'Ranch Girl' Arguing from Experience

The story is told in second person, which gives the reader a sense of being in the story, at the same time being an observer. It begins with telling you where you stand in the socio-economics’ and in the eyes of your peers. “If you’re white, and you’re not rich or poor but somewhere in the middle, it’s hard to have worse luck than be born a girl on the Ranch. It doesn’t matter if your father is the foreman or the rancher – you’re still a ranch girl, and you’ve been dealt a bad hand.” (551)

There was one moment in the book where she had to make probably one of the most difficult choices in her life, yet she did not hesitate to make that choice. Jeannette’s older sister, Lori, always wanted to move to New York to escape her delusional parents. However, she did not have enough money to pay for a bus ticket, wiping out any hope that she had. " ‘I'll never get out of here,’ Lori kept saying. ‘I'll never get out of here.’ ‘You will,’ I said. ‘I swear it.’ I believed she would. Because I knew that if Lori never got out of Welch, neither would I.” Then one day, Jeannette was offered $200 and a bus ticket back to Welch to take care of a woman’s two toddlers in Iowa for the summer. Instead, she insisted that the woman, Mrs. Sanders, should take Lori and her payment be a “bus ticket to New York City.” The fact that Jeannette easily made the decision of sacrificing her ticket for Lori amazes me; she knew how important the trip the New York was for her, so she wanted to make that dream happen. When Lori left, Jeannette still did not give up on her dream to go to New York and become a journalist. She joined just about “every extracurricular event at the school” to gain the attention of colleges, particularly in New York. The motivation that can be found in this is that you cannot give up on your ambitions

The life of a ranch girl is unknown to many people across America. In Maile Meloy’s Ranch Girl, a female narrator brings the reader into her hard life being raised as a ranch girl. Through many different literary devices including, tone, mood, and characterization, the writer set the reader to feel everything the narrator depicts and the reader ingested with a heavier impact than the reader anticipates. The obligation to the community for the ranch girl is to break all stereotypes, thus showing her community and all ranch girls alike that she can be successful and break free of the ranch girl life.

Love is different for each and every person. For some, it comes easy and happens early in life. For others, such as Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, it happened much later in life after two unsuccessful marriages. Janie’s grandmother, Nanny raised Janie to be attracted to financial security and physical protection instead of seeking love. Nanny continually emphasized that love was something that was bound to happen after those needs were met; even though Nanny never married. Janie formulates her ideal of love while sitting under a pear tree as a teenager; one that fulfilled her intellectually, emotionally, spiritually and physically. She was then informed that she was to have an arranged marriage to an older

We live in a society that has increasingly stomped on love, depicting it as cruel, superficial and full of complications. Nowadays it is easy for people to claim that they are in love, even when their actions say otherwise, and it is just as easy to claim that they are not when they really are. Real love is difficult to find and keeping it alive is even harder, especially when one must overcome their own anxieties and uncertainties. This is the main theme present in Russell Banks’ short story “Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story,” as well as in “The Fireman’s Wife,” written by Richard Bausch. These narratives, although similar in some aspects, are completely different types of love stories.

She travels from Kentucky to Illinois, from Illinois to Kansas, and she finds herself stopping in Oklahoma. This is where she is left with Turtle, a young, Cherokee baby who gets left in her car. Taylor takes on the responsibility of Turtle and brings the child on her journey with her. She accepts her role as a mother in Turtle’s life, and faces her underlying fear of motherhood. As she continues to drive, she sees the beauty of Arizona, and fate is left behind. “The whole scene was too goofy to be real...Whether my car conked out or not, I made up my mind to live in Arizona” (Kingsolver 47-48). She looks to the sky, and sees these beautiful, pink clouds up in the sky. They are Taylor’s deciding factor. These clouds are a symbol of Taylor’s journey truly beginning. This is what made her decide to stay in Arizona. The scenery was something she had never experienced before, and she decided, no matter what, that she wanted to be in Arizona and make it her new home. This is a big step for Taylor because she was never one for staying places, but these clouds were certainty to her, and she knew that this would be where her community would be formed. This is where she faces all her fears. She not only gets a job in a tire shop, but becomes a mother. If she did not push fate, she would have never ended up in

This decision shows that her confidence and adult-like composure allows her to live in a safer environment. The quality of life at home with her mother is poor. Her dynamic change of being confident allows her to make the decision and move away from Kansas to Minnesota. This move shows her final development of confidence because she could not have made that decision early on in the book. This is because she was unsure of herself and let others make decisions for her. Even though she is leaving Park, Park not only was her love life, but a symbol of help and a push to cause her to be able to change into the adult she is. She is choosing how to live, and not letting the chaotic mess at home rule her life and make it miserable. Park taught her to be herself, to make her own decisions and that is why she dynamically changed. She no longer relies on others to tell her who she is rather,

Kathy made her life aspirations no secret to John, but due to multiple circumstances he was unable to give it to her, thus leaving Minnesota was an easy fix. The one thing that Kathy had wanted out of

She went to Governor Mifflin School District. She had good grades, her favorite subject being English, and her least favorite being math. She never really had a favorite teacher but liked them all equally. She never had a rough time in school, when she did, it was in math class. She was a good person but she got in trouble sometimes when she would do what she wasn't supposed to do. Early in her life, she would go to Delaware in the Indian River Inlet, or Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. For fun, she would hang out with friends, roller skate, go to the mall and shop, go to the movies, and go bike riding. She also had a time in her life when she moved down to Charlotte, North Carolina. When she moved down there she liked it but she said it was a lot more different than Pennsylvania. She had a completely different way of living down in North Carolina. The first year it was disappointing, but then later when she started to get the feel of how different it was, she loved it. She learned a whole new way of life down in North Carolina. She liked how warm it was, and how winters did not have that much snow. For vacation sometimes, her, her parents, and brothers and sisters would go to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Overall, she didn’t want to move back up to Pennsylvania but she would not have had a child if she hasn't have moved

On her days off she likes reading and making arts and crafts with clay but when she’s on the clock she is a school psychologist in the Cottage Grove school district. I asked why she wanted to become a school psychologist. She replied “I liked the idea of helping kids but being a school psychologist I am able to help kids who are more special needs.” After working at Cottage Grove schools for 11 years she wants to get her doctorates in education to become an administrator and possibly work for the Oregon Department of Education. Yet, none what happened in Oregon would have happened if she hadn't conquered the precarious peaks of the Rocky

There are many types of love in the world, and many different ways to love a person. Without the right type of love, one’s personal growth is often stunted and it can prove to be detrimental to one’s wellbeing. This is shown and explored in both “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “Do You Know Where I Am?” by Sherman Alexie. Although the characters differ in gender and mental health, they are both stuck in marriages that lack communication and ultimately, the type of love they need.

Learning about Girl’s Ranch and sex trafficking from Cece was an eye opening experience. She discussed many aspects of the ranch, the safe harbor lay, details of sex trafficking, and services as well as experiences of victims.

The decision of the narrator to move in the south is greatly influenced by the death of his mother, which is one of the Foster themes James Johnson developed on this section. Furthermore, the death of his mother made him contemplates what he wants for his future, and compelled him to move to the South and continue his education at the Atlanta University. Since, his mother, “had a half desire for [him] to go to Atlanta University” (Pg. 30) he is doing his mother a favor by abiding her wishes to continue his life as a scholar, in the campus where her mother wants him to study. In result, even though his mother already passed away, he’s still able to make his mother contented by his decision to move in the South. Even more, another reason he was

She really likes going to school and learning new things, although feels as if she doesn’t fit in anywhere except the world that they just discovered. Alex influences the conflict by being in love with the new world and always wanting to see anything that kids from her world can’t. She goes on and on leading her brother and herself into dangerous situations. Conner is tired and hates everything about the idea of school. He is found as one of the most popular kids in his school. Also at first he didn’t want to go into the critical land, however he knew he had no choice if the only way to leave was to get through the land of stories. Connor influences the conflict by coming up with plans to get through the dangerous searches. For instance, Alex and Conner just fell through the book, and Conner is angry with Alex, furthermore wishing they would have destroyed the book. “I hope your happy, Alex… I told you we should have thrown the book into the creek!” (p.73) The quote shows that Conner is being sarcastic and does not want to travel through this world. Also, Alex is feeling insecure about being at school and wishes she was somewhere other than there.

When is the right time to love? Perhaps it isn’t a right or wrong time for that. Some people seem to feel love at a young age, some others later on in their lives, and yet some others never feel it at all. This conflict of being in love or not, being too young or not is illustrated in the beautiful poem “Brown Penny” by William Butler Yeats; an Irish poet consider one of the most talented and revolutionary figures of 20th-century literature. His work was greatly influenced by his country's beauty, folklore, and politics (Unterecker). Thus, this poem shows the folkloric meaning of throwing a penny and the connection, the author sees, with the chances of finding love.