Survival And Self-Worth In Pat Frank's Alas Babylon

John Barton, her good friend, helps her to want to live life. John is very depressed and ends up committing suicide even though he had class and wealth. During one of John’s happier moods he gives some good advice to Josie although he does not seem to take it himself. “Just make your decisions and follow them through, Josie.” When John dies Josie is very confused because she thought he had everything. Josie later realises that class and wealth aren't everything and they aren’t what you should base life on. Josie then takes advantage of her life and believes no matter what others think of her, her class and social standing, she can be who ever she wants to be, she isn’t “ready to give up on it”. Josie strongly believes that amongst her peers she isn’t popular and considered foreign. This is changed after she truanted the walk-a-thon and learns that she was actually voted school captain but the job was given to another student. The nuns were worried that Josie would set a bad example because she and her friends were “trendsetters.” “Socially we weren’t as shitty as we thought we were.” After realising that she was voted school captain and she is popular makes her rethink how she should act. She changes her perspective of being not being socially accepted and a “wog” and realises she is the same as everyone else. Josie values her peer’s opinions and they contribute towards her to discovering who

When I was about six years old, my older brother and a few of his friends thought it would be funny if they removed the divider between to the two betta fish we had in our fish tank. Bettas are very aggressive and territorial fish and usually like to be left alone, so the second that they removed the divider, they started attacking each other. Even though they are just fish and are very small, it was blatantly obvious that they were doing harm to each other. He later put the borders back up but a few hours later, one of them had died. I blamed it on the fact that my brother let the fish do that to each other and later, told my dad. My brother, of course, got in trouble. I was confused at the time on why they had to do that and why one had died. My father had told me that the reason why one of them died because he was weak compared to the other one and could not endure fighting against the other fish. I was still very upset and angry at my older brother for doing that, but that was one of the first times I had heard about something relating to the topic of

Imagine the life of a nomad, moving around to different place, meeting different people, and having different lifestyles. This is the life of the Walls family. In the book The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, she explains that life as a nomad was never amazing. Her life of moving around and being the same old poor child isn’t what she wanted to be. Throughout her journey, she has been discriminated and stereotyped for her family’s actions, and for the way she looks to the rest of the world. The point of this essay is to tell you that there are obstacles like this outside of the world of fiction. With the school board’s recent sentiments regarding the lack of value that fiction provides, fiction should not remain

There are three main characters in the novel starting with Elena Dunkle. Elena is twenty some years old and has Anorexia Nervosa. She believes that to be perfect you need makeup, perfect grades, and to never eat. ‘“You let yourself get forced into eating a hot dog. Therefore you are a spineless, obese, out-of-control ballon”’(117). That is her inner voice talking to her. It jnormally does this to make her feel horrible about herself so she doesn't have to eat. She is the protagonist in the story. The next main character is Elena Dunkle. Clara is Elena’s mom and she is in her late forties. She is terrified that her daughter is going to die. ‘“...if you’re going to continue to destroy yourself, you’re not gonna use a single thing of ours to help you do it”’(283). She wants to help Elena get better. She loves her with all of her heart and doesn’t want to see her this way. The last character is Valerie Dunkle. Valeris is Elena’s sister. She used to be very suicidal and walked out on her family when they tried to help her. ‘“I’ve swallowed a bottle of pills”’(187). They ended up sending her to a psych ward. She managed to escape the institute and moved away with her now husband Clint. She wants to be

After a national tragedy has struck the United States, a group of survivors now has to learn how to survive on their own. In Alas, Babylon a nuclear war has just started that has majorly decreased the population in countries around the world leaving nuclear fallout in its path. Alas, Babylon takes place in the United States, Florida in a small town called Fort Repose. Frank writes, in his book Alas, Babylon, about Randy Bragg and a small group of survivors from River road that band together to take on all the changes that face them without the help from the government. The three methods of survival that Randy and his band of survivors use are making ways to process items and recharge batteries; reinventing old ways of transportation and replacing

This novel “is a book that truly speaks to adolescents in contemporary language and with teenage characters about adolescent sexuality” (Kaplan 27). Katherine is learning about her sexuality in the novel.

The American Dream has always been the unattainable idea of a perfect life, often causing disorder when it is not realized. In response to society’s unrealistically high standards, and the human desire to be accepted, people shape their existences to fit within the quixotic ideals of society. The ubiquity of this conformity is demonstrated by its omnipresence as a theme in American literature. The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, along with Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, demonstrate how these perspectives of social mores are centered on the prevalence of the unrealistic views of normality. The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night, and

Despite self-awareness, a person makes many decisions everyday, even if many are subtle. Getting out of bed, deciding what clothes to wear, and even the attitude you display to others. While there are many factors that contribute to these decision making, a major factor is who your peers are. Peers, whether they be a close friend, family member, or even a teacher, can influence what you aspire to do, and how you live your life. In The Other Wes Moore, peers’s play a big role shaping the lives and decisions of both Wes’s, further leading them to their places in the current world, just as peers have shaped my sister, Katie’s decisions as well. Friends heavily influence teenagers, attributing to teens’ stubbornness. By setting examples to follow, peers either set positive or negative standards that teens attempt to assimilate, gaining either positive or negative traits.

From the tone of Mick’s voice, the alcohol acts a sedative to numb the pain from his past. This motive for drinking is also evident through Lisa’s brother, Jimmy, after he loses both his girlfriend, Adelaine, and his goal in becoming an Olympic swimmer. The legacy of residential school is also manifested in Trudy and Tab’s mother-daughter relationship. Tab becomes the victim of her mother’s psychological and emotional upheaval that is a result from her childhood. In the grip of alcohol, Trudy often mistreats Tab. Removed from a family environment and placed in a reformation school, individuals return not only emotionally and psychologically scarred, but also unable to reestablish their own functional family. Tab confesses to Lisa that she wishes she had a mother like hers, saying, “You’re lucky. You’re really lucky that your dad was too young to go to rez school. [...] Just Mick and my mum went and it fucked them up” (Robinson 254). Trudy’s sister Kate also notes that Trudy “thinks Mother’s dirt, while she goes out and parties and treats Tab worse than what she blames Mother for” (Robinson 285).

When drastic times occur and sweep one of everything they own, do they have a plan of action? Will they be prepared for a life without power, resources, and stability? Many times when people are faced with this situation they find themselves unprepared and unable to live in such conditions. They lose the connections with the world, the water they drink is likely to get contaminated, and the scarcity of goods is a threat to themselves and anyone left alive. Everywhere around them there is death and destruction leaving them isolated in their own dystopia. Pat Frank’s Alas, Babylon illustrates a nuclear bomb simulation. In such a way, he gives the readers a taste of isolation and survival needs when facing such drastic times.

Jeannette’s battle against sexual abuse helps encourage teens who have experienced similar situations to fight on. As Jeannette Walls fights to institute normality in her family, abnormality is established by her parents. Reading such a story has a greater affect on teens, rather than reading an article on the topic of abnormality would because the teen can make more connections to the story. Peer pressure plays a strong role in the life of a teenager and causes the adolescent to conform in fear of rejection from their peers. With this being said, displaying novels about peer pressure and reading on how fictitious characters handle peer pressure not only helps the teen learn from the character’s mistakes, but teaches them how to problem solve for themselves. Rita Mae Brown once said, “The reward for conformity was that everyone liked you except yourself.” Going against the status quo may not make those around you happy, but it will make you happier in the long

I was left wondering how the Walls children survived such an unstable upbringing. It finally dawned on me, that it was because of Janette Walls. Janette was such a selfless person; she had provided her parents and siblings with mental, emotional, and physical support. Janette’s values were remarkable and played a huge role in her success story. It was evident that Janette was the backbone of the Walls family; they all depended on her for something. In class, we discuss the importance of Maslow Hierarchy of Needs, and how met and unmet needs alter a persons needs, wants, behaviors, and perceptions. We have learned how to separate needs (necessities) and wants (non-essentials). The perception of needs can be altered by a variety of things. It is clear in the Glass Castle that economic status, culture, and personality play a vital role in the perception of needs for the family. We have learned the decision making process, and the importance of understanding the process in order to meet unmet needs. Most importantly, we have learned how a change in family structure introduces unique challenges to each family. The Glass Castle, allows a reader to step inside a dysfunctional family and witness the intimate moments

When an individual's pursuit of self-awareness is disrupted, it often becomes characterized by the creation of an opposite in other people. This theme is evident in Julia Scheeres's memoir Jesus Land. During her period of adolescent self-discovery, Julia is met with obstacles caused by fanatical authority figures in both her family and church. This struggle ultimately leads Julia to disown and even demonize her closet relation, her brother David. Although the book is a concentrated depiction of this pattern, the idea of othering is prevalent in our country as a whole. Specifically, gender othering always has and always will be an issue in America and the American Dream. Through the description of her adolescent experiences in her memoir Jesus Land, Julia Scheeres exposes

In his novel, East of Eden, John Steinbeck presents Cathy Ames with human motivations, despite her character representing pure evil, to emphasize humanity’s potential of evil.

The main theme in the short story “Babylon Revisited” is that you can’t repeat the past. Charlie has a lot of hope for the future, but his guilt from the past catches up with him. He tries to forget about the Paris he used to know, but memories from the past haunts him throughout the story. His past is inescapable and he has to pay great debts when the party comes to an end. “Babylon Revisited”, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published in 1931. The story is greatly affected by the time period it was written in, and by what was going on in Fitzgerald’s life.