“Night, Mother,” by Marsha Norman deals with the topic of suicide and the thoughts associated with coming to this final conclusion. The reader is introduced to Jessie, a recently divorced woman and Thelma her mother. Jessie’s characterized as being in her thirties and epileptic. One would think that this epilepsy would be the main contributing factor in Jessie’s decision to commit suicide however it is but a minute factor in the final conclusion. Towards the ending of the play Mama is trying her hardest to keep Jessie from committing suicide but the scenes do not seem to only be about Jessie. There’s a mixture of emotions from Mama giving her words a double meaning. Is she really trying to convince Jessie to not commit suicide? Yes, she …show more content…
Mama’s character was not very happy in her own life, she did not have a happy marriage and held no loving feelings towards Jessie’s father. There went her love life. She also states she did not want any more kids, and there went her children. Mama spent her time making things with yarn like quilts and doilies and scarfing down sweets to fill all of her empty feelings. Instead of all this, she should have paid attention to her husband, whom she observed having these fits and said nothing of it. She should have not pushed her daughter to marry early on either. It seems like Mama attempted to navigate Jessie away from a life like hers but lead her right down the same path except with a different ending. Jessie’s actions seem to take other’s into thought as she was pushed into marrying, thought of her son and his mishaps and even stepped in to live with her mother after her own divorce. Every action or thought was with someone else in mind. However, suicide is a selfish act and Jessie may have realized. After thinking of everyone else being selfish may not necessarily be a bad thing and what else to be selfish about than the way one ends their own life. “This is how I have my say No. To Dawson and Loretta and the Red Chinese and epilepsy and Ricky and Cecil and you. And me. And hope. I say No!” (Norman 49). This act is the only thing Jessie has one hundred percent control over and after experiencing her epileptic episodes control is something to be cherished which is why she ends up coming to this
The main theme in the book, The Dark is Rising, is obviously the conflict between the dark and light. It is one of the many suspenseful fantasy books about the battle between good and evil, Susan Cooper wrote about the dark, light, and the mystical powers.
On September 11th 2001, 70 years old Rita Laser lost her brother. Along with Kelly, Colleen, David, Eva, and Amber who as well lost someone special to them in the attack. Many of the victims families hid in silence after the attack, full of sadness, the government was trying to get revenge for the victims that were lost in the attack. However Rita Laser had a different outlook, she and others did not want revenge by killing other, her, Kelly, Colleen, David, Eva, and Amber were all trying to install peace into the world not start a war. In Sue Halpern’s “A Peaceful Mourning” describes that in the aftermath of the attack they have all devoted their lives into advocating peace throughout the world, in their lost one’s name.
Do you like horror books? Well if you do you’ll like this one. The book “After Dark” by James Leck, is about a boy named Charlie Harker, who has just finished school. He soon finds out that he’ll have to help renovate a old family inn his family owns. There are 252 pages in this book. ``The point of view in this book is third person objective. The genre of this book is horror.
Just about everybody knows the story of the Battle of Gettysburg. Michael Shaara puts a little different spin on it in his book The Killer Angels. The book is a work of fiction, but based on facts and experiences from people that were there. Michael Shaara gives us all an inside look at the multiple points of views about the cause of the war. He tells the battle from the perspective of the Union, Confederates, and even a couple of people from other countries.
In the book, Mama Might Be Better off Dead, there were two main characters that were crucial to the plot of the story, Jackie Banes and Mrs. Jackson. Throughout the book, I found Mrs. Jackson to have the best connection with public health. Mrs. Jackson was an elderly and disabled women with a variety of health care odds stacked against her. She had numerous health concerns; such as, diabetes, peripheral vascular disease, and an amputated limb (Abraham, 1993). Mrs. Jackson suffered these health issues because she was a poverty stricken women and experienced economically depressed living conditions. Due to her low socio-economic status, Mrs. Jackson did not qualify for full coverage Medicaid because she was not considered in a low enough income bracket unless she put more than half of her monthly social security towards health benefits (Abraham, 1993). As a woman with limited resources, Mrs. Jackson was unable to afford the cost of benefits much less her own survival expenses. The duration that Mrs. Jackson experienced insufficient resources led her to all of her unfortunate outcomes regarding her health. One of the reasons Mrs. Jackson needed an amputation on her leg was due to an untreated wound that resulted from her diabetes. Her diabetes had also gone untreated because she was unable to afford treatment and transportation costs to help her infection heal (Abraham, 1993). In the book, no one cared about Mrs. Jackson and it was because she was a poor
There was never a bloodier war on American soil in history than the Civil War. Those short four year took the lives of thousands soldiers and destroyed many infrastructures of America. The war, however, was more than a battle between Lincoln and Davis, North and South, slavery and freeman. The Civil War was a war of ideals. The accounts told by the soldiers shown that, although the two sides did not agree on most topics, the North and the South did held certain ideals. In The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, the eyes of James Longstreet and Joshua Chamberlain expresses the battle between the North and the South as an opportunity to show their major contributions, their loyalties to their troops, and their opinions of the war that shaped them.
My mother, Lisa Dawn Hicks Kern, was born at Wadley Regional Medical Center, Texarkana, TX, on Sunday, June 15, 1969. Her father, James Kenneth Hicks, was 28 at the time of my mother’s birth; he was employed at Red River Army Depot as an electrical engineer. Her mother, Sharon Lee Clark Hicks, was 25 when my mother was born, at the time she was the home maker. My mother had an older sister who was a four year old toddler at the time of my mother’s birth. Kimberly Ann Hicks was born at Wadley Regional Medical Center, Texarkana, TX, on Monday, August 30, 1965.
Most curriculums being taught to students withhold a mass amount of history. Some may do this because they feel some events do not have the same importance as other topics being taught. Such topics for example would be the rape and sexual exploitation of thousands of African American females during the time periods where racism and segregation was the norm. It is important for people to be educated about the horrific events that these women went through without justice. It is also essential because it shows the amazing activism Rosa Parks took part in. Most people are often just taught about Parks’ actions on the bus. At the Dark End of the Street by Danielle L. McGuire shows how Rosa Parks and many other dedicated their lives to receive equality not only for themselves, but for all African Americans in the south. Danielle L. McGuire’s work is an amazing way for people to not only learn more of Rosa Parks story, but to get a better understanding of what all African American woman had to deal with during this time period. The realism of sexual violence and its dominant impact on the African American women was one of the many events that helped ignite the Civil Rights Movement. McGuire wrote At the Dark End of the Street in order to resolve the negligence of this reality.
This applied theory paper will analyze both the macro and micro analysis of the Novel, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman (Fadiman, 1997). In the book “The Spirit Catches You and Falls Down”, the character Lia illness resulted in a cultural divide between the Hmong culture and the American culture. Throughout this paper both the conflict theory and the family systems theory will be used to examine themes of behaviors among the characters in the text. The family and medical team use the applications of a number of different social work theories to navigate through her illness implementing a number of different strategies to nurse her to health. The author Fadiman explores the Lee’s family
In a social setting where the presence of God is absent, love simply cannot exist. It is a common-truth that human beings require love; in a society where love cannot and does not exist, the void where that “love” would have existed becomes filled with deluded misconceptions of what love truly is. In Marie-Claire Blais’ Mad Shadows, Blais clearly illustrates what happens genuine love cannot exist and is replaced by misinterpretations, with the use of well developed character relationships. In many of the relationships (romantic and otherwise) displayed
In the “Invisible Child” written by Andrea Elliot, a lifestyle of a homeless girl named Dasani and her family is shown. Elliot displays Dasani’s culture, and some of the struggles that she and her family face daily because they are homeless. Dasani is very dedicated to her school work. She wants to be better than anyone in her family ever was so she doesn’t have to worry about being homeless for the rest of her life. In some ways I can relate to Dasani, I am very passionate about my school work as well. I want to excel so I can be my very best in the future. However, our reasoning’s for wanting to be the best we can be are a little different. She wants to excel so she no longer has to worry about being homeless whereas I’ve never been homeless so I cannot say the exact same. I grew up being a very privileged kid. Both of my parents worked full time good paying jobs. I’ve never had to want for much of anything. My parents have always spoiled me with nice things, they have always made sure my siblings and I had nice clothes and a decent meal to eat. They are even paying for me to attain a college education. Dasani and her family however are a lot different from mine. In the “Invisible Child” Elliot tells us how Dasani’s parents do not have legit jobs, instead they have side “hustles” that only bring in a few dollars. Elliot states (2013) that a lot of mornings Dasani was starving at school because she had no breakfast. Dasani and her siblings also had to wear clothes that were
In “The Victims” by Sharon Olds it describes a divorce through the eyes of the parents’ children. The first section is shown through past tense as the speaker is a child and the last section is shown in present tense with the speaker already being an adult trying to make sense of past events. The word “it” in the first two lines carries a tremendous weight, hinting at the ever so present abuse and mistreatment, but remaining non-specific. The first part generates a negative tone toward the father who is referred to as malicious by the mother who “took it” from him “in silence” until she eventually “kicked him out.” Through the entirety of the poem the children are taught to hate their father. Who taught them? Their mother showed them that their father was a villain and were taught to have no sympathy for him but “to hate you and take it” and so they did so. Although the poem never directly states what the father did to receive the family’s hated, the speaker gives examples as to why he is hated.
Mama, however, is strong, spiritual and eager to help her children in any way she can. She values family above and beyond all else, but has the deep insight into the other character's motivations even when she doesn't agree. In the middle of the play (at the fuse for the final conflict), she recognizes that Walter is miserable because no one believes in him and his dreams. She gives him a large chunk of the insurance check to invest in a liquor store even thought she doesn't agree with it. She trusts him with it and, when he loses the money to a "trusted friend," she becomes enraged and begins to physically attack him. However, by the next scene she has forgiven him and tells her daughter that she should do the same; "There is always something to love: when do you think the time is to love somebody the most? It's when he's at his lowest and can't believe in hisself 'cause the world done whipped him so!" With those words, Mama seems to symbolize all that is good, solid and peaceful in the world.
In the personal essay “My Mothers Tongue” (1990), Amy Tan, widely known author explains her insights on language and culture identity using details and memories from her own life experiences. Tan conceals that the language in which her mother used with her “was the language that helped shape the way [she] saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world” (1208) and in the process it made her who she is today as an author. Tan illuminates the euro centricity of the Master Narrative by retelling stories of her mother being treated poorly because of her “broken” or “limited” English. She recalls many past experiences where her mother suffered from bad service and treatment from restaurants, stockbrokers, and even hospitals. Using examples from her personal life Tan gets her point across about language and culture characteristics in order to show how Chinese culture is affected by the master narrative and also encourages others to include a variety of cultures in order to overcome bias opinions. Tan’s apparent audience can be ranged from the child of an immigrant to a doctor and offers an authentic and rich portrayal of Chinese history through her conflicting experience of her Chinese and American cultures.
The poem “Mothers and Daughters” is written by Pat Mora. Pat Mora is a contemporary award winning writer, who writes for children, youngsters and adults. She was born in El Paso, TX in the year 1942. She attains a title of a Hispanic writer; however, the most of her poems are in English. In her literary work, one can observe the different aspects of the immigrants’ lives such as language issues, family relationships, immigrants’ experiences and cultural differences (1187).