Ugly Character Analysis

Jimmy knows too well the agonies of abandonment. First, when his mother, Cecilia, ran away with Richard to pursue a better lifestyle. Then, due to his father’s, Damacio Baca, alcoholisms and violent behavior; he also had to leave Jimmy behind. In spite of the drawbacks from abandonment to being a maximum security prisoner in Arizona State Prison, Jimmy preserver’s the darkness of prison by overcoming his illiteracy. However Cecilia and Damacio is not as fortunate as their child; Cecilia is shot by Richard after confronting him for a divorce and Damacio chokes to death after he is released from the detox center(Baca 263). Therefore the most significant event in this section of the memoir, A Place to Stand by Jimmy Santiago Baca is the death of Jimmy’s parents.

The book, Between the Shades of Gray, takes place during World War II. The character Lina is arrested and deported by the NKVD following the annexation of Lithuania. She was then forced to provide labor in order to survive the extreme conditions of the Stalin’s camps. Her ability to cope, her relocation, and the death of her mother contributes to her development and survival.

In John Updike’s short story “A & P”, a dynamic and round character expresses his subjective attitude towards his views, a plot twist causes him to realize his future. Sammy an opinionated cashier at A & P grocery store does not agree with his Lengel, his manager after he reprimands a particular group of customers at the store. Sammy’s further actions cause him to face the true reality of his future.

The book “On My Own Two Feet” by Amy Purdy and Michelle Burford is one the bestselling book that has sold millions of copies all over the U.S. This book is about how nineteen year old Amy Purdy contracted bacterial meningitis and had less than two percent of survival. While Amy was dealing through life and death, she was given a choice to live or to let go but if she decided to live there will live changing experiences that she will have to deal with throughout her life. Amy had decided to live. The tough part was she had to get her legs amputated.

"Anything Goes" is a comedy, romance, and drama filled musical. In this play there are several different characters with their own plots and problems. All the plots later intertwine somehow as the characters interact with each other. The main character, Reno is a stage performer who is the main performer in "The Angels", a group of "evangelist" showgirls. Reno is in love with Billy. Billy is a businessman working for Elisha Whitney. Billy is also in love with a girl named Hope Harcore. Hope is engaged to a wealthy English man named Lord Evelyn, but she secretly loves Billy. Billy is supposed to be in New York doing work after he drops Elisha's passport off, but then he realizes Hope is on the boat. He sneaks onto the boat using an extra passport and ticket from a "pastor" who is actually a famous mobster named Moon Face Martin. He is trying to win Hope over. Reno and Moon are helping Billy stay under cover while getting to Hope. All of these characters interact which each other as they are all on the same boat and all have different purposes. In a turn of events, Reno and Evelyn fall in love. This helps Hope and Billy be able to get married, but Hope's mom, Evangeline, insists Hope marries Evelyn for his money. Elisha ends up receiving a large profit for a deal and Evangeline Harcore changes her mind. A triple marriage ceremony concludes the musical as Hope and Billy, Reno and Evelyn, and Evangeline and Elisha become married couples. This show is filled with plot twists,

Arn Chorn-Pond is the main character in the book “Never fall down”. At the start of the book we meet Arn as a kind and slick person, but later when he and his family gets forced to follow Khmer Rouge. Under these four years he becomes a man and learn to hide his emotions. From kind, slick and a young boy that doesn’t know much, he becomes an intelligent, kind man with the heart on the right place and a real fighter.

"We get pulled out of our comfort zone to help shed our lukewarm nature, eventually trusting God in all of our circumstances"~Taryn Barnes

In the book Out of My Mind, author Sharon M. Draper creates a character named Melody. Melody was born with a gift; she was gifted with brains and with a photographic memory. She was also born with a disability, cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder which causes Melody to be bound to a wheelchair because of the severity of it. She does not have control of her limbs but has figured out a way to maneuver her electric wheelchair with her thumbs. Melody is faced with challenges that cause her to lose and gain socially, physically, and emotionally aspects through out the text.

Grace has been told for more than half her life that she was crazy. Her mother’s death that she witnesses was an accident, there was no scarred man, and there was nothing she could do to change what had happened. But Grace knew they were wrong. With the help of her friends Noah, Megan and Rosie, she managed to discover that the scarred man was Dominic, the first love of her mother, who was there to kill her mother, but chose instead to stage her death. Grace came down just as Dominic was taking the picture, and picked up the gun that was lying on the floor. Firing blinding, she missed Dominic and shot her mother instead. The traumatic moment of shooting her mother was blocked from Grace’s mind as it was unable to handle what she did. Her family tries to protect her from this, saying it was an accident, trying to get Grace to stop pushing. When pushing too hard, Grace discovers the truth of what happened that night, and what she did, and with the

Throughout life, we lose a countless number of possessions and many are taken away from us. Loss is an inevitable part of life, we lose friends, family, cell phones, papers, and even tiny items such as paper clips. Though, most people do not actually appreciate what they have until it is taken away from them. In Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, Lina loses her lifestyle, family, and freedoms when she and her family are taken as war prisoners during World War II.

At school, Charlie finds a friend and mentor in his English teacher, Bill. He also overcomes his chronic shyness and approaches a classmate, Patrick, and his stepsister Sam, become two of Charlie's BFFs. Charlie’s new found friends – Sam, Patrick, Mary Elizabeth and Bob - aren't exactly popular and are outcasts themselves. They are all seniors and often hang out at the Big Boy except Bob who doesn't go to school.

“Ugly” by Robert Hoge and illustrated by Keith Robinson is a memoir about a boy that was born with a tumor the size of a tennis ball in the middle of his face and short, twisted legs. Surgeons removed the tumor and made him a new nose. Robert survived many hard surgeries-only to discover that other kids and adults could be cruel about the way he looked. He had fights with his family and troubles with his teachers. But nothing stopped Robert. He refused to let the judgements of other people ruin him.

“I get by with a little help from my friends” - The Beatles. Friendship is a key essential that helps one overcome any challenge in life. Friends provide guidance which is needed in order to develop your identity. In the novel If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth and the movie Wonder, the theme of friendship helps the main characters develop their identity as confident people through maturity, acceptance and talent. (bravery)

What do you think about when you hear the word tragedy? Do you think about a destructive event, or an extraordinary encounter? I don’t know about you, but I’ve always categorized the word “tragic” with melancholy encounters; however, that all changed while reading the book “The Beginning of Everything.” Robyn Schneider, the author of this intriguing novel, gives us readers different point of views that most people have not considered before.

In the novel Catch Me If You Can by Frank William Abagnale, Frank is a well defined static character. Even though he faces different challenges throughout the novel, he remains the same a the end of the story as he was in the beginning. Being said this, he still continued to run away from his problems and did cons. He is a confident individual who ran away from home at a young age to find a life for himself. Frank is a smart, young and charismatic boy. During his early teen years, his parents started to go through a divorce, which left him torn between whom to choose to stay with. After learning about the divorce that was about to take place, Frank decides to runaway. Frank states, “One June morning of 1964, I woke up and knew it was time to go.