Life In Pam Conrad's Prairie Songs

Waterlily by Ella Cara Deloria tells the story of a young woman, Waterlily, and her family as they experience the every-day life on the prairie as Oceti Sakowin. Through the clever storytelling of Waterlily’s childhood, Deloria’s novel covers the Oceti Sakowin family life, camp circle, ceremonies, hunts, and war parties, and the introduction of white presence in the Midwest. Themes of reverence for tradition and honoring of beings and nature span the book; however, the story also exceptionally demonstrates the Oceti Sakowin way of life in a way that illuminates many of the beautiful pieces of the Oceti Sakowin culture. Waterlily displays two particularly significant aspects of the Oceti Sakowin culture: kinship and generosity.

As hardworking women living of the prairie, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters can relate to Mrs. Wright’s situation. They know personally that long days of doing laundry, cooking, and cleaning can become very tiresome (Hedges 91). They realize that living on the prairie can force a woman to be confined to her own house for weeks at a time, and because Mrs. Wright never had children, the grueling loneliness that she suffered must have been excruciating. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters both experience the constant patronization and sexual discrimination that most women in the early twentieth century lived with. They empathize with the difficulties of Mrs. Wright’s life and almost immediately a bond is formed with a woman they do not even know.

In the detailed story of an impoverished family during the late 1900’s, Jeannette Walls describes her experience from the young age of 3, up until adulthood. The family of 6, with Rex Walls as the father, Rose Mary as the mother, and her three siblings, Lori, Brian and Maureen, were constantly moving throughout the country with little to no food or cash. The memoir shows how dysfunctional the family was, but never seemed to force the reader to condemn the parents. In a life of poverty, the have to move for own to town, and often lived in various mining towns. Although they each found something they learned to love (like Jeannette’s rock collection) in the desert, they had to leave them behind once Rex’s alcoholism only worsened, and they ran

Such as, her mother has always been embarrassed of their small Mennonite town in Manitoba , she has felt as if the town and the people that are situated in it hold her back. To Trudy, the town does not allow her to live her life how she wants, nor live it to the fullest. Nomi and her sister, Tash, would often ask each other “Is our mother crazy in a cool, fun way or has she now stepped over the line into disturbing, crazy that we would like to see stopped?”(12). Not only did other in the town think their mother was mad, Nomi along with many others knew that Trudie, her mother, had an eye for travel and that most topics she discussed were about had to do with how amazing and wonderful everything outside their town was, like for example

Kathleen Grissom’s The Kitchen House is an intense, gripping novel set at the turn of the nineteenth century, entertaining and educating about life in the Old South. The first person narration switches between Lavinia McCarten, a young, white indentured servant, and Belle, the caretaker of Lavinia who is also the mixed, illegitimate daughter of Master Pyke. Both of the speakers live in the kitchen house of a tobacco plantation called Tall Oaks, Virginia. When the story begins in 1791, Belle is a young woman, and she teaches six-year-old Lavinia how to cook, clean, and serve. As Lavinia matures, she realizes that her fair skin makes her different from the slaves, her true family, and she learns to accept her responsibilities. Through the eyes of the two, readers learn about what life was like during the times of American slavery. Important themes prevalent in The Kitchen House include racism, drug and alcohol abuse, and innocence.

Waterlily by Ella Cara Deloria tells the story of a young woman, Waterlily, and her family as they experience the every-day life on the prairie as Oceti Sakowin. Through the clever storytelling of Waterlily’s childhood, Deloria’s novel covers the Oceti Sakowin family life, camp circle, ceremonies, hunts, war parties, and the introduction of white presence in the Midwest. Themes of reverence for tradition and honoring of beings and nature span the book; however, the story also exceptionally demonstrates the Oceti Sakowin way of life in a way that illuminates many of the beautiful pieces of the Oceti Sakowin culture. Waterlily displays two particularly significant aspects of the Oceti Sakowin culture: kinship and generosity.

Our Town by Thornton Wilder focuses on the lives of the residents of small town Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire in the early 1900s, more specifically, the lives of young George Gibbs and Emily Webb. Throughout Act I, Thornton describes the daily lives of the people of Grover’s Corners. The milkman delivers the day’s milk, the paperboy brings the morning paper, mothers prepare breakfast, and children get ready for school. The day winds down, everyone has had their supper, homework is finished, and adults arrive home from choir practice. Life in Grover’s Corners is traditional, ordinary, and unremarkable, not much goes on out of the ordinary. Act II focuses on love and marriage in the town. The narrator says “Almost everybody in the world gets married, - you know what I mean? In our town there aren’t hardly any exceptions. Most everybody in the world climbs into their graves married.” and Mrs. Gibbs articulates that “People are meant to go through life two by two. Tain’t natural to be lonesome.”(54) George and Emily get married, much like the other young couples of Grover’s Corners, and proceed to live blithely and contentedly on George’s uncle’s farm. Act III looks into the last act in a person’s life, death. Emily passes away during childbirth, and at the cemetery, she meets the spirits of her mother-in-law and many other deceased townspeople.

My book Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie, was writing by Kristina Gregory. I choose this book, because I thought it would be cool to read about a girl traveling the Oregon Trail back in 1847.

During the summer Mrs. Louis’s daughter and her family would come home from Colorado for two or three weeks to visit. While they were in St. Louis, they would all do things together, whether it was sitting around one of their living

SHERYL COLLINS memories of riches come from her up bring in a small town city in Texas with her heritage being affluent in Louisiana culture as well. She traces her love for storytelling back to her high school journal she shared with her high school best friend. Sheryl embraces her writing with the love of music. She can remember enjoying country days as a small child at family gathering with her family musicians and sometimes her uncle a well known blues singer enjoying gospel, zydeco, and the blues. She did not start to write song until her older sister encourage her to write the words since she was not able to play along on the piano at a primary age. That is why when you visit her on the web you will find the songs that was written for this book to enjoy while reading. http://lavishdirtycash.wix.com/lyricistsheryl

Eleanor, the protagonist, undergoes a difficult childhood which cause many of her repressed feelings to be expressed through supernatural experiences that are ambiguous. She took care of her ill mother for 11 years, until she died. That affected her tremendously. For example, during Theodora’s supernatural experience, Shirley Jackson displays how Eleanor’s inner child managed to let her grow anger and jealously towards Theodora. Eleanor felt like Hill House was giving Theodora more

After reading, “Life on prairie farms (1893),” an excerpt of an article from, “The Isolation of Life on Prairie Farms,” Atlantic Monthly magazine, written by E.V. Smalley. This article’s subject is surrounding the life of those who had lived on prairie farms in the 1800s-1900s. The objective of this article is for the readers to obtain new knowledge or more enlightened knowledge on those who had lived on prairie farms in the time of the 1800s-1900s.

In the short story, the town of Jefferson, Mississippi shows sympathy towards Miss Emily Grierson for the loss of her father and her soon to be husband.

According to Mandy Smith, “My English teacher Mr. Grimes is constantly saying to his class ‘Variety is the spice of writing.’” 14. Joe asked Jerry, “Have you heard the Cowboy Junkies’ rendition of Hank William’s song, ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry?’”

While driving down Lemon Grove Boulevard, after leaving the motel, Marlene smiled, recalling the past few hours she had spent there, rushing to get home before Jerry and Andrew arrived. Pulling into the garage, she went into the house, stopping at a bathroom and brushed her hair as she put on fresh lipstick. Relieved, she had arrived home ahead of her husband and father-in-law, going into the kitchen to make a fresh pot of coffee. While waiting for them, she sat at the counter and glanced through the morning paper. The phone rang, answering it, she said, “Barnes residence may I help you?”