Ines Fermin

Adolescents are very unlikely to reach their full potential without the guidance of an adult figure, such as a mother, father, sibling, or guardian. Adult figures are essential to a growing child because they exemplify decision making, wisdom, and overall life lessons on how to grow up. Although some children do have an adult figure in their life, they aren’t always the best influences for their children, adults also face their own battles which can reflect upon their exterior, ultimately having a critical effect on a child’s development. For example, in “Running with Scissors” by Augusten Burroughs, the main character Augusten lives with his mother who suffers from a mental disorder who guides him into a pathway of chaos and disorder. Augusten learns to cope with no guidance, but still faces many issues that could have been resolved with a reassuring adult figure.

This is about an essay titled The Dreamer by Junot Diaz. To sum it all up, it is about a boy telling the story of his mother as a child and the hardships she went through as a child. Can you imagine going up against your strict mother for an education all while trying to survive as a little girl in a third world country? This is a little girl's story of how she did it all. I am responding to it where abuse is a bigger problem and also how hard it can be to get an education. I feel that the essay relates to me because I have had hardships trying to do things as well. Since I am the older sibling in my family I always had a hard time getting out to do fun things, just as the young girl wanted to get out to learn.

The autobiographical essays in “The Girls in My Town” by Angela Morales creates her violent personality over time, ranging from childhood to adulthood. As a little girl she always took everything from everyone dealing with bullies and her crazy father. The type of violence she deals with is domestic and emotional abuse from her father. She goes on to write about her parent’s appliance store and how she escaped from it developing a different personality. She as well writes about her experiences in the bowling alley that she feels made her safer. She remembers fighting for equal rights for girls as a sixth grader, calling the cops when her parents fought. Morales did not live an easy live she had to deal with the daily girl problems during her time and the fact of her parents being divorced which she described as an excellent relationship when in reality it was not.

Living in Mexico throughout her teen years was very rough. Unlike other teenagers where their parents constantly provide for their children, Marisela’s life was a lot different than the usual parent- child relationship. She lived with her Abuela ( Grandma) Lupe, along with her 3 brothers and sister. She constantly had to take care of her brothers and sister at such a young age, that she became the mother-like figure of the

In Isabel Allende’s Inés of My Soul, one woman, Inés Suarez, challenges the traditional role of women and society by embarking upon a journey alongside her companion to conquer a part of the New World. Throughout the expedition, Inés faces challenges because of her gender, yet she also manages to use her gender and the traditional gender role to her advantage.

Hernandez does what she can to keep her own head above water by getting a job at a local McDonalds and keeping her grades up in school. Though guilty of her own successes Hernandez did what she had to do, to survive and create her own future.

Clo grew up in a time when the gender roles for Mexican women were more traditional and her father really only expected her to get married and not much else. Her father actually arranged for her to be married to a wealthy man that was her father’s age. All Clo wanted to do was go to art school in Paris but her father ignored her pleas. On the day of the wedding, Clo came down the stairs naked and embarrassed her father so much so that he sent her away to the art school in Paris with money to help keep her away.

The development of characters transpire as a result of significant events in their lives. Events such as learning a new skill have the ability to transform a character’s life. Estrella in Helena Maria Viramontes’ novel Under the Feet of Jesus flourishes into an individual who once got upset over skills she did not have and was upset at the process of learning, but now understands how vital education is. Estrella was infuriated by her lack of understanding about the Perfecto’s tools and the letters on the chalkboard. She was especially agitated when the educators would not give her the answer right away The selection of detail shows the connection between two things she overcame. The tone and figurative language shows more detail about Estrella’s transformation.

In the story “Woman Hollering Creek” Sandra Cisneros explains the journey Cleofilas takes to escape her abusive husband, physically and emotionally. At the beginning of the story Cleofilas thought life was about finding your true love and living happily ever after. Then when she moved away, and her husband started beating her she realized life was more than living like this. The theme of the story is the feeling of disaffection or self-displacement. Cisneros uses the character Cleofilas to heighten the theme of the story. Cleofilas struggles to leave her husband, Juan because she feels that her father wouldn’t allow her to come back. At the end of the story she gets tired of the abuse and plans to

As she is deported back to Mexico, Serafina is assaulted, raped and left for dead on the floor. Serafina woke up and she can feel the blood seeping through her clothes, she heard a voice and was her mother telling her not to move. Serafinas mother was so happy to see her daughter back in her arms, until she heard that her daughter had a child from a white man and instead of the man she was promised to. Serafinas mother had told her that it was part of their culture for them to take care of there mom. Serafina had stayed in Mexico to take care of her mother until she has sadly passed away.

Quazonte currently lives with his mother and siblings. Quazonte follows household rules and expectations, and obeys some rules. Quazonte is consistently subject to appropriate consequences for bad behavior and consistently receives appropriate rewards for good behavior. His mother always practices good supervision and she clearly disapproves of his behavior. Quazonte 's home includes some conflict, but it is well managed. Most of the conflict was characterized by Ms. Edward’s as “sibling disagreements, like brothers and sisters have with one another. Nothing ever gets out of hand or physical.” She stated her authority is accepted in the home and respected by her children. Quazonte has never runaway or been kicked out of the house.

Shonquasia responded well to the intervention. Shonquasia continues to make progress towards her goals. Shonquasia stated, trusting other people, and being respectful to her mom. Shonquasia stated, get better grades, using profanity, talking back, follow rules of the house, and leaving the home without permission. Shonquasia stated, doing chores, get up for school every day, complete homework and class assignments, caring for her younger siblings when mom is at work and taking care of self. Shonquasia stated it depend on the situation. Shonquasia stated that she does like to make promises to people. Shonquasia stated, that people make promises to her and do not keep it. Shonquasia stated. that her mom make promises to her and never follow

Cleofilas in “Woman Hollering Creek” and Sandra in “His Story” are influenced by the women they meet or hear about in their communities. Sandra describes from her father’s perspective the status of women in their family. It is clear her father is upset that his only daughter is unmarried and is the only child of his six children to leave home. The father predicts the consequences of her behavior by recalling the female relatives whose lives ended badly because they went against the norms. “For instance,/ my father explains,/ in the Mexican papers/ a girl with both my names/ was arrested for audacious crimes that began by disobeying fathers” (Cisneros, “His Story”). The women in the stories are those who disgraced the family in one way or another. Sandra does not let the stories stifle her ambitions, even though they were meant to warn her. Just

When a child is forced to make decisions alone at such a young age their innocence is robbed from them and their development is lead down a path which they are not yet ready for. Her actions are a classic example of this and the path which she was lead down was paved with boy after boy.

pressured to oblige her parent’s wishes. to heed the old . As a result, young