Circle of Gold Essay

When the author catches her eating the candy and questions her mother about it she pitifully cries, "I am sugar addict, just like your father is an alcoholic." Even with insanely aggravating anecdotes like this Walls simply states, "Through my parents I saw that good people are capable of doing things that hurt the ones they love." The author avoids bitterness and chooses to see the best in her mother instead of complaining and asking for pity. She does the same thing in another even more infuriating instance. In the occurrence, Walls recalls miraculously coming across a two-caret diamond ring and asking her mother to pawn it in order to pay the bills and buy food. Her mother instead keeps the ring for herself and says, "The surest way to feel rich is to smother yourself in quality nonessentials." Along with this she adds another unbelievable remark of, "At times like these, self-esteem is even more vital than food." Even with maddening experiences like these Walls refuses to succumb to the typical revenge seeking child and instead somehow loves her mother for even her most unbearable qualities. The author's unrelenting hope serves as the very factor which allows her to endure her mother's less than motherly actions.

In the book, Mattie starts out as a lazy teenager who needs to be told what to do by her over controlling mother, but throughout the story, she becomes more responsible and adult-like. For

She has one friend named Stacy that knows everything about Nicole, they are best friends until one day Stacy is shot in a drive by and is killed. Nicole’s story is an example of marriage and family, poverty, and crime. Like Lisa, Nicole does not have parents that support their family or treat them right. Nicole’s step-dad is an alcoholic and abusive towards her. She is to the point where she has to lie to her teacher about her bruises so she does not get taken away. She feels like she is all alone and nowhere to go that is safe for her, not even school. Also, when her only friend Stacy dies in a drive-by, this is an example of high crime rates in poverty neighborhoods. In class, we talked about how there tends to be more crimes in the less wealthy neighborhood versus the wealthier neighborhoods. The kids that grow up in these very poor neighborhoods, tend to turn to criminal behavior because that is all they know. They have grown up around it their whole lives, and they have become accustomed to it. So maybe a drive by or gunshots in Nicole’s neighborhood are common for her and she does not even phase when she hears a gun shot.

Although the daughter’s shame in her mother is evident, she is also prideful of her as well. The strong love that the mother and daughter share is pervasive throughout the story. The story is being told by the daughter after she is all grown up. The fact that Jones uses such vivid detail on the mother’s preparation for her daughters first day of school shows that the daughter loved her mom and all that she did for her. The daughter recalls that her mother spent a lot of time preparing her when she says, “My mother has uncharacteristically spent nearly an hour on my hair that morning, plaiting and replaiting so that now my scalp tingles.” (Jones) She also remembers that her “pale green slip and underwear are new, the underwear having come three to a plastic package with a little girl on the front who appears to be dancing.” (Jones) The daughter having remembered details like these illustrate that she has an immense love and takes pride

Mattie had so many traumatizing events occur in just a few months, yet she stayed strong and fought through the pain day by day. One of these events were when she tried to leave Philadelphia. Her and her grandfather were on a cart leaving Philadelphia, When they got thrown off because they thought that Mattie’s grandpa had Yellow Fever. All of their belongings were on that cart. Now Mattie and her grandfather faced starvation in the middle of nowhere.

The Caldecott Medal is named after Randolph Caldecott, a 19th century illustrator. The award is presented to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children and was first awarded in 1938 for a book called Animals of the Bible illustrated by Dorothy Lathrop. The award is given out once a year every year since 1938 with the most recent award recipient being Dan Santat for The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend. Originally there were no awards given out to the illustrators of children books, but once you look at the detail and story building illustrations in each of the award winning books, it is easy to see why they created the award to begin with. It is my belief that without such colorful and interesting

Mattie is a fourteen year old girl, who has the responsibilities of an adult, which was expected of people that age in this time period. “[Mattie] kept his books for him”(keeping the books means keeping track of the money) said Mattie when she was explaining why she knew how much money her father had (Portis 15). This quote is interesting because it exhibits the amount of responsibility that was put upon her even at a young age. Also, Mattie seems to have the best math skills in her family despite having a mother and father much older than her. Mattie told Yarnell, (who is an African American that works for Mattie's family) “Yarnell said ‘you can't stay in the city by yourself’ [Mattie] said ‘It will be alright’” (Portis 26). Mattie is going to stay in the city by herself without her mom knowing when she will return, or what her sleeping arrangements are. It is strange because she is a young girl in a city alone with nobody to protect her, and her mother has no idea what is going on. Mattie told the sheriff “[I’am] looking for the man who shot and killed my father” (Poti 59). Mattie is not asking the sheriff to find the man and bring him to

Adeline comes home from her first week of kindergarten, all smiles because she had been chosen to lead the class and has received a medal and a certificate for her achievement. Her aunt Baba is full of pride and files the certificate and medal in her safe deposit box. She described the certificate as “some precious jewel impossible to replace” (page 2). Adelines academic achievements are how she eventually gains acceptance within an uncaring family. She had a lot of pride over the metal it shows the sadness she is facing everyday, with her siblings hating her achievements and her dad only caring when she receives them. “I was winning the medal every week and wearing it constantly. I knew this displeased my siblings, especially Big Sister and Second Brother, but it was the only way to make Father take notice and be proud of me” (page 15). Adeline starts to mature when she starts to realize that her achievements should only matter if it makes her happy, not just her father. Adeline's parents threaten to move her to a far away school. Adeline is elected class president. Everyone is excited, her classmates and more importantly her. Her classmates decide to celebrate at her house and this is when her parents lash out and get

Mattie is a strong self confident mechanic, she pushes through the hardships and helps her friends do the same. Taylor arrives in Tucson, Arizona, with two flat tires, little to no money, and a small childtoddler given to her by a stranger. UMattie takes a look upon seeing Taylor,M having a rough time, Mattieshe invites her inside for some coffee and juice. (Chapter 3) When Mattie first meets Taylor, she sees that she is

This speaks on a very deep level, in regards to the genuine warmth the author implied toward the mother in his piece. There is a subliminal truth of sentimental “value”, because the reality of this world is that all material wealth can be lost in a moment, but real wealth is not some slice of pie one luckily stumbles upon in the world, real wealth is first found in the human being, and the human becomes the reflective producer of these

Despite Rex’s drinking addiction and Rose Mary’s selfishness, they always tried to help their kids. Trying to get food into the house was very hard because they had no money. Jeannette and Brian would sneak food out of school and eat it discreetly so their mother wouldn’t find out. One day they all had went into the woods and they found a ring that had looked just like Rose Mary’s wedding ring that they had to pawn for money. Jeannette told her mother to sell it to get food and supplies to live. Instead, Rose Mary kept the ring in pure selfishness. “We haven’t had anything to eat but popcorn for three days” (pg.187) “but it could also improve my self-esteem. And at times like these, self-esteem is even more vital than food”

Receiving the Mckinley Goldbug scholarship would mean the world to me. With my father being incarcerated and my mother on disability, finding the rest of the money for college while providing for a family of 6 is almost impossible. Even with financial aid, the gap left over for my dream school is relatively large. This scholarship won’t only help me achieve my college goal by reducing my financial stress, but it’ll give me an opportunity to take advantage of receiving a well rounded college education. I am looking forward to working up to becoming an art therapist and creating a lifelong career out of it. College, of course, is the next step I need to take to get there. This scholarship will allow me to complete my studies efficiently and allow

Pat starts to become uninterested in continuing with the dance competition, which makes Tiffany upset as she was looking forward to it. In order for Pat to dance in the competition, Tiffany and Pat’s parents lie and tell him that Nikki will be there. Soon after, Pat notices that the letters from “Nikki” were actually written by Tiffany, making him angry and confused as he was doing this all for her. A few days after, at the competition, to everyone’s surprise, Nikki did in fact attend the dance competition and Pat is excited to see her. Tiffany is upset that Nikki is there and is not sure if she wants to preform but Pat drags

In the novel, The Circle, Dave Eggers creates a future society centered on money and power from digital innovation. Mae Holland, the determined protagonist from a humble beginnings, receives an opportunity to gain high status within the company but faces the challenge of managing the loss of her human privacy in a technologically advancing community. By applying ideas like technological determinism and McDonaldization to the Circle’s intrusive security measures and inauthentic interaction, Eggers draws a direct parallel to America’s modern society and forces the readers to question the possible dystopian implications of a technocentric culture.

According to George Bernard Shaw, the single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. The novel The Circle by Dave Eggers tells us a story about the main character, Mae Holland, and her journey through the company Circle. The company Circle have the most futuristic-like advancements in technology. Mae Holland’s dream is to work at the Circle because she dreaded her previous job at a run-down utility company. Holland is introverted and before working at the Circle, her life was not consumed with technology. She slowly assimilates with the Circle’s rules and regulations and therefore encounter a problem with situations she has never experienced before. Holland did not meet the expectations of the Circle’s requirements