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Comparison Essay

Decent Essays

Alexia Petrie-Lafouasse
EG3U
Mrs. K. Day
Friday, April 12th, 2013

The weight of responsibility and parental expectations

Have you ever wonder what it would be like to have the world weighing on your shoulders, expecting many great things from you when all you can do is disappoint, to have to tell your parents that you skipped your exam and you are dropping out of University? The first short story “Brother Dear” written by Bernice Friesen is about a sixteen year old girl, her brother and her family. Sharlene, the sixteen year old girl, decides that she does not want to go to university as her father intends, she wants to leave and travel. But she has not worked up the courage to tell her father. When all of a sudden her …show more content…

When Greg starts complaining about their father. “Be something. Be something. That’s all I ever get from dad and now from you.” (Friesen Page 32) The expectation of his father is ongoing and never ending. In contrast with “Brother Dear”, “The Charmer is very similar in many ways. “ …. However the fails of both brothers led to an open eye and a positive effect with their sisters. “No…no, you’re not nothing.” If going to university is to make something out of you, what are you before you go? Being in grade eleven is no big deal, but it doesn’t feel like nothing. I don’t feel like nothing. (Friesen Page 32)
Sharlene is figuring out the truth about life, the thing about university that her and her family believed was all about forming who we are when in reality we already know part of what we are when we start. But I like you the way you are, I say, and for one long sick second, I think I’m lying. Then I think that if Greg was different, he wouldn’t be Greg at all. Without Greg, who would I annoy? Who’d freak me out with his bizarre clothes and ideas? Life wouldn’t be as much fun. We smile at each other, and the sun is shining in my eyes. (Friesen Page 33)
Sharlene discovers the true side of her brother Greg and points out all the cons if he were different than what he is. By that said, Sharlene has learned the truth of the choices Greg has made with his life.
The

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