Ashleigh's Short Story 'Ashes'

"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood." Thus begins the highly celebrated memoir by the name of Angela's Ashes, written by Frank McCourt. In this book Frank McCourt writes about his childhood, how his parents meet in New York and then decide to return to Ireland. He describes what it is like to be at the bottom of that city's tough social hierarchy, giving vivid descriptions of how class imposes severe limitations and restrictions. It is this topic, this theme, to which I will

Although life presents you with many obstacles, if you continue to persevere, eventually you will achieve success. Angela’s Ashes, by Frank McCourt, is a good example of this. Frank is constantly limited by his poverty. We watch him stick with his goals and eventually accomplish them in the end. He also watches his mother continually try to stretch the family budget in order to get meager amounts of food. Death is also very prevalent in this book as Frank and his family have to adjust to the death of loved ones.

Decisions are shaped by one’s values and those values are not always correct. “A Secret Lost in the Water” by Roch Carrier, the narrator writes about the son that he has forgotten the “gift” that his father gave to him when he was young. His father taught him to dowse, but he did not value it, and lost his father’s treasure of knowledge. The son tries to dowse for a family friend who knows his father, but he fails at it; he is not able to hear the gushing water in his ears. He now regrets not valuing the important gift of dowsing water that he learned from his father in his childhood, and after he forgot it. The son valued writing more than his dad way of life so he made the choice of becoming a writer, he did not value it and ends up losing his “gift”. “The alder stayed motionless in my hands and the water beneath the earth refused to sing. Somewhere along the roads I’d taken since the village of my childhood I had forgotten my father’s knowledge” (page 106, Carrier). Now the son realizes that he has lost the gift his father gave him along his journey of becoming a writer. The son now regrets the decision he made of not continuing his father’s old-fashioned work.

If there will be little downtime in between when the money is used and when it is gained back. On page 2 it disclosed, “All I need to do is put together a little financing, and I will be set for life.” The money that Ashleigh’s dad needs is going to be made back supposedly very soon. If so, that means that there is a good chance that Ashleigh’s mother wouldn’t even notice that the money was gone. If more evidence is needed, Ashleigh’s dad went out and said it. Page 4 read, “I’d have the money in your hands no later than Friday.” That would make it very likely, assuming that all goes to plan, that the statement sould be true. Additionally, Ashleigh herself asked if she could help, not her father. This would explain that it was only a favor that she brought onto herself. The compensation was really just a kind of thank-you gesture towards Ashleigh if she takes up the offer. On page 3 it disclosed, “‘Can I help?’ I asked.” The burden of asking was not Ashleigh’s father, but on

As seen in this quote, Ashes’ father is misdirecting her by sneakily telling her that she made a good decision to offer to help him steal the money. This evidence clearly represents how Ashes’ father is misleading her with lies and it will most likely reflect in their relationship negatively.

Decisions are what direct a average person's life. Some decisions are easy some are hard. But that’s the way of life and how it works.

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.

Some decisions can be easy, some decisions can be tough. In the Novel Lyddie, by Katherine Patterson Lyddie has to make a decision to sign the petition or is she isn’t going to sign the petition. Lyddie is working at Lowell, Massachusetts trying to make money to pay off the debt for her house in Vermont. While there are reasons Lyddie should sign the petition , there are more reasons why she should not sign the petition. Lyddie should not sign the petition because she need money to pay off the debt. Also, she wants Rachel to go to school so if she to that to happen…

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 choice was to obey her dad.Ashleigh had a tough choice to make,she could either leave her mom’s money and not touch it like her mom had always told her,or she could obey her dad who said he needed it.She made the decision of obeying her dad and stole the money,the reasons why she decided to

Sometimes the hardest decisions are the most important, and are the ones that shape and sculpt your journey through life. Whenever I am faced with a dilemma, like whether to start a new episode of The Office on Netflix or to proofread my global history essay, I remember to take a step back to better analyze the situation which, at times can change my perspective.

No matter who a person may be, everyone is faced with multiple choices from day to day. Whether the choice be life changing or what to eat for suppertime, there is an impact on the decision maker. Is there a line that must be crossed when making decisions in a life or death situation? In Octavia Butler’s best selling novel, Kindred, the main character, Dana Franklin, comes face to face with numerous decisions affecting her and those around her. In the novel, Dana uncontrollably travels back in time and gives perspective as a young black woman in the antebellum South. The time and place of which she travels to exacerbates her given situation. Each time she travels back in time, she is forced to make a decision. Through seeing her decisions in chronological order, the reader gets an image of how important decisions may be. In Kindred, Octavia Butler uses Dana’s choices in the face of conflict to portray the impact her choices had upon her survival.

make many decisions and if they choose wrong, it may cost them their lives or someone else’s in

Making decisions is no easy feat, especially when it comes to choices that have the ability to change the direction of one's life. Decisions like choosing what college to go to and what career path to head down are often encouraged to be deliberated as far as years in advance, solidifying the common belief that the more educated the decision, the better it is. English Canadian author Malcolm Gladwell challenges this notion by arguing that snap decisions made by the adaptive unconsciousness have the ability to be controlled and utilized to to become equally as powerful as conscious choices can be. Gladwell executes this message through a well written introduction split up into three parts; the first providing an extended example, the second

However I feel that Brian and Sara forgot to focus on what could be better for Anna when the time came for her to live her own life. At first Anna was experiencing psychological altruism which sometimes motivated her to put Kate’s interests ahead of her own. As Anna grew older she realized that the donations were at her own expense and she wanted to be free. Everyone, including children has the right to act in one’s own best interest. Therefore if Anna felt that she was not living to her best ability because of her connection with Kate then this egoism should be respected. This contrasts her mother, Sara’s psychological egoism, because she was acting in her own interests to save Kate. In this case, what Sara finds acceptable for Anna is negligent against Anna’s autonomy.