The Book Make Lemonade By Virginia Euwer Wolff The Environment

The article Environments That Inspire complied by Susan Friedman was a fantastic piece. I learned that having a stick building area for children will encourage children to explore their imagination and create something for either dramatic play or make different kinds of structures. Another thing I have learned was how important it can be to have low tables and chair for toddlers. Allowing the children to sit in these chairs where their feet can rest on the floor give them a feeling of independence. Lastly, something that I learned and found quite interesting was having the All About Me Books. The child and parent can work together to create these and then bring them to class. The books celebrate each child’s uniqueness, encourage literacy,

When people are struck with hardships in life, the way they react reveals their true character. Having a certain mindset can greatly influence how they handle problems, differentiating one person from another. Many can feel discouraged and feel like giving up when they hit a rough patch. In other cases, the will to be in a position better than where they are at the moment gives them the motivation to succeed. Adversity can have a positive effect on the development of an individual's character, providing them with the drive to overcome their current situation.

For instance, in the novel “The Glass Castle,” we are introduced to young Jeannette Walls, who is forced to put up with her alcoholic father and her naive and psychologically helpless mother, along with her siblings. They travel from city to city in order to continue living their life, however with all the struggles that they go through, in the end make Jeannette and her siblings prosper. Consequently, by being having Jeannette exposed to abuse, alcoholism, and her crazy family, she is determined to make sure her little brother and sister make it out of there successful. It affects Jeannette’s point-of-view of her family situation, because of their insufficient funds, lack of nutrition, and sometimes even lack of education, she is persistent to make sure her life ends up better. Even though Jeannette was exposed to many of the things we weren’t, she was still strong enough and had the faith to continue on her life, even if it meant struggling through her

Important has a different meaning to everyone, because everyone has different important things in their life. For some people, it is their family, or their friends, or something they love to do. For LaVaughn in Make Lemonade, by Virginia Euwer Wolff, the thing most important to her is her education. LaVaughn is a 14 year old girl who babysits for college money because her mom does not have any. Her main babysitting job in this book is for Jolly, a teen mom who is struggling to work and take care of her kids. LaVaughn goes through ups and downs with Jolly and tries to help her -- but one thing sticks with her the whole time: throughout Make Lemonade,

Jolly’s identity gets shaped when LaVaughn spends a lot of time babysitting and being a big help. When Jolly would get housework done she would get things done partway. Lavaughn says “One day I had it up to my eyebrows with / part- way done” ( Wolff 130). Lavaughn got upset and wanted to teach Jolly a lesson by saying “That the way you did birth control too? / Part- way done is good enough?” (131). What this quote is indicating is that Jolly had bad habits in her life which shaped her identity of being irresponsible, and Lavaughn is helping her so she can change. Because as of right now, Jolly gets things done part-way done so LaVaughn is helping her be responsible.As the story continues, people see how Lavaughn really pushes Jolly to be the best mother she can be and to really push her to change.

LaVaughn, on the other hand, is a fourteen year old whose priority is to get good grades in school and to go to college. She wants to go to college in order to move out of her unsafe neighborhood. LaVaughn states, “that’s why the word COLLEGE is in our house... it’s what will get me out of here” (Pg 11). Going to college is very important in her household since she will be the first in her family and in her building to extend her education further. LaVaughn demonstrates her maturity and responsibility when she offers to babysit two sloppy, drippy kids in order to raise money for college. At her babysitting job, LaVaughn grows fond of Jeremy and Jilly although the job isn’t doing her much good because she is “too tired to study and keep her grades up”, according to Myrtle and Annie. She is very diligent, determined, and caring. LaVaughn is looking after Jolly and guiding her on the right path, even though she is way younger.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Power of Context,” includes a series of short anecdotes in which are all defined by environment and how society shapes mankind. While reading these short stories Gladwell put into the novel, the audience can conclude that the rules of society have the power to shape a person or community. When reading “The Power of Context,” the reader must be able to grasp the understanding of how environment can affect an individual. One would say nature is the setting in which a person is brought up, nurture is the care variable one has the power to influence how they behave or how the setting can define who they are. In this style of writing Gladwell uses, shifts in societies behaviors tell stories of how the setting can influence behaviors of the main characters.

Do you know someone who had to sacrifice their education because the had children before graduation? Have you ever met someone who’s biggest goal is to make it to college? These are two examples of what characters are going through during the novel. Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff, is a story about the financial struggles some people have to to go through in life. It is also about how you have to step up and help these people if you are in a better position than them. Throughout the book there are a few very obvious themes. One is the fact that the characters want education in order to achieve their dreams and benefit their lives. They know that it will help them later in life.

When people go through something difficult it can change them. Making them who they are, it can change them for the bad or good. Therefore, hardships can greatly influence a person’s life by making them appreciate all the things that make life enjoyable.

The author uses a seemingly endless cycle of poverty to emphasize the cage in which the characters are trapped. As Lizabeth muses over her childhood, she recalls the daily cycle of how “each morning our mother and father trudged wearily down the dirt road and around the bend, she to her domestic job, he to his daily unsuccessful quest for work.” (1). Every morning began the same way, passed the same way, and ended the same way. Lizabeth feels trapped, forced to go through the same series of events for what seems to be the rest of her life, with the same people, in the same place. When the author pairs this with the “dusty” setting of the town and the time placement of the Great Depression, it creates an effect of hopelessness for the first part of the story. This is only furthered by Lizabeth continually returning to the idea that “Poverty was the cage in which we were all trapped.” (1). Lizabeth opens the story by first giving a description of her hometown as “dusty”, remembering the poverty and hopelessness. She then continues by referring to the cage of not having enough money, and the cycle that it put them through, and ends by alluding to her future being limited to her poverty.

The Changeable nature of life affects us all somehow. Whether it be moving to a new city, having children, or losing people that we love, it can affect people in many different ways. For example, in the novel, the main character

With this struggle, it can bring a community together and become closer with one another. Going through the good times is easy, but going through the tough times is what makes a community.

While the issues regarding poverty are addressed in both the books Make Lemonade by Virginia Wolfe and “South of the Slot” by Jack London, each author has a very different view of the life of the lower class. In “South of the Slot” the lives of the lower class are heavily romanticized while Make Lemonade provides a more grounded and unsettling look at the struggles of the lower class. In "South of the Slot” the protagonist Freddie Drummond is a wealthy sociologist who becomes fascinated with the carefree way of life of the impoverished workers he studies. Make Lemonade on the other hand is written from the perspective of Verna Lavaughn, a penurious student who attempts to look after a young mother Jolly who is struggling to raise her children

Throughout life people find themselves in tough situations. Situations that change them. In Don Aker’s novel The First Stone, we are taken through Chad Kennedy also known as Reef’s journey of how he went from being a young offender that couldn’t have cared much about others to becoming a person who shows kindness to others. We are shown that by being around certain individuals people are able to change, people are also able to change from doing certain actions, and people can change from learning from their mistakes. People can change the way they are as demonstrated by taking advantage of opportunities provided to them resulting in the ability to make better choices.

People's lives are shaped through their success and failure in their personal relationships with each other. The author Sylvia Plath demonstrates this in the novel, The Bell Jar. This is the direct result of the loss of support from a loved one, the lack of support and encouragement, and lack of self confidence and insecurity in Esther's life in the The Bell Jar. It was shaped through her success and failures in her personal relationships between others and herself.