The Pride And Joy Of The Family

The fresh morning air was cool against my face. Father had been gone for a while now, he had been called by his work for some “serious business.” As my sister Aliah, and I played in the pond by our 2 story house, we heard a faint muttering of Father’s pick-up.

Most times, anything abnormal or odd tend to be pushed under the rug. Edgar Allan Poe subtly brings attention to topics the are typically ignored. E. A. Poe had far from a perfect childhood. His father left when he was young and his mother died when he was three. Poe also seemed to have a lonely childhood after his parents were gone. He was separated from his relatives and didn’t appear to have many friends. He attended the army and after went into West Point. His academics there were well but he was eventually kicked out because of poor handlings of his duties. Before Poe died, he struggled with depression and a drinking problem. Some believe Poe’s tragic lifetime was the inspiration for some of his stories. Such as, “The Fall of the House of Usher”. A possible theory about this story is that Roderick and the Narrator were one in the same. This essay will discuss the possibility of them being the same through plot, characterization, and personification.

Released in 2001, Disney Channel’s The Proud Family was a Black cartoon frequently watched by children who grew up during its airplay. Not vulgar or satirical, The Proud Family centered around Penny Proud and her family as she grew up through her years. As a child, I innocently watched this show, but picked up on unintended implications based off of the character’s skin color. The main character Penny was a lighter skinned girl, who appeared to possess “more Eurocentric phenotypic characteristics (Steele),” exhibited more intelligence, wealth, and virtue, as opposed to her darker skinned best friend, Dijonay, who was associated with deviance and sassiness, while speaking with a more Ebonic style of talking and possessed a more “ghetto” name. Although the show attempted to provide an accurate representation of a “traditional African American family,” it still regardlessly instilled these stereotypes of the African American community into my mindset, which were not disproved in my mind until later in my life (Steele).

"Rip Van Winkle" has been a well-known story told throughout time. There is not a doubt that as a child, many of you heard the words of Washington Irving's famous tale of the man who slept for twenty years. Nor can one forget the "elves" that Rip Van Winkle spent the night with in the amphitheater. Like many stories, Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" has been told so many times throughout American history that it has lost its original purpose. The story is now remembered for its fairy tale like quality and its appeal to the children and the young at heart. However, when given the chance to delve into the depths of what Irving was trying to portray, one may see the

The first snowfall of the year had finally arrived one late November night, blanketing the small cabin and surrounding forest with fresh, powdery snow. The wind howled through the leafless trees, often relieving the weighed down branches of their snowy burden. The smooth and unblemished snow coated everything, leaving the road to the cabin indistinguishable from the surrounding terrain.

A sarcastic voice answers from the other side of the door. “That’s not the point, is it, Dad?” George says. “The point is how we’re going to keep this from happening again.” (pg 3)

here we had a big family ,my aunt and her family, my uncle and his family, my grandfather and

It was December and the day was cold. The wind blew rapidly and incoherently as the village folk worked on the crops and attend to their many cattle. Then, something started falling from the sky...it was snowing. Normally this isn’t a big deal,

It was a cold winter's evening and the night was as dark as coal. The town was very bizarre tonight. Infact more than usual. The town was tiny but it was very easy for people to assimilate in it. It was three days before Christmas and people were thrilled about that final day to come. Everybody ran around like maniacs trying to do last minute shopping.

Gravel crunched beneath the tires of my father’s ’95 Chevy Silverado, the same way it had every time we drove up the steep, tortuous path to my grandmother’s home on Christmas Eve. There she was waving excitedly, dressed in her floral nightgown and fuzzy slippers as the snow floated downward around her. She corralled us inside away from the cold. Like I was as light as the snowflakes just beyond the door, she lifted me up into her arms. I laid my head against her chest as she guided my father and me into the living room adorned with wreaths and candles. I closed my eyes and inhaled the aroma of peppermint and freshly baked cookies as my grandmother held me tight. Lights from the glistening tree illuminated the room in red and green.

In Nathaniel Hawthorn’s Young Goodman Brown and Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle share a common ground of witchcraft and a man vs man inner conflict of the unknown. We witness our two protagonist Goodman Brown and Rip endure life or death situations and what they conquer throughout their self-entitlement.

We left the town hall and went back to our little house. Each adult finding their child and walking back to their little home, which was on the same street as everyone else 's shack. My Parents and I were both walking in the same place, but Mom and Dad were keeping their distance.

The time was midnight and the weather was unbearable. The dirt roads had become frozen shadows of the night, making it hard for anyone to see anything. Nay one was out, most were either sleeping or stuffed into the tavern, drinking, and gambling. Nay one 's dumb enough to be outside during this night, nay one but me. From a distance, I hear a piano being played inside the tavern, just barely audible due to the sounds o ' the snow storm. I eased closer to the tavern, desperate to get some warmth and perchance a meal that doesn 't taste like crap. Nay one noticed as I entered, they were too busy drinking and gambling or both. Always too busy to notice.

Every day we would meet up after school and ride our bikes and do some crazy activities like ding-dong ditch some houses and blow up some fireworks on any average day. Aside from all that we were still young innocent kids we loved playing ball and just having fun with all the kids around the neighborhood. It was like a small family of a couple of friends. Being the shy one from all the group Jacob thought me how to be loud and express myself how I wanted to. I always looked up to Jacob and his sense of excitement.

What is a family? What parts make up a family? These two questions are questions that millions of adults and children ask themselves regularly. When people think about a family in their head they think of a nuclear family. Where you have a Mom, Dad, and a few kids running around a home in the middle of a suburban wasteland. That is the nuclear family that I feel most modern families strive to be like. But factors can change within a family and still be a family. I do not believe that a family is strictly based off what people see from the front porch looking in. A family is about the everlasting bond that is formed between a group of people whether they are related by blood or by other means. A family is a group of people who stick together during hard times and good times, they laugh together and they cry together. They eat meals together, party together, are weaved together in life. They are like a strip of palm leaves, and when you weave a bunch of them together it makes a basket, that is a family. The people that someone can call at two in the morning on a Wednesday just because they can’t sleep. The ones who would sacrifice anything to help them. The bond can never be broken because the word “family” holds them together like glue to wallpaper.