Macy Queen is the main character and protagonist in this novel. She is short for her age, with a round face, brown eyes, blond hair, and a sprinkling of freckles across her nose. Macy is afraid to speak out, thanks to the grief of her father dying, and Macy’s mother, Deborah, is also not over the grief. Deborah forces Macy to aim for perfection and appear calm and collected; “But part of my new perfect act was my appearance… I was still in front of the mirror, parting and reparting my hair… it still didn’t look right” (17). While still working at the library for her boyfriend at camp, Macy starts working for a small catering business, and finally feels like she belongs somewhere, “...I was stepping out of the careful box I’d drawn around …show more content…
Macy’s friends help her in life, and teach her important lessons that she will remember forever. “fly” (368 and 41) denotative~ move through the air connotative~ like you are on top of the world, a great feeling, finally coming out into the open, like you are soaring “junk” (364) denotative~ old or discarded articles that are considered useless or of little value. connotative~ old items that could find new life and perspective, vintage “between the lines” (269) denotative~ within the borders connotative~ within the area of speech topic that does not bring up anything wanted to be avoided, such as grief, or a loss “voice” (246) denotative~ the sound produced in a person's larynx and uttered through the mouth, as speech or song. connotative~ your opinion, say, your ability to speak out with your thoughts “forever” (374) denotative~ lasting for a long time, never ending connotative~ staying true and strong, never fading away, a constant feeling or emotion in life, “all I could see was beach and sky” (373) denotative~ a coastline and sky scene that stretches on connotative~ beauty is always there, forever, a beautiful moment that never seems to end, lasting for infinity “electric” (66) denotative~ having or producing a sudden sense of thrilling excitement.
The city of Mumbai has seen much growth in the past years. A string of elegant hotels have been set up for travelers and high-class business men. An ever growing, top of the line airport has been built for those coming in and out of the country. From the outside, Mumbai seems to have taken a liking to being internationally integrated with the rest of world, otherwise known as globalization. This is not the case, however; as seen in Katherine Boo’s novel Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. This novel is set in a slum right next to the Mumbai International Airport called
wealthy and feels like she is in a unhappy marriage. In the novel, she really embraces how
Although the daughter’s shame in her mother is evident, she is also prideful of her as well. The strong love that the mother and daughter share is pervasive throughout the story. The story is being told by the daughter after she is all grown up. The fact that Jones uses such vivid detail on the mother’s preparation for her daughters first day of school shows that the daughter loved her mom and all that she did for her. The daughter recalls that her mother spent a lot of time preparing her when she says, “My mother has uncharacteristically spent nearly an hour on my hair that morning, plaiting and replaiting so that now my scalp tingles.” (Jones) She also remembers that her “pale green slip and underwear are new, the underwear having come three to a plastic package with a little girl on the front who appears to be dancing.” (Jones) The daughter having remembered details like these illustrate that she has an immense love and takes pride
Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John talks of a young, developing girl and her relationships with those around her. The novel elaborates on Annie’s efforts to compensate for the attachment she once held for her mother. Her society implements strict expectations for women, consequently influencing her mother’s personality and actions. As she values attention highly, yet doesn’t receive an adequate amount from her mother, Annie struggles to maintain the same relationship with her. She looks for ways to “replace” her role, taking on an ambitious pursuit due to this. Annie establishes a connection with Gwen in order to gain affection and attention, resources which her mother provides less frequently as she tries to develop Annie’s own independence and womanly traits.
The article, “The Girl Who Lived Forever”, by Kristen Lewis, describes the hardships of Anne Frank, a Jewish girl, and her family, who like millions of other Jews, perished at the hands of the Nazis during WWII. Anne Frank lived during one of the most terrifying and horrific historical events the world has ever seen, the Holocaust. She and her family managed to survive for 2 long years in hiding, by living in a secret annex behind her father’s pectin factory. In August of 1944, the SS captured Anne and the others hiding in the annex. All but Otto Frank, Anne’s father, perished in the Nazi concentration camps. Though they lived through unspeakable and unimaginable challenges, Anne, her family and their friends showed a tremendous amount of courage trying to defy Hitler and his evil regime.
To begin, the protagonist of the story is Connie, is a rebellious eighteen year old blonde, who does not accept the role that her mother puts her in. The mother expects Connie to be the “nice” girl, who dresses and acts like her
In reading the first parts of Behind the Beautiful Forevers, the primary setting of Annawadi was not often described in a glowing light. The area gave me the image of a worse off poorer part of an inner city. The slum seemed to be rather crowded, often very dirty with trash being abound, unclean sewage water being prevalent, overall a rather unnerving place to live. Looking more towards the conditions of the population of Annawadi, there is not a whole lot of positive to be gleaned from here. The majority of the slum’s citizens do not have stable paying jobs, forcing people to undertake very unconventional paths to gain money, such as Sunil, who like a number of people, gain money by scavenging through garbage. Additionally due to the unsettled
connotative: someone that other people envy and dream to be, often because of looks or talents.
In Catherine's life, there are many things that she wish she could just quit forever, and run away forever. In the novel, Catherine Called Birdy, by Karen Cushman, she challenges the main character by putting her through some things that she may or may not like. For example, some things that she does not like include her marriage to most disgusting and in the world, Shaggy Beard, having to do the worst lady lessons all the time, and having to deal with her father that roars all day long.
“The landscape, the whole great circle of it, grassheads, scrub, water, sky, quite took his breath away.” (Pg 17)
Katherine Boo, a staff writer at The New Yorker and former reporter and editor at The Washington Post, has worked for over two decades “reporting within poor communities, considering how societies distribute opportunity and how individuals get out of poverty” (Boo 257). In November 2007, she and her husband, an Indian citizen, moved from the United States to India to study a group of slum dwellers in Annawadi, Mumbai (Boo 249). While studying this group of individuals in India from 2007 to 2011, Boo’s goal was to learn why the individuals within this slum have not banded together against a common enemy in order to gain upward mobility. She illustrates several common issues of developing nations including: corruption, education, the mismanagement of foreign aid, and the possibility for social mobility in her book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers. In this literary work, Boo accurately portrays the acts of corruption and as well as how corruption has entered the sphere of education, which is typically an individual’s only avenue to social mobility and success in that area. She argues that instead of rising up against a higher power, the individuals within the slum fight against one another to get a leg up on their competition, even if it keeps them in the same social class.
Magnificent, heavenly light filters through the wispy clouds, signifying a new day. The thin clouds slowly drift apart, presenting a beautiful sky beneath. Speaking out to me, the sky seems to know every one of my thoughts, my dreams, my darkest fears. The sky is but a canvas of light, creating a new picture within seconds. Weaving a story through the delicate clouds, the picture grows beyond the expanse of sky. The colors splay before me, painfully beautiful and simple. Pink hues morph into vibrant purples as they blend with the beautiful blues. The glittering stretch of sea shines before my eyes. With every new wave, the light from above whispers promises of riches and sparkling diamonds. The light breeze that kisses the sea sends the twinkling light back into the air above.
Flight is a very broad term that can be defined in various ways. In the piece Swifts: Paths of Movement and Dynamic Sequences, Balla alludes to flight in the title as the “paths of movement in the title probably refer to the flight paths of swifts, while the beating of their wings are referred to as dynamic sequences”(Guggenheim). The dynamic
Characters Claudia and Frieda MacTeer show envious disapproval towards Maureen Peal, a wealthy and stylish lighter-skinned African American girl who the girls refer to as a “disrupter of seasons” (62). Maureen’s character introduces the disruptive and wealthy society within the novel making the division between classes in black culture more apparent. The girls—clearly representing separate societal classes—do not relate to one another despite their shared race. Verifying that Maureen defines perfection in a black society, Claudia and Frieda had to “[look] hard to find [Maureen’s] flaws to restore [their] equilibrium” (63). The self-conscious girls literally search for any apparent faults middle-class Maureen may have in order to make themselves feel better about their “less beautiful” appearance and lower rank in society.
“Queenie” is a prologue to the novel, “Small Island” by Andrea Levy from 2004. The story takes places in England shortly after World War I. The storyline follows a girl, Queenie, attending the Empire Exhibition with her parents and two employees. She is the protagonist of the story, and the story is written from her point of view with a first person narrator. Therefore, her viewpoints and