Reena Virk Analysis

     Mary Pipher, author of the book Reviving Ophelia, has made many observations concerning young adolescent girls in our society. She wrote this book in 1994, roughly eleven years ago. Although some of her observations made in the past are not still accurate in today’s world, there are many that are still present in 2005. The primary focus of Pipher’s comments is to explain how young girls are no longer being protected within our society.

Her eyes were blinded by the sight of the lightning. Margot stepped slowly out of the closet. She looked at all of her so called “friends” thinking of why they did this to her. She thought, “What did I do to them to deserve this?” She had never shoved their faces in the dirt, or stolen their lunches, she had never spoken a word to anyone. Maybe that was the problem? She cared for the other children even though, they were not as intelligent or self-assured as she was. She didn’t degrade them for this, in fact, she wanted to be like them. Margot hated every part of being different. She wanted to forget the sun that she used to see and be like the children.

“OK, girls! Everyone make sure they are packed with a sleeping bag, swimsuit, and a change of clothes.” I counted in my head as seventeen girls walked out of the cabin and to the road. I began to look around. There should have been eighteen girls, not seventeen. I my head towards the corner of the room and saw Jordan, sitting in the bunk bed, with her nose buried in the newest of the sci-fi series she was reading. I made my way over to her bed and waited patiently for her to finish the page.

To start off, Jess’s dreams are more important than here culture, because they are who she is as a person. Jess does not simply want to be the traditional Indian girl that her parents want her to be, she wants more. Instead, Jess makes a bold decision that traditional Indian girls wouldn’t do, she chose to

ven though the article is a difficult read and hard to comprehend at some points, the article is a valuable resource because the article is supported by a mountain of evidence, organized and Lynn Blin understand Alice Munro’s writing style. Lynn Blin understands the way Alice Munro’s writing style works with the underlying dark or “naughty” concepts of “Friend of My Youth”. The article does not only analyze the story itself but the writing techniques and the deeper meanings, or as the writer, Lynn Blin says the different narratives. Throughout the article itself, she goes into detail about the different narrators and how each narrator sees how the world works and the situations that the characters face. Blin mainly focuses on the words

Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls, is author, Mary Pipher’s attempt to understand her experiences in therapy with adolescent girls (Pipher, p. 11). In the text adolescence is described as a border between childhood and adulthood (Pipher, p. 292). In her quest to understand adolescent girls, Pipher attempts to answer these questions: Why are so many girls in therapy in the 1990s? Why are there more self-mutilators? What is the meaning of lip, nose and eyebrow piercings? How do I help thirteen-year-olds deal with herpes or genital warts? Why are drugs and alcohol so common in the stories of seventh-graders? Why do so many girls hate their parents? (Pipher, p. 11-12). These questions are answered through self-reflection, stories from clients, and interviews with adolescent girls at different levels of maturation.

Adolescent girls growing up in today’s society endure many more hardships than in previous years. Adolescence is no longer a time of endless sunny days spent on the back porch with a glass of country time lemonade and a smile extending ear to ear. Adolescence for girls is now generalized as a dark and depressing period of life that often seems hopeless and never ending. Mary Pipher PH.D tries to illustrate just how drastically life has changed over the years for teenage girls through her best selling book “Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls”. Although Mary Pipher was once a clinical psychologist, she articulates very well for everyone to clearly understand her ideas and perspectives. One way

The interview I conducted took place in the courtyard of my complex in Smallville, with the interviewee and myself. For the purpose of his paper and to protect the adolescent privacy lets call her Regina. Regina is a fourteen-year-old adolescent female of Africa American descent. She is above average in height and carries a very shy and nonchalance deposition. She is a very attractive young lady and does above average work in her school setting. She appears to be a normal every day child with a lifetime of experiences awaiting her.

Rayona is in a way lost and can’t seem to find her place in the world. She thinks about herself in the way that she thinks others think of her. She is fifteen years old at the time and does not have a lot of sense of her self. Rayona is half African American and Native American, which makes her think she’s different from others and makes her have a low self esteem. She struggles with her identity and physical appearance. Another thing that makes it difficult for her to find her true self is that she lacks information about her heritage. Her dream is to have a “normal” life, meaning to have a functional happy family and to be able to fit in. Rayona feels like a real family is the opposite of what she has. She goes through a series of events and learns a little about her self in each of them. Rayona is

Judy Rebick, in the newspaper The Globe and Mail which provides information for people across North America, wrote an article called Victims must speak out first (December 21, 2002), that suggests that after the Holocaust, mistreatment of Jews receded, but now that the horrors of the Holocaust are not as present as they were in the past, Anti-Semitism is re-emerging. Rebrick supported this assertion by revealing to readers that this ethnic hatred has returned after a long time without it, saying “There has been more discussion of anti-Semitism in Canada in the past two weeks than I can remember in my adult life. Earlier this month, three respected men on the left accused the Canadian left of anti-Semitism. And this week, a previously respected

In Miss Representation, many female actresses, news anchors, politicians, directors and producers talk about how females suffer a lot of social, political and economic inequalities in today’s society. There are double standards against women in magazines, on TV, in movies, the news, politics, and the workplace. The media is an influential part of modern culture. When women are portrayed as objects for men to use -- never as the protagonist or president -- and when female news anchors are objectified, this will cause girls of all ages to begin viewing themselves as objects. Girls grow up in a world where their voice does not count; where our culture does not embrace them in all of their diversities, where

To resist this neglection, Miranda's bluntness and dark humor enables for an early-generation California Indian, Vicenta, and a modern-day California Indian descendant, Miranda, to find strength in each other's experiences of violence, even if the world fails to properly acknowledge the horrors that California Indians have experienced. As Miranda directly addresses Vicenta when she states: “‘I’m sorry, because I don’t know what to tell you. I could try and be funny and say, ‘Hey, guess that priest gave up celibacy for Lent, huh?’ Or I could go for a crude wink...That’s how I’ve learned to deal with it…”(23), Miranda’s coarse humor and direct words of apology, create the effect of resistance. The violence that was perpetrated by Father Real to Vicenta and to all the other women who have suffered violence on the hands of non-Indians, was intended to deteriorate the California Indians. Instead, Miranda transforms this perception into a story of strength. Vicenta’s assault is told bluntly in order to unveil the truth of violence and and suffering encountered. While California Indians continue to be victims of violence from non-Indians, Miranda’s letter reminds the community that the presence of violence will be there, but that they must take control of their experiences and make them stories to be shared truthfully and unforgotten.

Despite the fact that she has barely enough financial resources to keep her own body and soul together, she takes on the care of a Cherokee child of indeterminate age,

(Heubeck 2006) For many young people, especially girls, the ideal continues to chase them as they grow into young women. Young girls begin to internalize the stereotypes and judge themselves by media’s impossible standards. The power that the media holds in impacting the lives of young girls is detrimental and eventually affects their body image, their satisfaction of their own body, and portrayal of their body as an object.

Although a light read, her experience is heart-breaking as she is abused at home, institutionalized, and instead of being treated for her depression, doctor’s attempt to “feminize” her with eye shadow and lipstick. She is the type of advocate that makes noise in a silence because she tells a tale that would otherwise be unknown.