In Search of April Raintree by Beatrice Culleton

Betty’s temporary time as a model again ended abruptly. The agency told her that the campaign was moving to Europe but in actuality, the company was only interested in her husband, Don. The company had no intention of signing Betty as a model. Her dreams started to come true but were taken away from her suddenly. She told her husband that she decided she wanted to spend more time at home, which is a lie. You know this is a lie because she immediately goes out to the backyard and starts to shoot doves with a BB gun. April’s outcome differs from Betty’s because she takes her dreams into her own hands, she doesn’t let other people decide for her. April wants to go to Paris and she takes all the necessary steps to go. She gets visas and Frank goes in to quit his job until he is offered a promotion that he cannot refuse. Frank thinks to himself, asking himself why he doesn’t want to go to Paris, “Besides: why think of accepting Pollock’s money as a mere compromise solution, an enforced making-the-best-of things until the renewal of her ability to support him in Paris? Didn’t it have the weight and dignity of a plan in its own right?” (Yates 221) The Wheeler’s end up staying in their home and never go to Paris. April is disappointed. The outcomes of both these women’s dreams are different. Betty chooses to give up her dreams while April is forced to give up her dream of living in Paris and getting a

As the year progresses, Conrad becomes interested in this girl name Jeannine Pratt, who just move to Lake Forest. They go on dates and spend a lot of time together. That spring his parents decided to go on a get away vacation just for two of them, since Beth believes Calvin worries too much about and needs some time to relax. So Conrad goes stay at his grandparents house. One day, He saw in the newspaper that his friend Karen has committed suicide and past away. He was very shock about this. The only thing that was on his mind was about his suicide attempt, his time with Karen, and his decent brother. Immediately, that night he called Berger and ask to meet up with him immediately. Conrad finally comes to realize that he has been living in Buck’s shoes. Like Berger said, he needs to live for himself and for others, and needs to open up for a change. From then on, he began to let his inner self heal and enjoy his relationship with Karen. Soon after, his mom move to Europe when they returned from the trip. Conrad and his dad move to Evanston and started a new life. Conrad starts to open up to Calvin more, instead of blocking him out of this

April was forced to wear very ugly clothing to school.  Mrs. DeRosier also wasn't sending the mail that April was sending and receiving from Cheryl.  Jennifer, a former friend of April helped her out in both of these areas.

When lily went to South Carolina she goes to a lady named August. August is very artifice. Lily stays at her honey house for several months with her aunt Rooselyn. As she lives there she goes through many adventures and meets a ton of new people. She meets her true love Zach and two sister of August named May and June. She finds out a lot about her mother. She finds out that her mother Deborah stayed at the same honey house. She also finds out that her mother ran away from T-Ray when he was abusive. At the end T-Ray finds Lily at Augusts house and he threatens her that she has to come back home with him. Lily fights and eventually convinces T-Ray that she is better off with August and forgives him.

The loss of her husband causes Amanda to develop a dependence on her children. She wants Tom and Laura to become successful. Amanda complains that Tom does not earn enough money at the shoe factory. She wants him to attend night school so he can attain a better career.

The novel begins on a Halloween day with Annie McGowan going to the park with two of friends, Marla and Rene. When they arrive at the park, Annie notices someone new and could not keep her eyes off him. She decided to go up to him and she introduces herself to him. She finds out that his name is Kevin Griffin. Later that night, Kevin was accused of kicking Sue; however, Annie finds out that he was innocent because Sue was the one who

("Mary realized the letter effectively closed the door on her college aspirations. She had already completed sixteen hours of college credits and would get no closer toward graduation."pg.17) They both are loving and supporting to their kids and wanted the best by trying to get them to avoid the violence they had around their neighborhood. But without their Mothers guide they couldn’t follow the right path growing up. Joy gets married but has to end up leaving Bill due to his drug addiction and violent abuse. Soon after, she meets and marries Westly and has two children with him. Westly dies so Joy ends up moving back in to the Bronx with her family. Marys' husband dies when Moore was young. They were both similar because they lived in Baltimore and had to raise their boys without a father figures. Mary responds cruelly when she discovers that Wes is managing drugs, vindictively flushing a great many dollars of medications that Wes intended to sell down the can. Moore's dismissal of Riverdale and poor scholastic exhibitions puts a critical strain on his association with his mom,

She opens the door to her childhood, beginning with when she was 3 years old and boiling her own hot dog by standing on top of the chair to reach the stovetop. While doing that, her pink dress catches on the fire because of which gets her horribly burned. She spends a few days in the hospitals and enjoys it too, because she is getting food on time and is not left starving. One day her dad shows up and they run off out of the hospital without paying the bills of her treatment. That night her family leaves the town and move to another place, taking as much stuff as possible with them. Most of her childhood memories involve her whole family- mom, dad, Jeanette, Lori, Brian, and later on Maureen -moving from one desert towns to another, settling in as long as her dad can hold the job. This happened more frequently due to the dad’s alcoholism coupled with his paranoia about the organized society and the state. One of the towns they stayed in was Battle Mountain, Nevada, where they spend a few months. Jeanette and her brother Brian spent many hours exploring the desert and collecting rocks. Even their mother got a job as a teacher and

Then Frankie goes to a bar and an army man tries to kiss Frankie but she won't let him. Although the book, talks about how Frankie decides to go with Janis and Jarvis and she ends up buying a dress but Bernice thinks that it does not look good on her.

At a young age April Raintree realizes she is different and feels ashamed of who she is, she tries to hide her native

“I felt anger and bewilderment. Not at Cheryl or anyone else. Mostly, I guess the anger was for me. For being the way I was. Because it had caused Cheryl to feel so alienated from me that she couldn’t share the most important event in her life with me. Cheryl’s baby. Henry Liberty Raintree. Then I smiled. A part of Cheryl still lived.” April thought to herself ( Mosionier,

If she could not put down a security deposit for the apartment she wanted. It would have resulted in her getting a hotel, which is ultimately more costly. She wouldn’t be able save money on food because the low price hotels do not have kitchens to cook in, and healthcare is very expensive if you cannot afford health insurance. It was clear that she need another job to make ends meet. So that is exactly what she did. She gets a second waitressing job at Jerry’s. Jerry’s is no better than Hearthside, but the pay is much better. Because of time she is scheduled to work at Jerry’s conflicts with Hearthside, so she decides to quite Hearthside. To save more money she decides to move closer to Key West. She moves into a trailer in the Overseas Trailer Park. After working for a month in waitressing she gets another job in housekeeping at a hotel. She works from 9 am to whenever she finishes her work. She only last at the hotel for one day. That afternoon she heads in to work at Jerry’s. Jerry’s begins to be too much for her. From being sleep deprived and tired she couldn’t take it any more especially when Joy starts screaming at her. She walks out of Jerry’s never looking back to return.

April Raintree was a strong independent girl growing up who took care of her younger sister Cheryl going in and out of different foster homes. They attended in a few different residential schools all with the same rules, same type of people. April was full “Indian” with a lighter skin colour than her sister Cheryl did not care about her race, skin colour or what others thought, quite confident and to be proud and be strong about her and her family all at one point before entering foster homes. April and Cheryl got separated but never lost touch with one another up until April got married and moved away to live a life she always dreamed of, to be rich, pretty and live the “white life” so she can not feel embarrassed anymore. It has been two years since the sisters been in touch and Cheryl told April; “ Look, April, you’ve changed a lot and I

Then, the story flashes back to several months prior. This time Anna is in Nantucket trying to collect herself after leaving her husband. The back-story to their affair is given in the explanation of how they met and how they spend their time. The chronology is again thrown out as the storyline makes a jump forward to what was supposed to be their last meeting. Anna expects her lover to understand that she must go back to her secluded world and he must go back to his, but he doesn't seem to want that for them. Anna, since the start of this affair, has been indecisive and confused, but as the story moves she grows out of touch with herself and the rest of the world. She alarms herself when she looks in the mirror. "She returned to her husband and saw that another woman, a shadow woman had taken her place" (181). In contrast, the final even takes place in perfect sequential order, and as a consequence Anna leaves the event with a clearer understanding of herself and the way she relates to the rest of the world. When she leaves her lover for the final time, she is content and no longer confused, she even seems happy. "Suddenly, joyfully, she felt miraculously calm" (190). The confusing sequence of events is wrapped up nicely with the sequential order of the ending, which culminates with a clearer minded Anna.

     However Rob tells Laura that he only wants her and the he wants to marry her, he finally realizes that he gets nothing out of the many past relationships and they are meaningless compared to his relationship with Laura. Since Rob has begun to understand who he is and what it takes to have an intimate and fully committed relationship he has began to mature towards a more role-focused relationship with Laura. He is realizing what she wants and what they need to do in order to make it work. They have begun to take on the roles of spouse and partner in life. While this is going on Rob begins making a C.D. with some kids that had earlier broken in to his store. He feels even more passionate about making music then about his store and Laura sets up a gig for him to DJ again and to premiere his new single.