The Little Old Lady Who Broke All The Rules By Catharina Sundberg

A vampire is defined as “a prenatural being of a malignant nature, supposed to seek nourishment, or do harm, by sucking the blood of sleeping persons;” (1). Whereas a parasite is defined as “a person who lives at the expense of another, or society in general;” (2). A sleeping persons can be interpreted as an innocent person, this is due to countless stories and lore depicting vampires stealing the blood of conscious innocent persons. Therefore, by doing harm to the innocent, a vampire is living at the expense of the humans whose blood it steals, making vampires a form of parasite. In The Good Lady Ducayne, by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Ducayne is genetically a human, but her mind has become fixated on life. By exploiting technology, her moral and ethical standards change, allowing for her personal relationships to become meaningless in her search for an elongated life. She goes so far as to steal the blood of young girls; this act of stealing innocent girls blood at their own expense, makes her a special parasite, human vampire.

In the book “The Glass Castle” by Jeanette Walls, Jeanette’s life has gone through many ups and down’s, all the way from her childhood to her adulthood. As Jeanette’s growing up she sees her Parent’s hopes and dreams slowly starting to elude away into reality. From the start of the book Jeanette’s parents, Rex and Rosemary have strong hopes of being rich from mining and sifting up gold in the dessert, through rexes “new Invention’s” to help detect the gold. But as time tells, Jeannette’s feelings and faith in her parents start to diminish away. Jeannette also starts to realize that her father is causing the problem. Towards the end of the story, Jeannette says to her mom, “Mom, you have to leave dad” (wells 188), and Jeanette’s mom is astonished of what she had said and asks why she suggested that, and Jeannette simply states that “He will bring all of us down” suggesting that they need to be on welfare. When Brian and Lori Begin digging the foundation for the glass castle that Rex had designed and promised them they were going to make, the idea quickly diminished into a fantasy once the hole started to fill with old rusty beer cans.

Mothers are pictured as the care giver of the families and the ones who love their children unconditionally no matter the situation. They’ll do anything to support their family and raise their children right. In “The Queen of Mold” by Ruth Reichl, the mother in the story is pictured as the one who makes a meal almost out of nothing, just to provide and have something on the table for her family. Even though the food she cooks is moldy, this is how she demonstrates her motherly love.. In “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, the mother is portrayed at first as an over excited mother waiting for her over achieving daughter Dee. As the story progresses the excitement for the daughter starts to go away and her motherly love towards Dee becomes complicated because Dee thinks she is greater and much smarter than the rest. Both of the stories depict complex motherhood, in Reichl story her mother’s love becomes complicated when she cooks food for the guest and her daughter tries to save the guest from being killed, while by the end of Walker story she only has love for the one daughter that has always been by her side and that’s Maggie.

Greg Sarris provides a personal narrative based on Mabel McKay, giving her a chance to present her life-long story of enduring the resistance of white dominance. There is also vivid examinations of her calling to her personal spirit, which held onto her soul immensely. This book is incredible, showing the experience of a young girl listening to her spirit as it called out for her to remember her connection to weaving, singing, and healing. She connects to her dreams excessively which provided her with the lessons that was taught by the spirit which connected her back to her traditional native roots. Not only is there a perspective of Mabel McKay, but Sarris also find his own story of self-discovery as he is interacting with Mabel. Clearly

When Frances Cornford wrote “The Watch”, she must have been in an unbelievably dark place; the poem is downright depressing. However, regardless of the macabre nature of the poem, it is executed in supreme fashion, and creates a real sense of dread in the reader. Cornford, a granddaughter of Charles Darwin, was not a particularly popular poet. However, in “The Watch”, she manages to convey a powerful message to the reader, and demonstrates her poetic skill in stride. The theme of this intriguing poem appears to simply be ‘Memento mori’, a reminder to the reader that death is inevitable and inescapable. Cornford conveys this message to the reader using an arsenal of literary devices, most notably the mood, tone, symbolism, and epizeuxis.

In The Book of Stories Beginnings by Kristin Kladstrup, Lucy Martin found her great-uncle's The Book of Stories Beginning and began writing her own story beginnings in the enchanted journal. She wrote about her father being a great magician. Everything written in the journal came to life. Lucy's father turned himself into a raven using his magic potion and flew across the ocean to a mythical land called Cat'n'berd Island. Lucy Martin and her great-uncle, Oscar Martin, went on a search to find Lucy's lost father and save him from King Bertram. Kristina Kladstrup was born Sioux City, Iowa. When she was a child, she loved reading and writing and she decided that becoming a writer would be her vocation. The house that her mother lived in when she was a child inspired the setting of Kladstrup’s novel. Kladstrup had also written two other children books which are Garden Princess and Le Livre Des Débuts D'histoires. She had co-written two children's books. One is A Night In Santa's Great Big Bag with Tim Jessell and the other is The Gingerbread Pirates with Matt Tavares. I chose The Book of Story Beginnings because a friend recommended it to me. She said it was set in an island far away from Iowa. I enjoy reading about adventures to distant magical lands, so I agreed to read this book. Upon finishing to book, the ending of the book was different from what I had predicted. I thought that after Oscar helped Lucy find her father, Oscar

Racial and gender stereotypes are vague assumptions that are generally negative in the novel, Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins. They are false beliefs abstracted by judgmental people based on a person’s gender or ethnicity. Each person has their respective thoughts, ambitions and passions despite their gender or race. These stereotypes are ignorant and do not define every single person. Most people realize that stereotypes are inaccurate, however they continue to make presumptions based on ethnicity or gender. The author of Forbidden, challenges racial and gender stereotypes by explaining how they are only crude generalizations which cause disruptions in society because of people’s belief that as long as they exist that they must follow them.

Equality? Equality is the state of being equal, however the idea of equality has been such an issue not only in the past but the present as well. White people believe that they are superior to minorities such as Women, African Americans and Hispanics because, minorities, are They make women feel inferior, believe that African Americans are threatening and violent, and think that Hispanics are murderous and slothful. This is in fact very wrong because they judge people based on what is being said or events that have no relevance. Minorities are treated unfairly because they are different and are believed to be less than others.

As Ann Brashares says, “Luck never gives, it only lends.” The audience gives a since of foreshadowing(Brashares pg 9). In the sisterhood of the traveling pants by Ann Brashares, there are a pair of pants that Carmen picks up at a shift store. Four girls that are different shapes and sizes try on the same pair of pants and they fit them all so they call them magical pants. The character development throughout this novel impacts the theme.

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.

The Year My Sister Got Lucky The book titled “The Year My Sister Got Lucky” is an interesting work of literature, written by the New York Times bestselling author Aimee Friedman. It narrates the story of a teenager whose life changes when she moves to Fir Lake with her family. Actually, the main character is Katie, a fourteen year-old girl who is insecure, emotional and sensitive. Besides, she considers herself overdramatic because of her constant concern for the challenges she faces.

Amy Tan, a 64 year-old Chinese-American novelist, believed that her life was tough and horrendous as a child. She said, “‘I remember that starting at the age of six, I had thoughts of suicide…The fact that I had those thoughts when I was very young was an indication that I was a very gloomy kid. I had some ways of thinking that were not healthy,’” (“Interview” 2). Her thoughts of wanting to disappear from the world were due to her roots, which were planted in a miserable family history, a hard, strict life, and painful personal traumas. However, those thoughts soon faded away when she discovered a passion, reading and writing. She used reading and writing as a way to ease her anger, sadness, despondency, and agony. Reading was where she found her best escape and her best answer’s to life’s questions. It was a refuge for her, and a place where she could use her imagination to paint the life she had always wanted, but had never experienced. Before she knew it, her love for reading and writing brought her to where she is today, as a renowned and successful author.

Those who hold gardening as a certified profession have been contacted in relation to the decreasing number of bee colonies. It 's good to know about what is going on and I have built up a brief summary of readings and discussions that I have discovered on the subject of bee colonies. Shelley McNeal, who carries expertise within the bee colonies department, quotes 'The fuzzy little honey bees are the buggies ' when talking about these pollinating bugs. They not only enable your flowers and thus your gardens to flourish but they also play an indispensable part in agronomics. But the scary thing is, these bee colonies are now becoming an endangered specie. Nearly a quarter to one half of bee colonies that are in America have gone within the last twenty or so years. Mites were mainly responsible for the initial loss of bee colonies however another destroyer is looming on the horizon: The Colony Collapse Disorder. The reason is still unknown for the set up of this organization however we have had hints that viral infections or bacteria could be a possible cause. A number of individuals have come together to study the Colony Collapse and is made up of businesses from Pennsylvania. They are currently studying hard; delving into research to look for answers to what could be probable issues causing this, experimenting with CCD colonies so that they may find a way to put an end to the cruelty of bee colonies being collapsed, and instead promoted and enable the next generation of

“The Wise Old Woman,” is a folktale retold by Japanese-American author Yoshiko Uchida. The theme of the story is that if you banish all the elderly, then you are banishing all the wisdom along with them. This helps the reader understand a larger lesson about life, human nature, and the experience of a specific people or culture because it teaches about the ways a Japanese society acts. In this folktale, a young lord banishes all people over the age of seventy-one to the mountains to die in the wilderness. A farmer decides to disobey the lord and hide his seventy-one year old mother in his house.

After reading The Liars Club an autobiography by Mary Karr, my interpretation of the reading is that she is telling her story from her point of view as a child and as an adult, utilizing foreshadowing and vivid imagery. For example, the reading states “My sharpest memory is of a single instant surrounded by dark.” “I was seven, and our family doctor knelt before me where I sat on a mattress on the bare floor” (Karr 3). This passage also brought some significance to the story as discussed in class. This helps the reader to understand that a very young age Mary Karr experienced something that was traumatic and it as stuck with her, therefore she labeled is one of her sharpest childhood memories. Usually when things happen to us as children we are not able to remember them exactly in detail, but when they are traumatic events those memories tend to stick with us throughout life. While writing Karr takes the role of two characters, those include the character “Pokey”. In the story this is a representation of Mary Karr a child. Her father Pete calls her Pokey. During this time frame Mary isn’t too aware of what is happening to her, she admires her father, and is also of her sisters. As I continued to read the story the next character that Mary Karr takes on is the narrator or author. This is referenced throughout the story when she looks back on her childhood to try and understand what was happening to her. A good example of this is when the author uses breaking of the fourth