Child of the Dark covers the time period between 1955 and 1960. It gives insight into the way that many Latin Americans lived during these times. The story takes place in Brazil and focuses on the life of Carolina De Jesus and her journey through countless obstacles of life. Like Carolina, many Latin Americans lived in rural areas known as Favela’s. Through Carolina’s experience and everyday life the reader learns the struggles of living in a society governed by the colonial legacy of a stratified society. Carolina has three children, Vera, Jose, and Joao. All this time they have lived in the favela, which was defined as a deprived area or a shantytown. Favelas were quite difficult to live in. The conditions were horrendous and many people …show more content…
She traded washed bottles for bread and sold paper for cruzeiros (De Jesus, 3) She spent most hours of day roaming the streets in search of paper to collect. Like many in the favela she had many concerns, the most prominent being her children. Carolina constantly worried about the safety and well being of her children. She doubted whether her ways of protecting them would be effective enough to keep them away from the bad influences in the Favela. Later in the journal she explains that her son Joao is accused of rape, she knows he’s innocent but once more she’s given another reason to worry. Carolina expresses her immense fear of not being able to provide for her children. This is made clear when she takes acknowledges the fact that she lives an extremely worrisome life. She carries paper, washes clothes, and rarely has time to be home, yet she still lacks so much. (De Jesus, 4) Although she was surrounded by what seemed like a never ending cycle of stress, Carolina had many hopes and aspirations. She hoped that one day she would find a home far from the favela environment. When Carolina writes she escapes the present. She is able to experience her dreams and aspirations. She dreams of a home in which she can live in peace with her family. She stated that when she wrote she thought of living in a golden castle that shined in the …show more content…
It seemed that Favelados had given up and settled for the life they were given. They either knew the politicians would never do much for the impoverished or secretly hoped that someone would eventually help them. If there had been a revolutionary leader similar to Fidel Castro, only then would the impoverished have a chance to rise against the extreme inequality. (De Jesus, preface Vll) Carolina could have represented that leader. If she had gained the support of all the favelados there could have been a potential revolution. She was strong but was also full of bitterness and discontent. It is as though she carried the displeasure of an entire population. It has often been stated that dissatisfaction usually leads to rebellion. The favelados were similar to the people of Mexico that expressed this discontent through revolution. (Charlip & Burns, 192) Child in the Dark also shows traces of The House of the Spirits. Much like Clara Del Valle, Carolina represented the missing piece of the puzzle. She represented the hope that so many favelados lacked. She showed aspects that others in the favela had stopped possessing. She was caring and giving towards others even if she herself had so little. This was seen when Carolina was on her way to sell the paper she collected and noticed the African American man that was on the ground. Even though she
Experiencing further unstable environments, these children are forced to move from one foster home to another. They rarely develop meaningful relationships and constantly endure lack of care and protection by adults. Sabreen, another gifted student, was able to excel in school despite her unstable environments. She, too, became a ward of the county battling to find a stable home, constantly being placed in unstable environments, environments that do not encourage any achievement. When her situation becomes untenable, she goes AWOL, like Olivia, refusing to return to county supervision. Corwin masterfully frames the problem that wards, like Olivia and Sabreen, face when they feel that going back into the system is not an option. The additional struggles can be seen through Olivia and Sabreen accepting jobs with long hours in order to make enough to pay their bills. The responsibility on taking care of themselves financially detracts from their studies, which quickly can become a vicious, never-ending cycle.
How can day exist without night; how can night exist without darkness? In Paul Bogard’s, “Let There Be Dark”, Bogard elucidates on the absence of darkness in today’s world. With authenticity, Bogard analyzes the significant elements of darkness in both a rational and factual way. In “Let There Be Dark”, Bogard creates a refined and persuasive analysis using rhetorical appeals to endorse his ideology on preserving Earth’s natural darkness.
In the play by Federico Garcia Lorca, The House of Bernarda Alba, a recurring theme throughout the play is freedom. Lorca expresses freedom using characters, situations and objects. The characters in the story are Bernarda’s daughters who are under her control and have extremely little freedom and privacy by being forced to abide by her rules. Freedom and Repression are most significant themes conveyed throughout the play, the two opposing themes together are important to understanding both the characters and the story as well.
She started off as a rich privileged kid who, at the age of 14, had been struck by the worst thing that can happen to a girl at the very edge of her puberty – having a spoiled mother who cared more about the money than for her own daughetr, Faunia had to face an abusing stepfather who found her chilish innocence and beauty too powerful sexual bate to endure. Running away at such early and immature years of her life and staying completely alone and protected only by clear sky and an empty wallet, she had been forced to put up with the worst kind of jobs and worst kind of men that could possibly be found. In
In addition, Rosaura, the little 9 year old Hispanic girl in the story, is forced to come to the reality that people are looked down on due to their social class. This story gives a good example of a loss of innocence in a child who doesn’t know any better about society. The reader and her mom may sympathize with Rosaura but they are not surprised by the outcomes in this story. Rosaura has a blast at the party, playing all the games, helping the magician with his tricks, serving cake to the other children, and getting to see the magician’s monkey before the other children at the party. By the end of the party Rosaura felt special, because she got to help and do much more than the rest of the children there. But unfortunately her happiness quickly comes to an end. While she was leaving the party Rosaura didn’t receive a toy like the rest of the children as they were leaving, but instead she received two bills from Senora Ines, the hostess of the party. This left Rosaura crushed, hurt, confused, and forced to see the reality of society. Rosaura’s mom on the other hand, has the same emotion and
Everyone knows that poverty can lead to feelings of shame and humiliation, but what many people don’t realize is that sometimes overwhelming feelings of shame and humiliation lead to poverty. In her article “In the Search of Identity in Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street,” Maria de Valdes goes as far as to refer to shame and poverty as a “syndrome” because she believes they’re so closely associated. “It is a closed circle,” Valdes asserts. “You are poor because you are an outsider without education; you try to get an education, but you can’t take the contrastive evidence of poverty and ‘it keeps you down.’” In other words, poverty and shame are an endless cycle because a person will be ashamed to be impoverished, but won’t be able to move up because shame will always hold them back. This can be seen in Esperanza’s mother, who didn’t finish school because she was too ashamed that she didn’t have nice clothes like the other girls. “Shame is a bad thing, you know,” she warns Esperanza. “It keeps you down” (91). Shame kept her down by preventing her from finishing school, and in turn her lack of education kept her from pursuing her dreams. Instead, she settled into the housewife life, which she still regrets: “I could’ve been somebody, you know” (91). She says it sadly, like she’s mourning the loss of what
During the time the novel was written, Carolina was a forty-one year old Brazilian woman who lived in the favelas of São Paulo, Brazil. The living conditions of the favelas are appalling. There is no plumbing and there is one
Flavio lived in a place full of poverty, the home was located on the outsides of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the shack had its walls beaten down, holes in them, and patched up. Flavio's family had to retrieve the water that they would use to clean the rice, then they would reuse it to wash the sisters feet, later they would put soap in the water and bathed the children. The siblings did not get along; they would constantly fight, but it would be when one child got a taste of food before anyone else. Flavio’s parents had to work a lot in order to have enough money for all of the children; therefore, they did not have enough
In “Flavio's Home”, Parks describes the terrible conditions that many families face in a favela called Catacumba, specifically focusing on one family when he encounters a boy named Flavio in the streets. Parks concedes that Flavio takes care of the family by cooking, cleaning, collecting water, and bathing his siblings while his parents are away. He observes Flavio's frequent cough throughout the day, his initial reaction is to flee, but he stays and makes the conscious decision to help Flavio. He concludes on helping the him after being informed that his father cannot take Flavio to the doctor, due to him refusing to take down his store. In the final part of this article, Flavio makes it to the doctor, where the doctorhe tells Parks that the boy is sitting on his deathbed, and will only live for roughly one more year. Parks explains that the doctors couldn't do anything to help with dozens of other patients,the same or worse, who can’t receive treatment. He concludes with telling Flavio that he will be okay, effectively making the reader feel sympathetic towards a boy who will never experience the life of a privileged child.
When the mother sends her child off to church, she brushes her hair, bathes her, and puts white shoes and gloves on her. This effort put into creating an image of beauty and peace in her child shows that the mother is trying to forget about the suffering of the people who are fighting for freedom that she is doing nothing to aid. When she sees her child this way, she feels that she has
Parks talks about Flavio and his family, describing the everyday struggles of Flavio as he tries to grow up in Catacumba. Flavio’s siblings are viewed as rowdy and unable to get along. Parks also shows how impoverished the da Silva family is when he finds out Jose da Silva, the father, earns seventy-five cents regularly. Parks also describes how hostile the favelas are during the night, and how they are no place for a child to be nurtured in. Later in the passage Parks describes another side of Brazil when he goes to the hotel he stays in, which is much more fortunate than the favelas. To conclude, the reader finds out Flavio will not live long when he is taken to the doctor, where the doctor proceeds to tell Parks and the da Silva family the news. Parks then ends the article by telling Flavio everything will be okay, upon which Flavio replies with saying he’s more concerned for his sibling than his own well-being Leaving the reader feeling compassionate towards Flavio and his family.
After the Agricultural Revolution, the Industrial Revolution began in England in the late 1700s, and it raised the standard of living across the globe. However, while some might argue that Industrialization had primarily positive consequences for society because of advanced economic growth, it was actually a negative thing for society. Industrializations negative effects were working conditions, living conditions, and child labor. Though the Industrial Revolution led to new creations such, as the steam engine and the railroads, in order to produce these machines it requires a great deal of labor.
For Charlie Bundrum, the importance of caring for his children came down to a simple code: “Don’t let nothin’ happen to it. Kill if you have to, but don’t never, ever let nothin’ happen to it, because it is weak, and small, and it belongs to you.” Protecting and caring for his children was a keystone in the life of Charlie Bundrum who never killed a man because “who would have fed his family, if he was so foolish.” The emphasis on caring for one’s children is also exemplified by Ava throughout the trials through which the Bundrum family travelled. As Edna recalls, “Momma wouldn’t eat, but watched us eat.” Ava put the nutrition and well-being of her children before her own, ensuring that they were taken care of before taking care of herself. The importance of family is also exemplified in the experience of mill worker Annie Viola Fries who remembers “if I got sick, he’d come to the house to see me. If I’d be sick, Mama would let him come in to see me.” For her parents, caring for their child mattered more than parental conflict and divorce; it allowed for reconciliation long enough to ensure that Annie was okay. For all of these working poor, promoting family life, especially through caring for their children, was a defining aspect of their
However, when their mother came through the door and told them of a hungry family, the 4 women did not hesitate in giving away their luscious breakfast to those in need. The children delivered the food to the family and “a poor, bare, miserable room it was, with broken windows, no fire, ragged bedclothes, a sick mother, wailing baby, and a group of pale, hungry children cuddled under one old quilt, trying to keep warm”(24). The sisters realize what a harsh environment they live in, and because the setting is so pessimistic, they try to share the little wealth they have so that everyone may live long full lives. The setting in which they live, houses many people who have even less wealth than their own family. However, because of this dreadful place, they try and make sure that their community, or their family, is taken care of, even at the expense of their luxuries.
Camara Laye was born in January 1, 1928, in Upper-Guinea. He is oldest child out of twelve children. He wrote many books about Africa and its struggles which was known to the French literary. In his stories, he included many controversial issues that cover the African culture, independence, and politics. To begin with, The Dark Child by Camara Laye is an autobiographical novel. This book covers Camara Laye’s childhood and how he becomes a man. He noted how there were traditional life expectations of him and a modernity life he experienced in Conakry. It’s about his journey to follow his own destiny. Without delay, one might suggest to analyze Camara’s childhood life, rite of passage, and his life in Conakry. In addition, his family plays a significant role to his life. Each character has taught him or supported him throughout the story.