“Ever morning, until you die in the ground, you gone have to make a decision. You gone have to ask yourself, am I gone believe what them fools say about me today?” (Stockett 73). This quote is from Constantine, who was an influential person to Skeeter in the novel The Help. She is illustrating how hard it can be to live in an area where diversity makes you an outcast. Throughout this book the hardships of being alienated are obvious and daunting; this can be seen through the loss of loved ones, white privilege, and personal relationships. Loss of a loved one is one of the many themes that was portrayed in the book The Help. One of the many losses that is brought up numerous times, is when Skeeter loses her childhood maid Constantine. Throughout the book Skeeter was determined to find out the truth about Constantine’s disappearance. By the end of the book she finds out Constantine was forced out by Skeeter’s mother. Skeeter also loses her first love. When Stuart finally gets down on one knee Skeeter feels the pressure to tell him about the book she has written. As I would suspect Stuart’s response was “I don’t… think I can marry somebody I don’t know” (Stockett 449), ending their relationship in its entirety. Celia also experienced several losses throughout the book. With Minny as a witness, Celia lost several of her babies through miscarriage. She became depressed and felt completely broken; she even tried to drink molasses as a remedy to prevent miscarriages. In the beginning she refused to tell her husband, but by the end she chooses to share the bad news. Lastly Aibileen tragically lost her son Treelore along with Mae Mobley witch was one of the babies she was watching. Aibileen’s son was only twenty-four years old when he was struck down by a tractor trailer at work. By the time Aibileen found out it was too late. These are all prime examples of how the book portrays the loss of loved ones. Along with the loss of loved ones there was also a constant theme of white privilege. Although the book was written to bring awareness to white privilege there were many cases of racism towards blacks. One of the many examples of white privileges, was when Hilly tried to convince all the white households to get a
Authors in many instances use the main elements in the story such as setting and narrative to prove a point in the story. For example, writers often use characters, their actions, and their interaction with other characters to support or prove a theme. In the short story “Our Thirteenth Summer”, Barry Callaghan effectively uses characters to develop the theme that childhood is fragile and easily influenced. One of the ways that Callaghan makes effective use of characters to develop the theme is by describing the tension between Bobbie and his parents. This usage of characters supports the theme because Bobbie’s childhood is no longer free to do what he wishes, but has to bow down to his parents’
Question One: Doug has a difficult family life. His father behaves less like a parent and more like a bully, but in Marysville, Doug meets other adults who show him kindness and compassion. Name a few of the adult characters in Okay For Now who offer Doug guidance and instruction. What does Doug learn from them? Support your response with evidence from the text.
Jimmy knows too well the agonies of abandonment. First, when his mother, Cecilia, ran away with Richard to pursue a better lifestyle. Then, due to his father’s, Damacio Baca, alcoholisms and violent behavior; he also had to leave Jimmy behind. In spite of the drawbacks from abandonment to being a maximum security prisoner in Arizona State Prison, Jimmy preserver’s the darkness of prison by overcoming his illiteracy. However Cecilia and Damacio is not as fortunate as their child; Cecilia is shot by Richard after confronting him for a divorce and Damacio chokes to death after he is released from the detox center(Baca 263). Therefore the most significant event in this section of the memoir, A Place to Stand by Jimmy Santiago Baca is the death of Jimmy’s parents.
I was pleased to have attended a lecture cosponsored by the Ethics Center, the Fresno State office of the president, the Fresno Bee and Valley PBS. The lecture began with Dr. Castro recognizing a few leaders on campus, including a past Fresno State president, Dr. John D. Welty and campus volunteer Mary Castro. Dr. Castro then mentioned a few things about Mr. Brooks stating that he is a columnist for the New York Times and an analyst for the PBS “News Hour” and NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Dr. Brooks also teaches at Yale University, one the finest university in the country. Dr. Castro continued by saying that he learned that Mr. Brooks office hours are from 9am to 1pm and how “cool” it sounded to him. I was surprised how many people attended the event. I was fortunate to find a seat. David Brooks mentioned how he has some remote roots in the Central Valley because his father grew in Chowchilla, CA but Mr. Brooks grew in New York.
Grace has been told for more than half her life that she was crazy. Her mother’s death that she witnesses was an accident, there was no scarred man, and there was nothing she could do to change what had happened. But Grace knew they were wrong. With the help of her friends Noah, Megan and Rosie, she managed to discover that the scarred man was Dominic, the first love of her mother, who was there to kill her mother, but chose instead to stage her death. Grace came down just as Dominic was taking the picture, and picked up the gun that was lying on the floor. Firing blinding, she missed Dominic and shot her mother instead. The traumatic moment of shooting her mother was blocked from Grace’s mind as it was unable to handle what she did. Her family tries to protect her from this, saying it was an accident, trying to get Grace to stop pushing. When pushing too hard, Grace discovers the truth of what happened that night, and what she did, and with the
My essay will be on how one character is dynamic throughout Okay For Now. Gary D. Schmidt is the author of Okay For Now. He tells a thrilling story about a young boy whose life changes very fast and it affects all of his family. The character analysis is on Doug Swieteck. This essay will be showing how Doug hates his life at first ,but then changes his mind throughout the book.
The time period of the novel created an uncomfortable setting for the prominent black characters in the story. During the 1960’s, there was a prodigious divide between blacks and whites. Being set during the time
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines takes place in 1940’s, a time period of segregation. This was a time when blacks were often at fault for a crime they did not commit, such as what transpired in this book. A man named Jefferson was convicted of a crime he did not commit and was insulted during court. Now his family, friends, and even Jefferson himself were trying to prove the white community wrong about their beliefs that a black man is unequal and lacks dignity against Jefferson and the black community. Not only is Jefferson going through a period of suffering on death row, but others, like Grant Wiggins and Miss Emma, are also facing their struggles and they will try to prove others wrong and redeem themselves through knowledge,
All refugees, the circumstances notwithstanding, face immense hardship throughout their lives. In time, these hardships give way to new opportunities, dreams, and perspectives, as even in the face of suffering, one always retains their intrinsic self. Kim Ha, the protagonist in Thanhha Lai’s Inside Out and Back Again, experienced this through her family’s daring escape from war-torn South Vietnam. Consequently, Inside Out and Back Again serves as a fitting title for her story.
A Lesson Before Dying A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines tells the story of a black man, Jefferson, with unequal rights, being accused of killing a white man. Although, the accusation was far from being right, he is a black man, and blacks were treated unfairly. Throughout the journey of the trial, Jefferson and Grant became very close, and they both learned a lot from each other and the trial. Grant learns the lesson of being a man, because he develops feelings, and becomes humble.
Natalie Sterling, a seventeen year old senior at Ross Academy had just won class president and beat her opponent Mike Domski. Mike was the kind of guy that Natalie and her best friend Autumn tried to stay away from. The girls at Ross Academy were known as demeaning and “boy crazy.” One day, during the pep rally a bunch of freshman dressed in trampy clothing and started to dance inappropriately. The leader’s name was Spencer a girl Natalie used to babysit for. The flirty freshman called themselves “Prostitutes” or Ross Academy prostitutes. Not only was Natalie embarrassed and angry by Spencers action but, she was disappointed. When the principal and Ms. Bee the student council head were talking to the girls punishments Natalie barged in. Natalie explained how she wanted to have a lock-in for all the girls in trouble and any others from school who wanted to come, about feminism and women's rights. Ms. Bee and Natalie agreed that it would be a good idea for
In the story “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, the characters Sylvia, Sugar, and Mercedes are different in their personalities, behavior, and the way they decide to handle the lesson taught by Mrs. Moore, but alike by all living in poverty and having a positive elder as Mrs. Moore, to teach them the lesson.
In the book Out of My Mind, author Sharon M. Draper creates a character named Melody. Melody was born with a gift; she was gifted with brains and with a photographic memory. She was also born with a disability, cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder which causes Melody to be bound to a wheelchair because of the severity of it. She does not have control of her limbs but has figured out a way to maneuver her electric wheelchair with her thumbs. Melody is faced with challenges that cause her to lose and gain socially, physically, and emotionally aspects through out the text.
An advocacy activity I observed this following weekend was at an off-Broadway play performed at Second Stage Theater in New York City. The play, Notes from the Field is written and performed by Anna Deavere Smith. In this performance, she gives her viewers a look into the past history of our country as well as some recent major headlining news that took part in our society. She re-enacts the behaviors of some characters but gives the viewers a different perspective then what the media portrays it to be. In the play, Anna shows some tragedies that took place in schools, and prisons systems. She shows the division of ethnic groups and how the civil rights actions have still failed even in today’s communities.
In the novel Catch Me If You Can by Frank William Abagnale, Frank is a well defined static character. Even though he faces different challenges throughout the novel, he remains the same a the end of the story as he was in the beginning. Being said this, he still continued to run away from his problems and did cons. He is a confident individual who ran away from home at a young age to find a life for himself. Frank is a smart, young and charismatic boy. During his early teen years, his parents started to go through a divorce, which left him torn between whom to choose to stay with. After learning about the divorce that was about to take place, Frank decides to runaway. Frank states, “One June morning of 1964, I woke up and knew it was time to go.