The Free Child By Katherine O Connor

In the book There Are No Children Here written by Alex Kotlowitz, Lafeyette is sitting on the living room couch with his mother LaJoe. He is concerned for his mother over the recent loss of her public aid assistance. The children’s father, Paul, who does not live with them, had used their home as his permanent residence. This caused a red flag with the Public Aid Department for LaJoe receiving assistance. After she explains their current situation, along with the reason for loosing public aid, his reply back to his mother is “to put them out, all of them”. In his statement, he is referring to his father and his older sister. His mother does not have the heart to put anyone out on the streets for fear of what the street life will do to them.

In the novel, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, the theme of growing up is prevalent throughout the book. Throughout the novel, a young mexican girl named Esperanza goes through experiences as she matures that involve her friends, society, dangers that expose her to the outside world and help her to realize what the real world is like.

12. What do animals represent in terms of symbolism, theme, or character? In ‘Fiela’s Child’ by Dalene Matthee there is a sort of symbolism that animals represent, that typically being bad omens. There are a couple of examples of symbolism with the Big Feet (elephants) and owls.

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.

The author Anna Quindlen purpose for writing School’s out for summer is to show that some kids don't get enough to eat. She says that some parents can’t afford services that give out free lunches like day camps, school programs, and the Y community center. “During the school year fifteen million students get free or cut - rate lunches at school, and many of them get breakfast too. But only three million children are getting lunches through the federal summer lunch program.”This is very effective because she has support that will back her up on her side of this essay.

“Orphan Train” is a gripping story of second chance and companionships from author Christina Baker Kline. A life of loneliness and hardships bring a distressed seventeen year old girl, Molly Ayer, looking for acceptance in the world she can’t seem to escape and a ninety-one year old woman, Vivian. With a secret past that they have both yet to discover, they have more in common than just organizing the attic. Molly is on probation for stealing a book from the public library. Her foster parents is starting to have enough of her attitude. Molly’s friend, and only friend, Jack plans to put her in for community service so she won’t be sent to a juvenile facility. This woman, Vivian, has a huge house on the bay that has an attic full of junk, collectables, and boxes from her past. Vivian believes Molly is there for a school project, but she is really there so she will not be sent away.

One of the most, if not the most, controversial and heated debates following the United States independence was regarding the institution of slavery. In the introduction to his book Half Slave and Half Free, Bruce Levine quotes Carl Schurzs’ observation as the “slave question not being a mere occasional quarrel between two sections of the country divided by a geographic line, but a great struggle between two antagonistic systems of social organization (p.15)”. The Nouthern states that allowed slavery benefited from the agricultural labor that those slaves provided. The Northern states that prohibited slavery did so for moral and pragmatic reasons; they felt it was morally wrong to deny another human any form of rights, and did not like the economic advantage it gave to the Southern states. With the use of slavery largely concentrated in the South, the movement against it came from the North and was led by abolitionists; those who were committed to bringing an end to the practice. In this course we have defined “Practice” as the conduct of policy, such as opinion, election, parties and law-making (Lecture). We define Policy as the goals of politics, those being sovereignty, defense, and a collective well-being (Lecture). The following analytical essay will examine antislavery sentiment and practices in the Northern states and the reaction of Southern states. Additionally how the pressures from both sides influenced the Policy of the United States following independence then

In “Invisible Child,” a New York Times article written by Andrea Elliot, we follow a day in the life of a young African American girl, Dasani, growing up in New York City. However, instead of living in an “Empire State of Mind,” Dasani lives in the slums, growing up homeless with her two drug addicted parents and seven siblings. Dasani often finds herself taking care of her siblings, making sure they have enough to eat, tying shoelaces, changing diapers, getting them to the bus stop in time, and the list goes on. An 11 year old girl, essentially taking care of a whole family, as well as taking care of herself by going to school, receiving an education, and partaking in extra-curricular activities. Elliot captures the life and struggles of a family well under the poverty line, giving us an unprecedented look into what Dasani must do each day not just to grow up in New York City, but to survive.

Julie Lythcott-Haims explains to us all what a perfect child is; straight A student, fabulous test scores, gets homework done without parents asking them to do it… She has the right idea, the right mindset of a parent, every parent wants their child to succeed in life. The way that parents are parenting their children is messing them up. They don’t have a chance to become themselves, they are too focused on whether they did good on that test that they were stressing about for a week, they are too worried about getting the best grade to be able to get accepted into the biggest name colleges around. The parents become too consumed with hovering over their children making sure that they are doing flawlessly in school, the parents are directing their every single move they make. The children then began to think that their parents love comes from the good grades. Then they start making this checklist; Good grades, what they want to be when they grow up, get accepted into good colleges, great SAT scores, the right GPA, the jock of the sports team.

From Taj’s naughty childhood to the extraordinary man he became, there were many factors along the way such as friends and family that, helped him to become who he is today. All things happen for a reason and that is definitely the case for Taj Rowhlend.

Over the years, the issue of family values has evolved from the conservative view of distinct gender roles to the prevailing situation where men and women have equal rights. The most notable change from the traditional to the modern values of the family has been the issue of gay marriages. Whereas it was a taboo for gay couples to declare their relationship status openly in public, today the situation is different as is evident with the two texts under discussions. The story titled An American Childhood by Annie Dillard depicts gender roles in the 1950s America while the article by Andrew Sullivan titled “Why Gay Marriages are Good for Straight America” expounds on the issue of gay rights and freedom of modern day America.

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.

In her book, “Strangers in their Own Land,” Arlie Hochschild, who is a liberal, attempts to escape from her bubble on the west side of the nation in order climb the “Empathy Wall” and understand the reasoning behind the most right wing, conservative members of the Tea Party. To get the best understanding of their motives, Hochschild traveled to the heart of the Tea in rural parts of southern Louisiana, like Sulphur, where the population is filled with white, badly educated, blue collar American citizens.

The idea of Mother Earth is extremely empowering for women; most women believe that, right? Ellen Cronan Rose finds the idea of mother earth tremendously unempowering. Rose writes in her article “The Good Mother: from Gaia to Gilead”, that the imagery of mother earth is deeply problematic and is harmful to the feminist cause. This is a shocking view considering that most women don’t seem to have a problem with that idea. Ellen Cronan Rose states that the “mother earth” metaphor is harmful to the way women are viewed in society because it perpetuates negative stereotypes against women, it views the earth and women primarily as producers, and it overlooks the fact that both men and women are connected to nature. She goes in-depth into how mother earth imagery can impact women.

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).