Ashes By Kfeffer Summary

When Lori and Jeanette are growing older, they decide they want to move to New York City to start a new life, away from their parents. Lori and Jeanette get jobs and begin to earn money. They hide their earnings from their parents in a piggy bank they named Oz. One day Jeanette tries to find Oz to put her paycheck in. Instead she says to Lori “Someone has slashed him apart with a knife and stole all the money” (Walls 228). The kids knew right away who had stolen it. It was Dad. When Lori confronted Dad with the news about Oz, he started playing dumb, acting like he had not idea what was going on. But in fact he did steal the money. This action shows that Dad is very selfish and only cares about himself.

The story begins with young and pure love between Noah and Allie—Noah is a working class individual, while Allie is an upper class privileged girl. Their stories had many ups and downs from the moment it began. Both characters have different social status, as well as different families and therefore parenting styles. Allie’s parents follow more of an authoritarian parenting style. Which means that they are the sole ones who make decisions regarding anything that has to do with her. She does not have a voice when it comes to deciding what she would like to do. Her parents knew Noah was a good boy but he was not for her since he was not high on the economic ladder. On the other hand Noah’s parents were more authoritative, they made him have a word in regards to his life. They respected his decisions and supported him as well as everyone who was in close circle with him. Allie also has social pressures on her placed by her friends. Social pressures are pressures brought on by society, they are so strong that they cause you to take measures that might not be what you would like. In Allie’s case it would be getting forced into leaving Noah, knowing he was her one and only consummate love. Consummate love is the love we all search for in life. It contains intimacy, passion and commitment. After Allie took this big decision of leaving Noah, both of their lives changed

This is shown by the quote “When dad was not telling us all about the amazing things he had already done, he was telling us about the wondrous things he was going to do” (Walls 25). She had faith in her father’s extraordinary ideas, but denied the fact that the life her parents provided for her was harmful to her physical and emotional health. This is shown by the quote “I told my dad I would never loose faith in him, and I promised myself that I never would” (Walls 117). She was refusing the truth about her fathers drinking and kept convincing herself hat they would change and provide a better life for her and her

Sara's father wanted to control everybody else's lives, in his family, but he did not want anyone telling him how to do things. He felt that he should be able to control the family spendings even though he did not earn a penny. He went against his wife's request and used every penny of their savings to buy the store. His wife asked him, "Promise me that you won't pay out the money till I come to see what you buy." (113). He went ahead and bought the store without letting his wife come down to see it first like he had promised her. He made a huge mistake then, just as he had with his daughters. He did not pick a good husband for any of his daughters. He was fooled not only by the store owner but also by the daughters' husbands. The reason he made all these mistakes is because he would not listen to anyone's advice. If he had listened to his wife, he would not have bought the store because she would have been with him, and she would have noticed something was wrong because she was already suspicious. She says, "Does he really ask only four hundred dollars for all this?...Ask him to give you a pencil to count up all the goods there is in stock." (114). She has more sense about business then he does, but he gets to be in control of all their money. Today, women have more of a say in what goes on with the financial part of the family as well as with who they are going to

Ashleigh has a very good relationship with her dad. In the text, it emphasizes that Ashleigh’s father likes to call her ‘Ashes’ which makes her feel special, like on page 1 where it says, “... he still called me Ashes.. that made me feel more special.” If Ashleigh feels very special around her father and has a very good relationship, that might make her dad’s side feel a bit more appealing. Another reason why is that Ashleigh’s dad compliments her and makes her life better because of the inspiration. On page 2 it states, “Last week he’d told me I should be an astronaut. The week before, a CEO of a fortune 500 company.” This adds to the last bit of reasoning, as a lot of inspiration might make the emotional connection stronger between Ashleigh and her father. Her mother does not have this sort of relationship with Ashleigh, which again, makes her dad’s side feel more appealing. To top all of that off, Ashleigh’s father is generous. The more generous and giving you are in general, the more likely people are to be lenient towards you. On page 2 it explains, “‘Can you afford it?’ I asked ‘For a special date with my daughter?...Of course…” No matter how much money you have, giving some of it up to make somebody’s day better is priceless. Even if it is just for a burger and fries with your

In the short story called, “Ashes” by Susan Beth Pfeffer, the protagonist is dealing with the complicated relationship between her divorced parents. Ashleigh, the main character, is questioned by her dad if she can borrow her mom's money for his own problems. Ashes, short for Ashleigh, like the compliments that she keeps receiving from her dad. Ashes complex relationship with her parents makes her choose between her mom or her dad. One lesson this story suggests is that no matter how much you love someone, you have to let them handle things on their own.

He brings Ashes to a diner and tells her how he has a possibility to make him on easy street. He informs her that it is more like he needs to pay $200 to some guys because he is debt, but he doesn’t have the money so he asks Ashes to steal from her mother. This is an example of how the father teaches something that he shouldn’t be and that it is okay to steal if you are in a dire need of the money. While this is the last point I believe that it really pulls the whole theme together.

By Micheal Patrick MacDonald. (Ballentine Books under The Random House Publishing Corporation, 1999, 266pp. $14.00)

The area that she was living it was to expensive for them to afford the house. She could not afford with only one jobs. That is why she was looking for a second job. It was difficult to find a stable job. The jobs she got didn’t pay enough money.

50% of children experience the divorce of their parents according to www.marriage-success-secrets.com. In Ashes, by Susan Beth Pfeffer, Ashleigh’s parents have been divorced for the last two years. She loves both of them but has a special soft spot for her dad. Ashleigh’s mom is a practical person and her dad is described as a dreamer. After a dinner with her father, Ashleigh receives a request. He wants her to to take her mom’s emergency money to pay off a deal he made. Ashleigh makes the decision to not give her dad the money because she questions the process and outcome, her father has a history of making irresponsible decisions, and the clouds symbolize her feelings towards her dad’s plan.

Ashleigh’s decision was to obey her dad and steal the money because he does nice things for her.Her dad takes her out to eat, a quote that supports this can be found on page 2,”There’s a new diner, that opened right around the block.Let’s treat ourselves, Ashes,and go out on the town.”Another example of her dad doing nice things for her is that he gives her gifts.A quote that helps support this is on page 1,”But then,dad gave me roses or sang a song he had written for me.”One last example of him doing nice things for Ashleigh is that he lets her get whatever she wants.An example of this is found on page 3,”Take your pick,Ashes.Hamburger,triple-decker,chicken salad platter.Whatever you want.”

Jeannette is sitting in a taxi, worrying about being overdressed for a party when outside the cab, her mother wears ragged clothes while digging through trash. Thus, this scene introduces the quandary Jeannette finds herself in when she skips the party and goes home: She has wealth and social privilege, which her mother does not, and Jeannette must come to terms with this disparity. This specific entry caught my attention, my mother always tells me i’ll do greater things her and my father ever did and when I read this in the beginning I felt if I were put in that situation I’d feel guilty to see my mother digging through

When Paul's mother received the letter from the lawyer, she got even more greedy. She went to the lawyer and asked if she could have all the money at once. Paul agreed that this would be okay. But the house just whispered louder, with more greed. Paul's mother had used the money foolishly again, instead of using it wisely to pay off her debt. "The voices in the house suddenly went mad, like a chorus of frogs on a spring evening. There were certain new furnishings and Paul had a new tutor…there were flowers in the winter, and a blossoming of the luxury that Paul's mother had been used to" (442). Paul's mother and Paul's greed amplified: Paul continued to bet to make more money for his mother, and his mother kept spending money that she didn't have.

Every person reaches a point in their lives when they must define themselves in relation to their parents. We all come through this experience differently, depending on our parents and the situation that we are in. For some people the experience comes very early in their lives, and can be a significant life changing experience. In William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” Colonel Sartoris Snopes must decide either to stand with his father and compromise his integrity, or embrace honesty and morality and condemn his family. This is a difficult decision to make, especially for a ten year old boy that has nothing outside of what his father provides. Sarty’s decision to ultimately betray his father is dependent on his observation of Abner’s character

Angela’s Ashes is an autobiographical memoir written by Irish-American author Frank McCourt. McCourt is the oldest of five brothers and one sister. He along with four of his sibling were born in America in Brooklyn, New York and lived there until he was four and then moved back to Ireland because they had a hard time surviving in America. His family and moved back to Ireland in the midst of the Great Depression finding it hard for his father to get a job because of his alcoholism and his Northern manner. Throughout McCourt’s childhood he was caught in the middle of all the hardships his parents endured. Although, his family endured much struggle, that did not stop them from fulfilling his religious duties, such as First Communion. It also did not stop him and his brother, Malachy from going to school to learn more about their religion. In his early teens, he realized that his father had abandoned his mother and his siblings when he said he would go look for a job. At the age of 14, Frank stopped going to school and got odd jobs to help support his mother and siblings. He remembers his childhood as the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. He himself decided to move back to America when he was 18 to get away from the poverty in Ireland.