wrote about in Lamz 3 her second novel, The Feast of All Saints- here is the excerpt. (Ramsland, 60) Richard had kissed Marie and she had never felt a sensation akin to what she'd experienced when he was holding her lightly, gently, as if he might break her, in his arms. His hands had spread out firmly against her back, pressing her to his chest so that the buttons of his frock coat had touched her breasts. And when that had happened, a shock had passed through her, so keenly pleasurable that she had let her head fall back, her lips apart, and felt that shock's consummation in one shuddering instant as his lips pressed against hers. . . She had been obliterated in that instant, everything she had ever been taught had been obliterated, all that she was before had simply gone away. In 1961 Stan proposed to Anne by telegram. She accepted, and on October fourteenth they were married. (Ramsland, 383) Anne and Stan began experimenting with drugs as a way to express emotions Lamz 4 more fully, and to appreciate themselves more. Anne shows this new outlook on life (that of being ?high?) as a way to experience things like none other. Such an experience is the way a vampire first sees the world when he becomes a vampire. Here is an outtake of Interview With the Vampire that shows this new vision. (Ramsland, 96) It was as if I had only just been able to see colors and shapes for the first time. I was so enthralled with the buttons on Lestat's black coat that I looked at nothing else for a long time. . . When I saw the moon on the flagstones, I became so enamored with it that I must have spent over an hour there . . . and with my awakened senses, I had to preside over the death of my body . . . I simply regret I was not more attentive to the process. This excerpt is the way the main character in Interview With the Vampire, Louis, sees the world through his ?Vampire Eyes?. After smoking marijuana and experimenting with LSD for about a year Anne had a disturbing vision. She began wondering what happens when a person dies and if that person knows they are dead. Lamz 5 (Ramsland, 100) She was on the verge of insanity for several months, but recovered by not using drugs. She started a new job and her life improved, then she became pregnant.(Ramsland, 103) Anne was very happy about becoming pregnant, and looked forward to becoming a mother. Her daughter was born Michele