Karen Kingsbury's The Bridge

Reading the book, The Other Side of the River, by Alex Kotlowitz, the author writes about the relationship between two towns in Michigan, and the death of a young boy named Eric McGinnis. The two towns, Benton Harbor and St. Joseph, are called the “Twin Cities”, but are ironically not related in any way. St. Joseph is 95 percent white, while Benton Harbor is impoverished and is 92 percent black. Throughout the book Kotlowitz questions the residents from both towns and how they are affected by the environment around them. The author also starts with the climax on the first page of the book – the death of Eric, and uses this as an technique to tell the story of the disagreements between the two towns.

Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand tells the story of a boy named Louis Zamperini. Who in spite of great challenges, manages to rise to the occasion during a time of war. My late grandfather, Robert J. Randle fought in that very same war. Although he is not able to tell me himself what the war was like and what he had done, I was able to find evidence of his most prestigious accomplishments. Much like Louis, Robert was unmoving in the face of adversity.

Every human being on the planet has a limit. Whether it be mentally, physically or emotionally, people all have a breaking a point, a place where the line must be drawn. This is a simple fact that all humans know, an instinctive knowledge that lives in the bones of humanity. But when people witness others enduring situations that would crush most people underfoot, the dirt, grit and struggle that these heroes crawl through to stay alive, it amazes everyone. That is why it is easy to understand how anyone might admire Louie Zamperini. A child rebel as stubborn as a bull turned into a war hero who survived what no one else could even fathom- Louie Zamperini is far from a weak man as described in “Unbroken”, written by Laura Hillenbrand. But there was

¨For these men, nothing was ever going to be the same¨ (Hillenbrand 251). War impacts everyone, from POWs to normal citizens. In the novel, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, Louie Zamperini was made invisible in POW camps. He was tortured, starved, beaten, and stripped of his dignity. Opposite of Louie, Miné Okubo was an American citizen that was put in an internment camp after the bombing of Pearl Harbor because of her Japanese ancestry. Both Miné Okubo and Louie Zamperini experienced isolation and dehumanization in their situations. Even though Japanese-American internees and American POWs were tried to be made invisible in World War II, both groups resisted and made efforts to regain their dignity.

The novel Ordinary People, by Judith Guest is about a family trying to recover after the death of the eldest son, Buck. It opens up a month after Conrad Jarrett has returned home from the hospital after attempting to kill himself.

For how long should women remain under the dominion of their husbands? Women live in a world that is male dominated and at times have to be submissive to the dominion of their husbands. In most of the societies, the ideas and the activities of women are not credited at all. Gail Godwin is a female activist concerned with the plight of women in the society. She is a writer who has won several awards courtesy of her works. In most of her works she studies the disappointment that women undergo at the hands of the society. She studies the kind of betrayal, denial and the desperation that women pass though in pursuit of their goals. Among his many works is the “Sorrowful Woman”. The Sorrowful Woman is a symbolic tale of a woman who deviates from

Imagine a feeling of being safe and secure in a place you call home, but as you age, you realize it was not as safe as you thought. This is what Jacqueline Woodson felt. In the short story When a Southern Town Broke a Heart, Woodson introduces growing up and changing as the central idea of her story. In this story, Jacqueline Woodson wanted to think her home town was safe, but as she gets older she realizes that racism and segregation is still happening in her town so she no longer feels safe and she clings to her grandmother. By observing how her character changes over the course of the plot, it seems evident that Woodson is trying to convey to the reader that as we grow older we realize new things that were hidden from us.

The author of The Other Side, Jacqueline Woodson, uses tone, symbolism, and the audience in many ways. Woodson’s tone in The Other Side is acceptance; he shows acceptance when the girls play with each other even though they live in a segregated community. The symbol Woodson uses is the fence to show that people can overcome barriers separating them and other people. Woodson’s audience is young children; he wrote this book for them to show that skin color doesn’t matter it is what is on the inside that counts.

'The book, how will it end?' I popped the question as his fingers absent mindedly made curls in my hair. We had been lazing around for quiet a while now. Autumn was at its peak and a chill had started settling in my bones. He gave me a sidelong glance as he mumbled, 'Don't you wanna know that yourself?' even though his face remained hidden by his diary I could've sworn I saw a ghost of his smile. 'Come on don't be sucha tease' upon hearing the impatience in my voice he huffed a laugh and sat his diary aside. I sat up beside him, our backs leaning on the old oak tree.

As an adult reader who has crossed over to the reality of life, reading about these characters can be a transparent, futile exercise because as adults looking back at youth we have the experience to know where these characters are headed before they even start their journey. However, for young adults who are still in the throes of existential angst this is a powerful novel that handles teenage rites of passage and coming-of-age issues such as loyalty, friendship, belonging, and even death and loss very well.

Most texts in the literary canon are written by men so the entries of text that are by women are something of a different nature. Having your novel recognized as one worthy of being in the canon is a title like no other and books like Ordinary People who are written by a female are unique to the canon with their stylistic choices. After reading Judith Guest's novel Ordinary People I was able to see where females differ in writing choices than that of men. The tone of the novel is able to deeply connect with the readers as a more emotional and romantic language is present. I also observed how women paint a greater picture with words by being extremely descriptive and aren’t as straightforward with description as men are.

Clare B. Dunkle made this story easy to understand and creative thinking, One thing in this book I will be talking about is the wonder babies. They are a huge part of the book because they are so much smarter than regular humans. I will also talk about the dome. The dome is such a mysterious place, because everything is the opposite of our world. There is vibrant colors, robot people and everything is “perfect”.

The reader will start to realize that Charlie suffers from PTSD and depression that originated from his Aunt Helen who had molested him multiple times when he was young. Charlie starts off as a freshman who is a bystander, then becomes more confident as he makes friends and becomes depended on, and at the end of freshman year he becomes a mature teenage

Alice Walker’s “The Flowers” is a compacted short story that contains an explosive and unexpected secret in the midst of a rose garden, Walker’s detailed and quick paced plot leaves the reader with no idea about the dark climatic scene at the end of the story. Walker’s quick paced plot develops an unusual structure where the exposition and rising action occupy most of the story while the climax, falling action and resolution hastily occur within the last two paragraphs.

Many books engage the reader’s interest. Two such stories are “Homecoming” by Cynthia Voight and “Will Grayson, Will Grayson” by David Levithan and John Green. There authors captivate the reader’s interest through the themes of choice, the different point of views and the strong principal characters.