Crow Lake

Katie Nolan, Francie’s mother, is the main reason that Francie is able to survive her arduous childhood and succeed in life. Food, heat and protection are always available to the Nolan children even if it means that Katie has to work multiple jobs or even sacrifice some of her own needs. Katie gives all she can to provide for her children and Francie truly values her mother’s hard work. Francie appreciates her mother’s thougtful acts, but still, Francie develops

The death of a loved one can result in a trauma where the painful experience causes a psychological scar. Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones explores the different ways in which people process grief when they lose a loved one. When young Susie Salmon is killed on her way home from school, the remaining four members of her family all deal differently with their grief. After Susie’s death, her mother, Abigail Salmon, endures the adversity of losing her daughter, her family collapsing, and accepting the loss of the life she never had the opportunity to live. Abigail uses Freud’s defence mechanisms to repress wounds, fears, her guilty desires, and to resolve conflicts, which results in her alienation and

stories. When the two women come up to the lake, the boys do not tell

Grief is a key theme throughout Herrick’s novel “By the River” highlighting the suffering and distress from losing a loved one. Herrick explores this theme through the death of Harry Hodby’s mother and his close friend Linda. The

Firstly, Kate is noticeably affected almost immediately after the death of her mother and father. We see this by her descriptive quotes about how she was feeling and the observations she made about others in her life. Some instances include “I remember being rigid with fear, not daring to look at him” (19), “it was like being at the bottom of the sea” (53), and “...there was a whirlwind howling through me” (54). These quotes represent how Kate felt overwhelmed by unmanageable emotions; she felt almost numb and empty. She even ends up cutting her finger just to feel something and it hardly hurt at all. This is a confused, traumatized little girl. Next, Kate is affected by the basic principles her parents taught. The simple memory of her parents provoked thought of the Presbyterian Commandments they would follow. These principles shape who she is and represent a background where people do not talk about problems or share emotions. “No, you swallow your feelings, force them down inside yourself, where they feed and grow and swell and expand until you explode, unforgivably, to the utter bewilderment of whomever it was who upset you” (36). Lastly, the trauma she has endured has made her scared. Scared of sharing feelings, scared of commitment, scared of loving someone. Daniel, Kate’s boyfriend, feels he is in the dark when it comes to Kate’s past and her emotions. This is because Kate is simply scared to love him. She proves this and it’s connection to her past by saying, “people I love and need have a habit of disappearing from my life” (89). The death of her parents has definitely shaped who she is but some may say, it helped her show resilience and strength to embrace her past and move

Authors often create texts that share common themes to teach readers importance of certain aspects and hardships of life. Theme may be expressed through an author’s use of rhetorical devices and many other contributing factors such as figurative language and repetition. The essay, “Once More to the Lake” written by E.B. White and the poem “Forgetfulness” written by Billy Collins, both contain a theme of identity loss. In “Once More to the Lake” E.B White connects to a lake at young age and when returning with his son years later is unable to identify himself. In similar theme “Forgetfulness” describes different factors of human life and everyday things being forgotten and lost. Both White and Collins use repetition and metaphors to further push the theme of identity loss throughout the texts.

Debra Brett is a 36 year old single mother housed in rented social housing on a south London high-rise housing estate. She is dependent on council contractors for repairs, with four children the flat is overcrowded,she feels invisible and hopeless.Debra Brett’s low income from benefits effect her education chances by her not being able to afford childcare, and are also effecting her older daughter’s education who is supplementing the family income by working part time while also at college.This will dictate the type of jobs possible for Debra and her family and prospective income of the family. The family relationship and future is dictated by their current “life chances”. The Confino family live geographically quite close but have very different “life Chances”, a large house which they own, both parents are in well paid professional work. Extra activities, classes, computers and educational resources also support the children learning, they have space to study. The Confino’s have choice in education, they have enough money and transport to travel to schools out of area and of their choice. The family enjoys a busy social life with theatre trips, holidays and meals out. They look forward to a good life which they can to afford to plan for in the

The title of the novel, Crow Lake, is significant relative to the dilemma of the story. The title of the novel is such a strong and meaningful title as Crow Lake is the beginning point and end of the story. In terms of the characters and plot, the title Crow Lake connects well as the characters try to elucidate all misunderstandings and resolve the problems that once began in the locality of Crow Lake. Crow Lake as a setting plays a significant position in Kate and others’ lives and similarly, the location influenced the tragedy of the death of her parents which brought a succession of tragedies along with it, affecting the lives of the

Mark Strand’s poem, “Poor North” depicts the life of a married couple facing countless struggles during a harsh winter. It tells of a man working in an unsuccessful store while his wife sits at home, wishing for her old life back. The way the wife copes with her sadness is both intriguing and perplexing. She misses her old life, even though it is described to have not been special; however, the wife may be a person who never feels satisfied or fulfilled by the external world due to internal conflict. Despite the wife’s obvious misery, she stays by her husband’s side and they stroll in the cold together, bracing the wind. As a means of escape from life, she peers into her past in order to find hope in the present.

Set in a rural Australian town in the 1960s, Steven Herrick’s novel by the river is portrayed through the eyes of protagonist Harry Hodby. This novel explores the interconnected themes of loss and leaving. Harry Hodby loses three significant people in his life; his mother, Linda Mahony and Eve Spencer. As we peer into the perspective of the principle character, we understand how he deals with each of his losses in an individual way, and how he finally finds closure and acceptance of the people in his life that have departed.

The Canadian novel ‘Crow Lake’ by Mary Lawson, published in 2002, was awarded in Canada as First Novel Award in the same year it was published and won the McKitterick Prize in 2003. The author Mary Lawson was born and brought up in a small farming community in southern Ontario. After graduating from McGill University, she moved to England in 1968. She still lives there with her husband and sons, though she returns to Canada every year. The story took place in a small town called Crow lake in northern Ontario. In this book Kate Morrison, the main character, leads the reader through her journey for healing from past mistakes dealing with her family. At the beginning, Kate who is seven, and her siblings Luke, Matt, and Bo, experienced a tough time surviving after their parents were killed in a car crash, which impacted them for the rest of their lives.

In the Lake of the Woods is about ghosts, personal and national, and about the impossibility of escaping them. Author Tim O’Brien poured much of his own likeness into protagonist John Wade. Wade grew up in Minnesota and like O’Brien, he served in Vietnam so he could maintain or get more love from his peers and family. Like O’Brien, he likely committed some wartime sins and like O’Brien, he cannot escape the past. However we see a key difference between the two mean as O’Brien confronts his personal demons through writing and admitting publicly his faults, while Wade prefers to suppress the past and at making all disagreeable memories disappear.

Lake Granby is located in the mountains of Colorado, near the town of Granby. The third largest body of water in Colorado, it is at an elevation of 8,284 feet. In 1950 the Granby Dam was completed, and is a part of the Colorado –Big Thompson Project (CBT). The CBT provides a large water resource for the Front Range. Along with being used to supply the Front Range with water, it is also the headwaters of the Colorado River. Water levels in the lake are extremely important to both the Front Range and the downstream users of the watershed. This is a unique situation for water because the water that is used in the CBT has to cross the continental divide. There must also be enough water that travels downstream due to water rights in, and outside the watershed. Proper water management of the system at a lake wide scale is the most important sustainability issue for the area.

After the death of her husband, Mother struggles to keep her family together by providing the support and guidance they need, and encouraging them to use good judgment and think of the family as a whole before making their decisions. As the family faces various obstacles, each seemingly more severe than the last, Mother begins

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