Shift By Em Bailey: Chapter Analysis

For this book analysis, I read the book A Piece of Cake by Cupcake brown. It is a memoir told by Cupcake about her life. She starts the book at age 11, when she was living a normal and pleasant life with her mother in San Diego. She was quite close to her along with her step father (who, at the time, she thought was her biological father), and her uncle. Then out of nowhere, she finds her mother dead in her room and her life is shaken into disaster. The court system had to turn both her and her brother over to her biological father whom she never met, instead of giving her to the man she was raised by. Her father then sent her to a foster home where she was raped and beaten constantly. When she

Yet her compassion, as real as it is, also has a certain element of shallowness, or at least inexperience about it. She has lived the majority of her life in isolation, on an island known with her only companionship being that of her father. Growing up on this deserted island, Miranda learns to live and abide by the example set by Prospero. He is her only contact with the humanity and therefore he is her only friend and teacher. She knows no other woman and therefore had no female figure to aid the process of raising her. She is naïve and unaware of life's experiences, having been shielded from the rest of the world.      

As nature becomes more unpredictable, Pfeffer indicates that the family is confused and unsure of what is to come, but aware that life is about to get extremely difficult. Although the family is just “a little shaken up”, there is no “sens[e] of relief” for Miranda as she displays true concern for her loved ones (27). Her reaction exposes the consideration and worry she feels, rather than the self-absorbed, immature attitude she expressed before. Not only does she worry about her family, but when her friend Megan begins sharing food and skipping meals, Miranda confronts her decisions because she cares for her health. Even though she disagrees with Megan’s conservation, Miranda contributes to the theme of

Miranda has been a great developing character in this part. Miranda meets Arthur Leander and later on marries him. However, they end up divorcing after a couple months. This part of the novel foreshadows from the beginning of novel, “thrice married” (Mandel 2). This event will also foreshadow events to come as this infused the relationship between Arthur and Elizabeth after this divorce. Furthermore, during this part of the novel, we learn the personality of Miranda

Miranda meets a man named Dev at an expensive make-up counter where she becomes enamored with his charm and appearance and from then on continues a relationship with him. Similarly, Miranda’s perspective of her new love is widely altered by her co-worker Laxmi, who usually has stories of heartbreak surrounding her cousin's adulterous husband. Soon Laxmi ends up inviting her poor cousin up to New York for a consoling spa day, but forgets about who will have the responsibility of watching her nephew. So Miranda ends up doing it out of niceness, where she is immediately met with the behavior of a rude elementary school boy named Rohin. 7 year old Rohin goads her into making him coffee, drawing pictures with him, letting him follow her around her apartment, go through her stuff, and just invade her general privacy. Eventually, she is convinced to try on a set of party clothes she had bought with the intention of of wearing in the presence of her lover and a fancy setting. Rohin exclaims and tells her she is “sexy”, something her lover had said just a week earlier. The word choice spurs Miranda to ask the young boy if he knows what he has just said to her, and he tells her he believes that thinking someone is sexy is the equivalent of loving someone you do not know. This makes her realize the impact that his

But she couldn’t understand it because it was there to her,but to others it wasn’t. The next morning the air conditioner was broke and Etienne, the town’s handyman came to fix it. Etienne is also who Miranda’s grandfather told for him to help Miranda with her new found gifts. She didn’t trust Etienne at first,but then she began to realize she need his help. Etienne helped her with her gifts but she was also attracted to him.

In this chapter, Roach thinks of Hugh Patterson, as she also thinks about how Patterson will continue to teach even when dead. Roach supports this idea and wants to be presented for educational purposes once she passes away. She wants to become an educational skeleton and donate her body to be aesthetically pleasing. She calls the University of New Mexico Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, which is a place that accepts donated bodies for educational skeletons. She then is given a choice of watching a "cut down" or a "pour off." A cut down cuts away the flesh and a pour off dissolves flesh by boiling it. Since Roach doesn’t want to live in New Mexico the rest of her life, and because of other reasons, she declines both of these choices and the

This shows that Miranda is trying to adjust, thus, it develops her character overall from being at first teenager like, to being more worried and observant of the changes going on in her

Chapter 5/The Ringing Grooves of Change is the most important chapter out of the three. Not only does the chapter provide insight into the tightrope walk itself, but it also develops character for the tightrope walker.An example of this is on page 240 where the tightrope walker is performing a magic trick by telling everyone their birthdates . “One lady who wore a sparkling tiara leaned right into him.So why not the women as well? He pulled away from her. Because it is impolite to tell the age of a lady.(...) One by one he removed their husbands drivers licences”(McCann 240). This quote in particular shows the character’s cleverness. Chapter 5 also shows the tightrope walker as determined and fearless on pages 240-242.“He was deep into his

Rebecca Stead incorporates the veil metaphor into the story when Miranda has a moment of realization towards Julia. On pages 143 and 144, Miranda’s veil is lifted and the truth about Julia’s personality is exposed. Originally, Julia is thought of as a rude and selfish girl, but Miranda’s view about her soon changed. While the two girls listened to a school music assembly, Miranda observed Julia and the way she watched Annemarie, Julia’s best friend. Miranda noticed that Julia did not watch the stage, but she looked at Annemarie. This simple action helped Miranda realize that Julia cared deeply for Annemarie, who Julia argued with not too long ago. Miranda saw that “Julia’s look was my look. My looking at Sal,” on page 144. In this quote, Miranda sees the way she looks at Sal, her best friend, in Julia’s eyes. In this

The Mexican drug war has claimed over 34,000 lives since December, 2006 (Latin)! The book I, Michael Bennett is about a Detective named Michael Bennett that gets caught in the middle a Mexican drug cartel. Mike and the NYPD have gone after the leader of the cartel whose name is Manuel Perrine. Perrine is known for bribing citizens to help him and if, however, they say no to the offer Perrine kills his/ her family in front of them, then murders the citizen. Mike tries to put Perrine behind bars so that he could hurt no more; by doing this Mike puts his own family and coworkers in danger.

The Authors theme for life as we knew is family and survival. In life as the authors shows a lot of examples of Miranda and family struggling to stay alive because of different types of event even if it’s natural or not.Such as, a flu spreading through death and miranda having to cure her siblings. That shows how Miranda cares for her family. They survived and now live good and eat even do they it was. And that shows how important every single Family member is key to survive.

Her perception of the real world is only what she has imagined in her dreams. She only knows what she has seen and what she has been told by her controlling father, Prospero. Prospero puts Miranda on a pedestal and treats her like a princess so she has no idea of how the world really is. He only starts to tell her the story of how they became stranded on the island once she turns 15. Miranda’s kindness is demonstrated in the beginning of the story when she is concerned about the people aboard the shipwreck in the storm she witnesses. She has a kind soul and will most likely treat her people fairly but may be too naïve to see through the ones who are likely to plot against her.

No one believed that she can stay in this position for long but Andrea proves everyone wrong when she becomes one of the best assistants that Miranda has ever had. However, this came with a price. Late shifts, a constantly ringing phone, expensive clothes and haughty surroundings changed Andrea and became a threat to her personal life. She had to make tough decisions, choosing between what is right and what is desirable. However, surprisingly for everyone, Andrea kept her individuality and didn't break under this pressure. She

We see from the passage above that Miranda is not sure whether her life before the island was a dream or whether it was reality. She is a character who is associated with the distinction between the two, because she lives on the island with