Themes Of The Treasure Of Lemon Brown

Living in the tall skyscrapers and smoggy air of Harlem is very different than living in a small town with barns and grassy fields. You will see how living in Harlem effects parenting, compared to the parenting in a normal neighborhood. In this essay on The Treasure of Lemon Brown by Walter Dean Myers, the differences in parenting style, discipline of grades, and activeness of fathers between Greg’s father and my father are made clear.

In the realistic fiction story, "The Treasure of Lemon Brown" by Walter Dean Myers, Greg Ridley a fourteen-year-old boy, starts off by getting a lecture from his dad, about his poor grades in math. Greg is upset and he walks away from his house to get some alone time. As Greg is walking, a rainstorm strikes. While he is trying to find shelter, he comes upon an abandoned apartment complex. As Greg walks in he finds out that he isn't the only one in the apartment, an old man named Lemon Brown is also there. Lemon is there for a different reason though. He is trying to hide his treasure, an old harmonica, from the neighborhood thugs. The thugs weren't successful in getting Lemon's treasure. Greg returns home with a valuable lesson learned, that he should value things in life. Greg changes from the beginning of the story to the end of the story. At the beginning, Greg was careless about his grades in math. Next, he was curious when looking for a place to hide from the rain. Lastly, he ends the story off by being a caring person when he continuously asked Lemon Brown if he was okay. Greg Ridley was a dynamic character who changed from careless, to curious, to caring, after his encounters with Lemon Brown.

When Greg enters an abandoned tenement where he meets Lemon Brown. When Greg first meets this figure, Greg judges him before he tells him his story. He says “ I’m not looking for your treasure,’ Greg answered, smiling. ‘If you have one.’ “ This implies that Greg is judging Lemon by his wealth, since he is wearing rags as stated in page 8, paragraph 11. Lemon responds to Greg by explaining “ ‘What do you mean, if I have one,’ Lemon Brown said. ‘Every man got a treasure. You don’t know that, you must be a fool!’ “ This demonstrates the theme by helping Greg change his thoughts about Lemon, and also think about what his treasure might be. Most importantly, Greg now knows now to not judge a book by their cover.

Another big point in Prose’s essay is the assignments associated with high school literature. She argues that teachers make students write around the books and not about the books they read. “No wonder students are rarely asked to consider what was actually written by these hopeless racists and sociopaths. Instead, they’re told to write around the book, or, better yet, write their own books,” (430). The assignments that teachers give these days are nto about the book or the story itself. They usually ask the student to rewrite the ending, or ask what the student would do if they were in the same situation as the character. Prose argues that high school students are seen as having the same experience as some of the characters they read about, such as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby. “And is it any wonder that

Graff was unable to find any real connection between himself and the text. ““Even Hemingway, Steinbeck, and Fitzgerald, whose contemporary world was said to be “close to my own experience,” left me cold. I saw little there that did resemble my experience”” (Graff, Para. 6) Not until he was exposed to the critical debates in his junior year, finally opened his eyes to literature, history and other intellectual pursuits. His first spark came with the discussion over the controversy surrounding The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. As always he felt he could not relate his own Chicago lifestyle to the lives of a young southern boy and a runaway slave. His interest started when his teacher explained how many famous critics had disagreed over the true ending of the novel. Graff felt as though he finally found a connection to his required reading, all through the process of reading it critically. “I gained confidence from recognizing that my classmates and I had thoughts that, however stumbling our expression of them, were not too far from the thoughts of famous published critics” (Graff Para. 11) With his new thought process, he found himself rereading the story with excitement, something he had never been able to do previously. Not only did he find himself focused on the material, but had actually been able to put himself into the text for the first time. He later found himself thinking that maybe it

There will always be controversies in life, whether big or small, whether it affects individuals or groups, or whether it will make any difference to one’s life; this argument affects millions of adolescent lives. Where saying yes obliterates comfort zones and advocates racism, and while saying no promotes a conformist, mass mentality mindset and erases history. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is the name to put on the face of this problem. The controversy of this book has been fought over since it’s been published but the inspiration and individualistic philosophy this book teaches is far too great to dispose of. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” should be required reading for students because first, the moral of the book preaches

Smiley has missed the point of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and has depressed the book to a fractions of its ideas. She sees the book as a failed social commentary on racism and enabling the reader to avoid responsibility. A Short sighted sentiment from Mrs. Smiley, but Mark Twain has a light directed elsewhere. He lights out the territory of social improvements by vexing the reader to view from different vantage points.

To truly understand a great novel and its author, the reader must dig deep inside the life

In “The Lesson,” the author shows how one can alter their circumstances. The story is being told by a young girl name Sylvia; through her observation of living in Harlem, readers are able to get a glance of what kind of environment she and the other children lived in. Sylvia was known to be outspoken and unruly but by Miss Moore taking her and her peers under her wing she made a change for the better. Miss Moore took the children on a trip to an expensive store in Manhattan called F.A.O Swartz where the children saw a variety of toys with expensive price tags. Miss Moore wanted the children to see how wealthy people lived and that the other opportunities out there. This short story shows how the environment contributes to ones determination of achieving the American Dream. Although, Miss Moore was well adjusted to this environment, the

Imagine a world where evil and unjust actions are based on the color of skin; a world where some don’t even realize that they are prejudicing. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, these themes are present. People and how they commit evil, hypocritical, and unjust acts. We see these themes and great issues through the point of view of a child; the vigorous, youthful, elementary-aged Scout. Through this character Harper Lee shows the innocence of children, and what they go through in our inequitable world.

Through the use of Scout’s innocent nature and the words and actions carried out by the townspeople, Harper Lee’s critical tone regarding prejudice is revealed.

Toni Cade Bambara addresses how knowledge is the means by which one can escape out of poverty in her story The Lesson. In her story she identifies with race, economic inequality, and literary epiphany during the early 1970’s. In this story children of African American progeny come face to face with their own poverty and reality. This realism of society’s social standard was made known to them on a sunny afternoon field trip to a toy store on Fifth Avenue. Through the use of an African American protagonist Miss Moore and antagonist Sylvia who later becomes the sub protagonist and White society the antagonist “the lesson” was ironically taught.

The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has stirred up much controversy over such topics as racism, prejudice and gender indifference, but the brunt of the criticism has surrounded itself around the ending, most notably with the re-entry of Tom Sawyer. Some people viewed the ending as a bitter disappointment, as shared by people such as Leo Marx. The ending can also be viewed with success, as argued by such people as Lionel Trilling, T.S. Eliot, V. S. Pritchett and James M. Cox in their essays and reviews. I argue that the ending of the novel proves successful in justifying the innocence of childhood through such themes as satire and frivolous behaviour.

In Maycomb County, the acceptance of the Cunningham family is directly tied to their social status, or lack of. Atticus tells Scout, “. . . Mr. Cunningham is basically a good man, he just has his blind spots along with the rest of us.” This adamant declaration of Mr. Cunningham’s character, partially due to the loyalty of his business dealings with Atticus Finch, portrays character traits of an honest and trustworthy

Why does this title have a peculiar title to it and what is it about? The short story “The Treasure of Lemon Brown,” by Walter Dean Myers, is about a young boy named Greg Ridley who really struggles with school. At the time he was fourteen and failed his math class. His father would always give him lectures about how failing in school is not okay and in turn isn't aloud to play basketball. One day he got so mad that he ran away and ended up in some old run-down building with graffiti all over it. Greg has four big coming of age moments all throughout this story. Coming of age moments are big moments that happen in life. His first big moments is failing his first math class.