The Bowler Man Essay

About a year later, Robinson’s uncle came to visit. He had served in the first World War. Afterward he had settled in California. When he returned to visit his family in Georgia, they scarcely recognized him, because he was dressed so finely (Mann 57). Once he learned of their troubles, he was immediately convinced that his sister and her children would do better in California. Within a few days, she boarded a train with her five little ones.

Smith-Yackel’s essay illustrates the grieving process while on a phone call with the Social Security Office to collect potential benefits from her mother's passing. While placed on hold, she reflects the life her mother had lived. During this period of reflection, this is when Smith-Yackel exemplifies the use of imagery within a narrative. She creates vivid images about the hardships her mother once faced. For instance, when her mother and father first got married, they began farming. Farming created a wide variety of new tasks, “She carried water nearly a quarter of a mile from the well to fill her wash boilers in order to do her laundry on a scrub board” (Smith-Yackel 115). Her mother had to not only become physically fit but mentally fit in order to take on the challenges their farm created. Her mother was relentless in making sure her children were well taken care of. In another section of the narrative, imagery is used once again to show the sacrifices her mother made. Smith-Yackel states, “In the winter, she sewed night after night, endlessly, begging cast-off clothing from relatives, ripping apart coats, dresses, blouses, and trousers to remake them to fit her four daughters son” (Smith-Yackel 116). On top of all the other chores their mother did during the day, she also worked through the night to ensure her family’s comfort. Also, another rhetorical strategy within

In the article, Education and Schooling: You Can Have One Without the Other, Mwalimu J. Shujaa of the State University of New York discusses the importance of learning that there is a difference between schooling and education. Can education exist without schooling or vice versa? Shujaa’s article gives an insight into the conjunction of schooling and education and how they impact the culture of African Americans.

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.

Walter and his family faced many hardships in life. They were dirt poor and couldn’t afford food, nevermind shoes. Because of this, Walter caught hookworms, a disease caused by walking through hog wallows and barnyards barefooted. In spite of starving and the fact that “he had hookworms(Lee76)” Walter went to school everyday and faced the pain and embarrassment that came along with it. Just like Walter, Robert was able to face difficulty fearlessly. Robert’s father died, hence there was no one around to support his family. Predictably, Robert stepped up and got “a regular job at the feedstore (Peck80)” rather than going to school like the rest of his peers. Robert was able to sacrifice his childhood and put aside his grief to provide for his family. The two young people’s ability to ignore their losses to strive for prosperity proves they have notable

Between the 1929 and 1939, The Great Depression struck the lives of many families, “living under cardboard, poverty, homelessness, jobless” and much more. However, Joe’s early childhood was just more than that. His early experiences set him to learn many lessons for a life time. There was very minimal support from who he called his family, a his cowardly father, sick mother, his devastated brother, and now his heartless stepmother. Just as things seemed to be settling and normal for the disadvantaged young man, things began to fall apart again as a never ending tragedy to him. At their new home, Thula grew frustrated with anxiety about her limited practice to become a future violinist as well as her barbaric character in raising her stepson whom she didn’t have an ounce of respect, sympathy, or care for. The hardworking and self-determined Joe grew up to always being interested in learning and actively working. He had a passion for gardening which the family used in need of their hunger and use of scarce food. As tension boiled over summery days and nights, Thula grew harsher and harsher towards Joe to a point where she informed Harry about his habits and threatened to leave him if he hadn’t let Joe go. Harry, being the coward and forlorn father he was, chose to arrange Joe with a schoolteacher and schoolhouse to make Thula’s life at home easier. From the passages in Chapter 2, the reader is able to understand how depressing, miserable, and hard Joe’s childhood was. It

In the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis”, James Hurst writes about a troubling tale of two brothers, older and younger, living together on a small farm and the older brother trying to help his younger brother fit in with the world around him. Doodle, the younger brother, is a very sickly child, whom no one is expecting to live. As a result, the older brother is disappointed, since he wanted a brother that he could have fun with. Angered by the condition of his younger brother, the older brother becomes determined to change him, and he constantly pushes him toward becoming the brother that he had originally expected. Doodle learns a great deal of things from his brother, but all his learning comes at a dangerously high price to Doodle in the

James Hurst’s tragic coming-of-age story, “The Scarlet Ibis”, starts out with the narrator, who is unnamed, telling us about his recollections of his brother, Doodle. When the narrator is six years old, his brother is born. However, when the narrator’s brother is born, he is unhealthy and frail. Their parents name him William Armstrong, but later nicknamed him Doodle. At first, the narrator is immensely upset and disappointed that his younger brother is disabled. The narrator is athletic and had high hopes that his brother be able to play and compete with him, but Doodle, being disabled, could not do any physical activities. His pride causes him to be too proud to accept having a disabled brother. As the story progresses, the narrator tries

Education has always been valued in the African American community. During slavery freed slaves and those held captive, organized to educate themselves. After emancipation the value of education became even more important to ex-slaves, as it was their emblem of freedom and a means to full participation in American Society (Newby & Tyack, 1971). During this time many schools for African Americans were both founded and maintained by African Americans. African Americans continued to provide education throughout their own communities well into the 1930’s (Green, McIntosh, Cook-Morales, & Robinson-Zanartu, 2005). The atmosphere of these schools resembled a family. The

This collection of stories begins when the narrator Yunior and his brother Rafa who are 8 and 12, are sent to live with their uncle for the summer so their mother can work. Their father abandoned them when Yunior was 4 and their family lives in poverty, sometimes having to forgo food for clothes and other necessities. Their mother works sometimes 14 hour shifts, at a local chocolate factory while their grandfather watches them. When Yunior is 9 his father returns from the United States to bring them back. They live in an apartment and set up a new community in New Jersey. Although they still live in poverty, they do not want for food or other basic necessities. The stories then jump forward years to when Yunior is in high school and living with his mother. He works and helps pay the rent and other bills

Samuel Selvon’s short story, “The Cricket Match” explores the subtle racial tensions amongst West Indian immigrants living in England whilst working with English counterparts. Selvon sets his narrative in a tyre factory in Chiswick, England. Most likely, the timeline in which this story occurs is somewhere in the mid 1950’s when England were still colonists of most of the English speaking Caribbean islands. The main idea behind Selvon’s tale lies with Algernon the protagonist, whose desire to fabricate his knowledge of cricket, so as to simultaneously impress but show disdain towards the Englishmen around him backfires because it is this self-proclaimed knowledge which places him into conflict. Selvon also

‘I wisely started with a map, and made the story fit ... The other way about lands one in confusions and impossibilities.’1

There once was a girl named Emily, who was 6 years old. She lived on a small farm, in a small town, with not many people. She had 9 older siblings and 2 younger siblings. Emily and her family were poor but, she didn’t know that because, she always got what she needed. Her mom taught her how to sew her clothes. Her dad taught her how to run the farm. Emily went to school, but only had one friend named Anna. She was always bullied.

In a time that was not that long ago, in a village that wasnt that far from this one. There live a young boy, Skylar, and his parents. They lived the hardworking life of farmers. They worked from sunup to sundown, only stopping to eat a simple lunch of bread and water. On there good days they may even have the luxury of an apple. Skylar’s parents could not afford to pay help while Skylar was in school, and he told them that he did not want them to struggle for him. So he never went. This devastated him. But he would never tell anyone, or let it show. He knew if he did, he would break his parent’s heats.

A greenish looking fresh Day 1 pitch. Pink ball. Overcast conditions with occasional rain and a lot of moisture in the air.