The House At Sugar Beach

The story seizes the reader’s attention straightaway as Ava conveys that this is her and her sister’s first summer alone. Immediately, readers are asking questions-why are these girls alone? Should they be alone?-and they read more to be recompense with answers. The diction subtly aids to pique interest such as, “. . . the Chief slurred.”, implying speech impediment or inebriation. This small detail provokes readers to question, just in the first paragraph, the Chief’s parental fitness and what sort of situation the girls must be in if they must feed alligators. As some of these questions are answered, such as how the sisters live in a gator theme park, more questions are raised-what will the ghosts do to Ossie? What will the Bird Man do to Ava? What is Ossie planning? The reader is drawn to what is going on with Ava and what will happen to her, prompting further reading. (Part of this intrigue is provoked by Russel’s rendering of Ava as the storyteller, as we get an idea of who she is from the first paragraph). Also, all questions are answered in due time and the information that readers need to know is given. This story could have easily become convoluted, as it pairs a supernatural element and must also provide enough setting (such

Furthermore, the author explores the tone of the novel by providing specific details. In An-mei's childhood story, the author chooses to describe the pain An-mei feels as the soup pours over her by providing details of the twinge. She describes it as "the kind of pain [specially] terrible that a little child should never remember it" and how it still remains "in [An-mei's] skin's memory" (Tan 39). By depicting these details of the pain, Tan expresses the feeling of misery An-mei feels, which appends to the melancholy tone. Additionally, in the story of Ying-ying's first marriage, the author presents explicit details of the emptiness Ying-ying feels by portraying details of her as "a tiger that neither pounce[s] nor lay[s] waiting between the trees" and "an unseen spirit" (Tan 285). This emptiness Ying-ying feels seems to indicate the melancholy tone that appears noticeable in the novel. Clearly, the details Amy Tan chooses to describe in the novel seem to specify the somber tone.

When I grow up, I want to be a black gum tree. Black gum trees are known for their internal strength. Instead of dwelling on outward beauty, they spend more time focusing on their inner growth and developing their core. Only after they have achieved this goal can they produce beautiful fruits that draw animals near to them. Any surfaces that the berries touch are stained as to say, “I was here and made a permanent difference.” After they have utilized their outward influences, they use their internal scars and hollow places to protect the animals surrounding around it. If human lives were to reflect the concepts of the black gum tree, governments, individuals, and communities would be radically transformed. While this is a beautiful image,

As sentimental tone becomes evident frequently through the story, the author uses determination to display the struggles and growth that the author experiences. One of the major quotes that shows determination through a sentimental tone can be displayed as the hotel burning down where the Walls currently lived. Walls stated, “I wonder if the fire had been out to get me. I wonder if all fire was related . . . I didn’t have the answers to those questions, but what I did know was that I lived that at any moment could erupt . . . It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes” (Walls 34). This excerpt explains that the author and her family struggle through life to find a decent home--that they can afford. Jeannette spills her emotions through this quote; her struggles become strengths, as she narrates her childhood. The author displays the theme of struggle and the sentimental tone when “. . . the whole family stretched out on the benches and the floor of the depot and read, with the dictionary in the middle of the room so [the] kids could look up words [they] didn't know. . .” (Walls 56). This quote really tears at the reader’s heart strings, as the family copes with their living situations. Jeannette exceeds with describing the story; adding imagery to the situation creates the sentimental tone. The idea of struggle and growth portrays the main point of the overall

Two worlds. Two names. One person. In life there are always two sides to a situation, and two sides to a story. Sometimes there are two sides to someone’s life. There is always going to be tension between the two sides to show that every situation is going to have a more and less favorable side, and they are both there to show us who we are. The House on Mango Street is about a girl named Esperanza, and she is trying to find her place on mango street, and her place in life. Her life is impacted, in good ways and bad, by every person that she meets. We follow her, her family, her friends, and others in her journey of living on mango street, and experience her growing, developing, and experiencing the life made for her. In the book The House

This is the heartbreaking tale of a 17-year-old girl named Olivia. Her teenage mother (Lillian) committed suicide just three days after she was born by walking into the Mississippi River in the middle of the night. Olivia's grandmother, who she lives with, suffers with dementia and thinks that Olivia is actually Lillian. Many of the townspeople draw similar comparisons between daughter and mother and it feels like they're just waiting to see if Olivia will suffer the same fate as her mom when she turns 18.

Cora Lee had many children. As a child she was obsessed with baby dolls. Every Christmas she would get a new baby doll. Until she was 13, when her father said she was too old. Beginning in her sophomore year of high school, she started having babies one after another. Cora Lee neglects her children as they get older since she can only take care of them while they’re babies. Kiswana catches one of Cora Lee’s children eating out of a trash can and takes him to his mom to tell on him. Kiswana then see how filthy Cora Lee’s apartment is. Kiswana offers her to come and bring the children to a play. So Cora Lee cleans her children up and they all go to the play with Kiswana. Cora Lee is touched by seeing how much her children enjoyed the play and from that day to vowed to be a better mother.

When children are born the difference between whether the baby is a girl or boy depends on their chromosomes. The difference is that girls chromosomes are 46XX and boys are 46XY. This does not give boys any more authority in society than women, yet many women still feel inferior to men. In The House on Mango Street, Cisneros when writing, creates a separation between men and women in society. She focuses on how the men feel as though they have more authority over women. Cisneros takes each woman and makes each one of them them weak. By doing this, Cisneros makes it feel as though these women are owned by the men in their community. She explicitly talks about these women being abused and restricted by men to instill a lesson that

A young, married couple, part of this family also, is also struggling because the man is thinking on leaving. His wife is pregnant, but he believes the child is not his. She was rape, and this has drawn them apart. Two more women, are part of this family. They come to the island from the main land on the day the movie describes. One of them is religious; she believes in Jesus Crist. This is another struggle between religious traditions. The other women left the Island long ago to live in the main land. In this day she was coming back to her land to stay, to rediscover herself. However, she got rejected by many women in the family. They consider her a traitor because she left. The younger women accept her because they are more open-minded.

With her husband's outrages and seclusion, she did her best by taken care of the situation with care and calmness, especially in front of her children. Surely, when alone, she would breakdown from the pressure, sadness and changes. A family that would once take walks together on Sundays now had to deal with the father's outrages and drinking problems. Ben, the narrator, was only eight years old at the time and even his young fragile mind noticed that his life would forever be different.

In the beginning of the story she describes what it is like at her aunt’s house. “We sit down at the kitchen table. My aunt’s house is smaller than ours and noisier. She has three sons, my cousins. We can hear them making odd sounds in the other rooms, the other rooms of their house. … Today we sit alone at the table, my aunt, my brother, myself. My aunt makes hot chocolate and pours it into plastic cups. She forgets to put marshmallows in it. Joshua, who is my older brother drinks it. I don’t” (1). She helps the reader visualize her living situation and how she feels about it by expressing the discomfort she feels at her aunt’s house. At the beginning of the story her aunt is crying. “My aunt is crying. No one asks why. My aunt is a big woman, and the tears seem silly. It is as solemn and inappropriate as if a man were crying” (1). By describing her aunt’s appearance in this moment, she also helps the reader understand the dislike she has for her aunt. Later in the story her uncle takes her to an aquarium that her father used to take her. “A week ago, or two weeks ago, or more, my father had stood here next to me, and I had pressed my nose to the glass while he laughed. I used to

These constant beatings in Maggie Johnson’s home, furniture thrown from parent to parent, and every aspect of her family life as being negative, her family situation is not an extremly healthy one. But, despite her hardships, Maggie grows up to become a beautiful young lady whose romantic hopes for a more desirable life remain untarnished.

“Yes, mom! I will eat my food, stop worrying. If you really were concerned then you and dad wouldn’t have left me to go an ‘important’ business meeting.” Aliya argued while tightly embracing a pillow. “I mean what was the point of even going, you guys are probably not even going to make it to the hotel. Have you seen the weather? This storm is so bad that I can even see the trees being dragged around by the wind. Fine, I’ll stop, but just come back soon. Bye mom, love you!” And with that loneliness consumes Aliya as she felt trapped between the four walls of her gigantic house. Unpleasant thoughts flood her mind as she makes her way towards her television, hoping for a channel to distract her mind. As the screen of her TV lights up, she is

Sixteen years, Kalyssa had waited for her family to come claim her. The tiny flicker of hope, the little girl inside of her tried desperately to shield, had flared to life at the time of reading her stepmother’s invitation. Later, however, it turned out they needed her help to find her stepsister, Ming. Not exactly the warm welcome, hug or apology, which she had expected; it should not have surprised her when a ripple of fear threaded through her, but it did.

Those were the exact words her father had given her right before he shipped her off here. Sure, being so far from home was a real treat indeed, but the Grand Isles of New Orleans brought more pain than they did anything else. Being this close to the ocean made her homesick for a place that was never hers to call home anyways. She knew remembering that marvelous land of magic and mayhem was almost as fruitless as remembering him and all he had taught her there. She knew dreaming about him would only lead to heartbreak. After all, Wendy Darling wasn’t a little girl anymore. She hadn’t been thirteen for quite some time, and though her father would never say it to her face, a girl of age nineteen had no business still believing in made up stories.