Do you know someone who had to sacrifice their education because the had children before graduation? Have you ever met someone who’s biggest goal is to make it to college? These are two examples of what characters are going through during the novel. Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff, is a story about the financial struggles some people have to to go through in life. It is also about how you have to step up and help these people if you are in a better position than them. Throughout the book there are a few very obvious themes. One is the fact that the characters want education in order to achieve their dreams and benefit their lives. They know that it will help them later in life.
Throughout the story of Make Lemonade, there are examples of education being very, very important to the story and the conflict in it. Both LaVaughn and Jolly both know that education would benefit their lives for the better. One example of the characters knowing this is when LaVaughn says: “Then you get a good job and you live in a nice place with no gangs writing all over the walls”’ (Wolff 9). When the word college was being used very frequently in her household she thought and realized that she knows going to college will help her get a better job for herself later. Going almost hand in hand with this quote, LaVaughn gives more evidence to show that she knows college will benefit her when she says: “It would be college for Verna LaVaughn and a good job and not any despair” (Wolff 65).
Earning an education could cost you for your entire life, especially if you do not apply for the various types of financial aid. After earning their degree, several students do not earn enough money with the field they have chosen to pay off their debt, making the degree seem pointless. Families that pay for their children’s tuition often wonder, like Linda Lee, if their child is getting what they pay for. Parents pay for the tuition because they do not want their children to miss out on the “college experience.” However, when their child fails to make the right decisions or simply acts their age, it leaves the family wondering if they have made a
Important has a different meaning to everyone, because everyone has different important things in their life. For some people, it is their family, or their friends, or something they love to do. For LaVaughn in Make Lemonade, by Virginia Euwer Wolff, the thing most important to her is her education. LaVaughn is a 14 year old girl who babysits for college money because her mom does not have any. Her main babysitting job in this book is for Jolly, a teen mom who is struggling to work and take care of her kids. LaVaughn goes through ups and downs with Jolly and tries to help her -- but one thing sticks with her the whole time: throughout Make Lemonade,
“Who Gets to Graduate’ by Paul Tough, publish May, 2015 in the New York Times discusses. The story of a young girl’s mindset on college. It begins with her starting in college and first failure on a test. It highlighted the doubts she had in her abilities. This opening introduces the article’s man discussion, which involves low income students who want to earn a four year degree but experience “troubles” along the way. It then discusses statistics that show dropout rates are highest with low-income students. The author included ability versus economics status.
People often think of family as positive, loving, and with no flaws. However, there is almost a stereotype that all families love each other and there aren’t problems or challenges in a family. Sometimes families put people through challenges and some families aren’t “perfect”. In the book Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff, Jolly has two kids and goes through challenges with her family. Most careful readers can see how Jolly has these challenges with her kids and how she is far off from the “perfect” family. She goes through many of these challenges in life and finds a way to overcome them. Jollys family shapes her identity because the challenges she faces ends up making her stronger. Jeremy and Jilly challenging her, LaVaughn helping her out, and her past family all shape her identity.
The novel Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff is mainly about a seventeen year old girl named Jolly, who encounters many difficulties as she has two children from two different, absent fathers. Jolly desperately needs help raising her two children, Jeremy and Jilly, and LaVaughn helps babysit temporarily. LaVaughn is caught up in Jolly’s problems and she guides her on the right path. However, LaVaughn cannot sacrifice her academics to babysit for her because she wants to go to college and she wants to start to build her future. These two main characters take separate paths as they each develop and mature throughout the stages of the novel and they have similarities and differences. Both, Jolly and LaVaughn, illustrate actions that
In the book as in my personal life, there were two people with very similar environments yet their lives took completely different paths in the end. Their paths determined by the choices they made at different situations in their lives. Those choices explain who they have become and create the goals that they have set for themselves. The choices also opened up other opportunities that they each will have in their future. No matter what life may hand you always be careful with your decisions you make. Consider how this will affect me tomorrow, a week from now, or even a year from now and go with the one that leads to a better life for
While the issues regarding poverty are addressed in both the books Make Lemonade by Virginia Wolfe and “South of the Slot” by Jack London, each author has a very different view of the life of the lower class. In “South of the Slot” the lives of the lower class are heavily romanticized while Make Lemonade provides a more grounded and unsettling look at the struggles of the lower class. In "South of the Slot” the protagonist Freddie Drummond is a wealthy sociologist who becomes fascinated with the carefree way of life of the impoverished workers he studies. Make Lemonade on the other hand is written from the perspective of Verna Lavaughn, a penurious student who attempts to look after a young mother Jolly who is struggling to raise her children
Sociological imagination played a part in this story because the author Wes Moore made connections on how personal experiences relates to public issues. He grew up in poverty and maintained ambition to receive proper education. Thus this tells readers not to let where you came from or your downfalls hinder you from being successful. The Author Wes Moore displayed that education was the key to all future success. He also showed that there should always be a backup plan in case the funding runs out. In the book it wasn’t luck that determined the fates in
Throughout the memoir, Moore portrays the value of education and how small judgments can shape one's life forever. Moore wanted the reader to know the value of having an education and how the choices you make from your childhood stick with you forever. A great example that Moore mentioned
One new experience can bring a whole other dimension. Viewpoints on life change, knowledge is gained through mistakes, and one may find themselves trapped in a maze-like situation that they need to find a way out of. However, making the best out of one’s position through determination, perseverance, and courage can slowly reverse the difficulty of handling it. Eventually, as strength is regained from tough obstacles, the desire to obtain their dreams escalates even further, which aids in working harder and striving to reach their goals. Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of Nickel and Dimed, depicts the financial struggles of single mothers who raise their families through minimum-wage jobs after the welfare reform affected their lifestyles. In the novel, Ehrenreich tests the limits of living in poverty by accepting any scarce job that was offered, and provides insight that although it was exhausting to balance her needs and her hectic work schedule, by diligently laboring, constantly persisting in seeking the better, and voicing out the wrongs, it can eventually lead to the attainment of the American Dream.
With both characters from each story, not knowing what to do now that their lives were changing, they clung to something to help them get by; education. In Education as a Weapon in the Hands of the Restless Poor, the teacher told the students, “Rich people learn the humanities in private schools and expensive
Wes Moore grew up in poor conditions, where he and his small family barely made ends meet. Wes tried his best to stay strong despite all the misfortune things in his life, and struggled through days looking for the light at the end of tunnel. Years later, Wes Moore heads to a private school where he learns at a steady pace and passes classes. Later on, when his life at home becomes unbearable and he is unable to keep up with school, Wes Moore drops out of private school (Moore, 2011). However, he remains focused and determined not to continue living in poverty. Hence, he makes up his mind that he must get educated one way or another.
Have you ever been in a situation where your family couldn’t provide that much for education? Are you influenced by anyone that’s older than you? Marjane lives in Iran, where most of the revolution war between Iran and Iraq occurs. There’s a lot of discrimination that happens there for equal rights towards women. Marjane comes from a really wealthy family and they took this women away from her family when she was little to be there maid. Esperanza lives in Chicago where she wanted to become a writer. There is six people living in one bedroom with one bathroom, Esperanza is poor so her parents can only afford a little. Even though Esperanza knows that she doesn’t have much she tries to make the best of it. In Persepolis and the House On Mango Street, both characters are influenced by someone older than them, they want to help their family, and they both have trouble in school.
Individuals, need encouragement and support from loves ones to guide one through life. This is seen in the lack of support and encouragement displayed when Esther's mother fails to support and encourage Esther with her aspirations. No matter what Esther had wanted to do with her life, her Mother had always wanted her to learn the skills of shorthand because she would always have that skill in her life and also that was the one thing her Mother had experienced in life. As a result, her Mother failed to enhance Esther with her aspirations that she wanted from life.
Students from all over the United States are told all through their life that they need to attend college if they ever want to be successful, however, this is far from the truth. Often schools are culprits for driving students to attend money driven colleges, in other cases it is family. While schools all too often make the push on students to continue their schooling, parents can cause the same situation, as they may not have a degree and be working a low-paying factory job. Now kids already don’t want to be like their parents when they get older, so seeing them suffer in poverty or barely above the poverty line can cause some dissatisfaction, further seeking a degree to live a life that they never got. What many