Educating Rita by Willy Russell Essay

In the poems “A Barred Owl” by Richard Wilbur and “The History Teacher” by Billy Collins, each poet illustrates adults who are providing explanations for children to protect them from the harsher realities of life. In “A Barred Owl”, Wilbur conveys his point that children should be shielded from these harsh realities, through the use of personification and understatements. However, in “The History Teacher”, Collins conveys his point that protecting the students’ innocence is a lost cause, through his use of metaphors as well as understatements. Both poets use similar and different devices to convey their respective points.

Her job and dialect optimize the way she grew up, and how the expectations of her upbringing limit her future, as being a working class woman she is expected to get married, have children and then become a housewife, ‘I should've had a baby by now. Everyone expects it.’ There were no further expectations for women and certainly no need for them to have an education, ‘Denny gets dead narked if I work at home’. Rita doesn’t like the housewife stereotype and decides to rebel against it by taking the pill and starting a formal education, ‘But I mean, I don't want a baby yet. No. I wanna discover meself first.’ Rita’s family refuse to see the benefits that this could give her and this leads her father to feel sorry for Denny and to feel annoyed at Rita’s lack of commitment to her family, ‘Denny, I'm sorry for you, lad. If she was a wife of mine I'd drown her.’ When Rita thinks about quitting the course to please her family, it’s her mother’s unintentional comment at the pub, ‘There must be better songs than this,’ which drives her forward in the course, ‘And I thought, ‘All I'm doing is getting an education. Just trying to learn. And I love it. It's not easy, I get it wrong half the time, I'm laughed at half the time but I love it because it makes me feel as

In her work, “This is Our World,” Dorothy Allison shares her perspective of how she views the world as we know it. She has a very vivid past with searing memories of her childhood. She lives her life – her reality – because of the past, despite how much she wishes it never happened. She finds little restitution in her writings, but she continues with them to “provoke more questions” (Allison 158) and makes the readers “think about what [they] rarely want to think about at all” (158).

indeed a person who has a lot to say and Frank listens and responds to

Toni Cade Bambara’s "The Lesson" revolves around a young black girl’s struggle to come to terms with the role that economic injustice, and the larger social injustice that it constitutes, plays in her life. Sylvia, the story’s protagonist, initially is reluctant to acknowledge that she is a victim of poverty. Far from being oblivious of the disparity between the rich and the poor, however, one might say that on some subconscious level, she is in fact aware of the inequity that permeates society and which contributes to her inexorably disadvantaged economic situation. That she relates poverty to shame—"But I feel funny, shame. But what I got to be

The theme in "The Lesson" by Toni Cade Bambara appears to be a lesson on

Writing in the 20th century was great deal harder for a Chicano then it was for a typical American at this time. Although that did not stop this author, Sandra Cisneros. One of her famous novels, Woman Hollering Creek was a prime example of how a combined culture: Mexican-Americans, could show their pride and identity in this century. In conjunction, gave the opportunity for women to speak their voice and forever change the culture of Latino/a markets. Not only did it express identity/gender roles of women and relationships, but using these relationships to combine the cultures of Mexican and American into a hybrid breed. This novel, should have been a view-point for the future to show that there is more to life than just gender and race.

In a way the children were innocent before Miss Moore came along. They thought that everyone else old, stupid, young, or foolish- while the children were perfect. Miss Moore showed them what they truly were- and why education was so important.

The academy has more than 2,800 member dentists worldwide. For more information, visits the website aadsm.org or call

The world is filled with many different types of societies and cultures. This is due to the fact that many people share dissimilar beliefs and ideas, as well as diverse ways of life. People lived under different circumstances and stipulations, therefore forming cultures and societies with ideas they formulated, themselves. These two factors, society and culture, are what motivate people to execute the things that they do. Many times, however, society and culture can cause downgrading effects to an assemblage if ever it is corrupt or prejudiced. Society and culture not only influences the emotions individuals have toward things like age differences, religion, power, and equality but also the actions they perform as a result.

is not quite good enough. Rita wants to be of a higher status than her

Educating Rita is the tale of one working class women 's struggle to find an escape to a boring, repetitive life and to find new things to conquer. To acheive this she begins university on a literature course despite the discouragement from family and baby-obsessed husband Denny. The play features only two characters, Rita and Frank. Frank- a middle class, well-educated, eloquent professor and Rita, an abrupt, crude excuse for a lady with no regard for or more precise, no knowing of social nouce. Throughout the play Rita 's character must reach two social extremities before she can learn to be true to herself. Arriving in Frank 's office loud and sarcastic

Educating Rita tells a story of a 26-year-old married hairdresser, Rita, who decided to get education by taking a course in English literature from the Open University. Through the development of the relationship between Rita and her alcoholic and cynical tutor, Frank, this story brings up many concepts in adult development and education. After watching the movie, I have a further understanding of the concepts of changes, motivation to learn, freedom, and stability.

have taken place in Rita’s life since we last saw her, in the play we

I think the first question was about Chekhov; coz y' know I'm dead familiar with Chekhov now' Rita's confidence has become more obvious because 'dead surprised' has now become 'dead familiar' this shows that Rita has now become a different person. Before Frank had met Rita he was unhappy with his life he was drinking a lot, bored of lecturing and teaching so he decided he would so some work with the Open University and of course Rita was his first student. ' Can I offer you a drink? ... Scotch'