Riding The Bus With My Sister By Beth Simon

Beth is a static and flat character; she does not change throughout the novel, and, on surface levels, does not appear to want to change. She is stuck in her ways of wanting everyone to think her life is still perfect. At a party in the beginning of the novel she avoids questions about her son or answers them falsely to keep her imperfect life hidden from the outside world. One example of this is when other guests at the party asked questions about Conrad and she states “He was sick for awhile...He’s fine, now.”(661) this is one way she tries to avoid questions. She put out a false sense of well being to allow herself to feel better about others opinions of her. The fight within herself to accept everything that has happened, Buck dying and Conrad trying to kill himself, has shut her off into isolation. This self induced isolation has lead her to believe everything Conrad did was to hurt her. In a later fight with Calvin she expresses this by “That whole vicious thing. He made it as vicious, as sickening as he

Although Rachel is very emotional, in the only dialogue between her and Mrs. Pierce she sounds very shy, unsure of herself, not ready to confront and timid.

Though Rachel do say a lot of random funny things like “give up the goat" (23). However most of her misleading saying follows an irony. For example in book three when Rachel says “I'm willing to be a philanderist for peace" (269). Rachel really meant a philanthropist, the type of person who is goodhearted and kind. I did not know the words philanderist so I looked up in the dictionary and it comes from the word philanderer which means a man who likes many women or a womanizer. This is ironic because that’s the person Rachel kind of became at the end after she went through multiple husbands. I enjoyed reading Rachel’s parts because with all the serious political events and somber personal events going on in the book, it is a pleasure to see

One of the events in this book was the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Tea Party was the dumping of 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor. Rachel and Debby, Sarah’s older sister, believed that Paul was one of the people who dumped the tea, but Paul denied it. Sarah and Debby, Sarah’s older sister, started talking about Rachel. They said that Rachel is really worried for Paul because he could get hurt or even killed. Rachel had already been worried about Paul but she was more worried when he started doing more stuff. This made Rachel unhappy because she doesn’t want anything to happen to

This further impacted the children Rachel and Leah, being the oldest daughters in the family. Rachel was a daughter that loved her father and she at first felt that he was the best person in the world. She would always follow him around and be his little princess, that was until she started to see the bad things that he started doing in the dark, mysterious place they were living in. She started to see how arrogant and defensive he became throughout the community and how he threw hissy fits. She realized that enough was enough and she needed to grow accustomed to this new place by herself, just like the narrator did in the poem. This is because she knew that her dad was just going insane and he wanted too much power. She now felt bad for her mom and what he had done to her, and wanted to side with her mom to get out of the community that they were in because they had enough of it. Another thing that happened in the Congo while she was there was something absurd and scarring to say the least. Her sister had started to hunt with the men for meat and Rachel saw what they did when they killed the poor animals lives. Rachel was so startled and appalled that she had to become a vegetarian for a short time while they were there. This just shows that she had to adapt to a new lifestyle because she could not think of eating a poor animal that had an innocent life, but her sister Leach could have cared

Rachel is a generally nervous person throughout the course of the story. She constantly worries about what the town, and more specifically her father, might think. Lawrence and Lee establish this when Rachel goes to the jail to visit

Along with that, no one sided or stood up for Rachel when Mrs. Price was yelling at her. This proves that Sylvia and Phyllis don’t want to be Rachel’s friend, nor anyone else in her class. Throughout the story Rachel learns to stand up for herself even when she is nervous. Therefore, Rachel is

Riding the Bus with My Sister is a memoir by Rachel Simon, published in 2002 by Houghton Mifflin about the time she spent with her sister Beth, who has a developmental disability, whose lifestyle revolves around riding buses in her home city. The memoir is about Simon's relationship with her sister Beth, who has an intellectual disability and who spends her days riding the fixed route buses in the city of Reading, Pennsylvania

“Rachel is Jacob’s favored and primary wife.” (Stacy, 2002, 24) Early in the novel, Rachel stands out initially for her beauty and magnetism. There is no denying that Rachel is a professional and sagacious teacher for Dinah, her medical skill is so superb and brilliant that she has cured and saved many lives of mothers and their babies. In Dinah’s mind, “Rachel [knows] everything about delivering babies, she and Inna [try] to learn what they might from women wherever they [go].”

One reason for this is her age and her inability to stand up for herself. She is also shy, which creates a problem when the teacher places her on the spot. Directly following this, Rachel freezes and begins to stutter. In the story, Rachel says, "I open my mouth nothing comes out" after Mrs. Price places the ugly, red sweater on her desk (Cisneros 1). The teacher obviously has power in the classroom.

In order to get away she moved away from Tom, who lives in Whitney, she moved in with an old friend from college, Cathy. However, Rachel never is able to stay away from Tom because in order to go to work she needs to take a train that passes by Tom’s and his new wife, Anna’s, house. However Rachel does not pay attention to Tom but to a couple that reminds her of her past. Their names are Megan and Scott, Rachel found it comforting the watch them and believe that they were the perfect couple. Which can be seen by stating,“They’re what I lost, they’re everything I want to be” (24, P. Hawkins).

Although Rachel does have her moments when she can’t hold in her anger towards the sweater and trying to keep herself from crying by telling her self that “Mama is making a cake for [her] ... tonight, and when [her] Papa comes home everybody will sing Happy birthday, happy birthday to you.” Which the only person to have blame for this would be the teacher for not believing Rachel when she was saying the truth. Rachel also shows us a side of her six year old stubbornness when she starts making up ideas “[and wondering] how long till lunchtime, [and] how long till [she] can take the red sweater and throw it over the schoolyard fence, or leave it hanging on a parking meter, or bunch it up into a little ball and toss it in the alley.” Rachel also shows us her two year old side when she starts crying and “put [’s]

Rachel grew up in a house hold where she had to grow up really quick. In her early teenage years she witnesses her mom struggle through abusive relationships with her step dad and other boyfriends that came after. She eventually became an alcoholic. By the time Rachel was 13 year old, she dropped out of school to take the role of the emotional and financial care taker of her mother. Living in her

It can be hard to stand up for yourself. Rachel knows what she wants, but it is hard for her to get it. Everyone thought that Mrs. Price was right because she is the teacher and “teachers are always right.” This shows that because Rachel did not find courage in herself, everyone just thought Mrs. Price was right. This also shows that Rachel was an outsider in the class if everyone took Mrs. Price’s side, and no one stood up to Mrs. Price.

Rachel had multiple areas where she lacked professionalism. A glaring one is the fact that she asked for this presentation and is completely unprepared. She does not seem to care about the presentation whatsoever. Rachel does not have the data for the presentation, she does not have the meting room ready, and she does not even have copies printed. Another area where Rachel failed in regards to professionalism is her lack of neatness and usage of electronics. Rachel is listening to music when the boss walks in. She also takes a phone call in the middle of a meeting and tries to get the boss to leave. She also lacks neatness with papers all over her desk. She also tries to eat in front of her boss and then gets food all over her attire. She then