Ashes By Susan Beth Pfeffer

For example, Lorraine's mother always tells her “you’re not a pretty girl Lorraine.”, she also always calls Lorraine fat and ugly. Lorraine’s mother does not set a good example for Lorraine because she bullies her. Another example is John’s father likes to lie which rubbed off on John, one time John’s father went around bragging how he phonied up a car insurance claim to get a hundred dollars to replace a piece of aluminum on their new car, which he had really replaced himself. John’s father taught John that lying was not bad without even knowing. John’s family also had other issues because John’s father was an alcoholic and did not care if John drank beer. John was not old enough to drink beer but his father did not care because he was an alcoholic. Both families show that they have bad family values because they are mean and

At the start of the novel Ameera’s relationship isn’t that good with her father because of him being strict towards her about her hijab being taken off of her by two strangers and blames Ameera for it, because she was acting carelessly, this shows that her father doesn’t trust her at all because of a situation. Ameera’s brother Riaz says “Dads love is conditional” meaning that their father doesn’t show affection towards his children

She struggles with accepting reality, even when there are clear signs of the truth. An example of this is when her father warns her about playing with fire after she burns their shed down and endangers her brother, saying “you all got a little to close to it today” (Walls 61). As her story continues she starts to see the consequences fire creates. After burning down a hotel, putting her whole family in danger she excepts the truth about what it does and slowly starts to further herself with it.During this time her parents actions start to affect her siblings in a worse way and she starts to have doubts about her father stating, “I listened to dad’s plans and tried to encourage him, hoping that what he was saying was true but I was also pretty sure it wasn’t” (Walls 171). As fire becomes more absent in her life so does the hope that her parents will succeed at improving their

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.

The poem “Mothers and Daughters” is written by Pat Mora. Pat Mora is a contemporary award winning writer, who writes for children, youngsters and adults. She was born in El Paso, TX in the year 1942. She attains a title of a Hispanic writer; however, the most of her poems are in English. In her literary work, one can observe the different aspects of the immigrants’ lives such as language issues, family relationships, immigrants’ experiences and cultural differences (1187).

Establish that your character had a poor relationship with his or her parents (provide text details!)

I’ll give you all the money I’ve got!” (O’Connor 355). She is pleading the Misfit for her life only by saying the word lady repeatedly and offering him the money. She is also praising the Misfit by calling him a good man and trying to save her life. She was also careless about her family. When her family is taken down into the woods, she continues to talk to Misfit. She ignores the sound of when her son and rest of the family were being shot. She is apparently oblivious to many things. She was ignoring everything but the Misfit. “The shirt came flying at him and landed on his shoulders and he put it on. The grandmother couldn’t name what the shirt reminded her of” (O’Connor 354). The grandmother doesn’t even realize that shirt was her son Baileys. She had no interest in knowing where that shirt came from and what happened to my family. For the concern of her life only, she tries to persuade the Misfit the same way she tried with her family. “I know you’re a good man. You don’t look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people!” (O’Connor 352). She is trying to manipulate the Misfit and hopes that he will bear her. She is thinking about no one else but the sake for herself. However she fails once again to influence the Misfit.

“What does in fact happen in this part of the story is quite straightforward: the Grandmother, having exhausted all other appeals to the Misfit, resorts to her only remaining (though certainly imperfect) weapon: motherhood. Declaring to the Misfit that he is one of her babies, she sets out to conquer him. Perhaps she hopes that this ultimate flattery will melt his heart, and he will collapse in her comforting

The daughter knows very well that she will never be like the perfect children broadcasted on television or even the verizon of a daughter that her mother wants which causes the destructive relationship between them. The daughter eventually disregards what the mother wants and will only follow her own mind. The assertive parenting led to her daughter not wanting to put in any effort and distance between the two instead of helping her find her

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.”

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

The short-story “A Conversation with My Father”, by Grace Paley, combines several themes and the author uses the elements of abandonment, denial, irony, humor and foreshadowing, to bring this emotional story together. This story is mainly about the relationship between a parent and his child. The primary characters are a father, and his child. There is no mention of whether the child is his daughter or son. The tone of the story and the conversations made me believe that the old man has a daughter, and hence I will refer to the child as his daughter.

    In “Simple Arithmetic” by Virginia Moriconi, we have a letter from a boy name Stephen to his father about how school is so far, and about his trip back to the boarding school from home. After that letter we also see a letter from the father addressing everything that Stephen wrote to him about, but not in a way where he responds like you think a close family member would. The father criticizes Stephen’s spelling mistakes, and uses them against him mockingly in the letter responding to Stephen’s. In the letters, we can see how Stephen and his father speak to each other. Due to how Stephen’s father raised him, he acts in a sort of formal business like way due to the environment he grew up in and how he and his father have been referring to and treating each other. Stephen views his father as some sort

In both stories, the future expectation of a daughter’s outcome affects the mother-daughter relationship as seen from both the mother and the daughter. Like the idea of self-fulfilling prophecy, if a mother treats her daughter as a frail being, an invalid, and keeps her daughter shut in, the effect on a healthy daughter will be to identify themselves as a fragile being who needs to be shut in since that’s all they’ve been told. Similarly, when a mother is exceptionally stern and opinionated about their daughter’s sexuality, based on the mother’s constant berating and calling the girl a whore, the girl may actually begin to identify herself