What Has Affected Mairi's Life

She is an unmarried orphan and described as beautiful and intelligent, however she is very vengeful and seeks for power. In addition to that, she is a liar, manipulative and selfish.

“…seems to be the glue that holds this family together” (Hams 1). Through the journey to California, there are many struggles faced along the way but she retained her composure and remained calm just to appear strong for the family. “She seemed to know, to accept, to welcome her position, the citadel of the family, the strong place that could not be taken” (100). The position Ma is in is not effortless. She puts in a great deal of effort to remain the rock of the family, even though she has lost her many possessions. Without her, there wouldn’t be a Joad family.

her household she resorts to outside sources, making herself a victim to boys, which creates a

The main idea of this story is she wanted to be free to live her own life so badly that she

     When her father passed away she had nobody to tell her what to do and how to act. This was very devastating and she had a hard time dealing with change. So much so that she wouldn't let the police take the body of her father out of the house for three days after his death. The only thing that was constant in her house was the slave

Her life was not easy, her husband got shot and was left alone yet she came back to care for him. That didn’t stop him from verbally abusing him. But when push came to shove, she just left because she kept expressing how she felt. She could have killed her husband if she let her anger pile on inside but she let it out and it made a lot of space in her heart to forgive her husband. Writing and other forms of self-expression have helped many others alike so this says a lot about the usefulness of the literary arts.

She wanted her body back. It was hers” (Roy 211). In this passage, Estha and Rahel were cuddling with their mom and admiring her stretch marks, until Ammu got embarrassed and shrugged them off her. Firstly, the event with Ammu is a struggle since she is beginning to lack self confidence in herself as she is picking on her imperfections. This quote supports my theme because currently in the story Ammu has been through many struggles such as being abused by her husband, divorcing her husband, not having a home for her children etc. Every time Ammu just took the disrespect she got from society and never stood up for herself. Ammu never appreciated herself as the evidence shows, which also had an effect on her behaviour towards her children. In the last chapter when Estha and Rahel were not replying back to Margaret Kochamma, Ammu got very mad at them and was being very disrespectful, despite the fact that she could have dealt with it better (Roy 98). If Ammu as mentioned before stood up for herself and overcame the obstacles through her life, she could have had a better future where she is successful and able to support herself and her

Hawa is the main character in this book. Though she is not the author of the story, the story is told from her perspective. Hawa was born in the 1950’s to her family in Ghana. Her stories were tape-recorded in the 1970’s. At the age of three, Hawa’s mother died, and Hawa was then passed from family member to family member to care for her. Hawa had a very distinct personality—she was very stubborn and tended to get herself trouble. When asked not to do something, she would turn around and do that very thing. Because of this, she never managed to stay with one relative for very long. At one point, she lived with her aunt who forced her to do all the work. Hawa was forced to carry heavy items to the market while her cousin taunted her. This obviously frustrated Hawa, and it resulted in her returning to live with her father. At the age of 16, Hawa was forced to

In the novel “looking for Alibrandi, written by Melina Marchetta,” there are many different situations and feelings that Josephine Alibrandi goes through, in order to figure out who she really is as a person. Josie also has to deal with the normal up and down roller coaster ride of being a teenage girl. At the end of her journey she has very different views on certain topics to the original thoughts that she had at the beginning. Josephine has to cope with different aspects of peer pressure, religion, sexuality, illegitimacy but also family relationships and secrets and death. She finds out a lot more about herself and her family and friends than she

In the beginning of the novel, Marchetta represents Michael as an imperfect father who is absent from his daughters life for 17 years. Josie is longing to know her father so she can fill the gap of having a normal family. Although Michael is real, Josie refers to him as a “myth”. Michael

She carried more weight than she realized. She also noticed that although she felt the most freedom leaving the home that carried so much negative energy, within herself she still wanted to learn why her family was the way it was. While having her own child she realized that “the responsibility is immense” (pg.22). This realization came from knowing that all the weight, darkness, and “shadows” she felt growing up were brought on by her

woman as her father died when she was younger and she has no one to

Momma also showed Marguerite how to be independent and strong. Momma is a very strong and independent woman, she ran a store all by herself, she was financially stable, and had more money than the “powhitetrash” (28). Marguerite saw the strength and power that Momma

It was hard for Maisie to take no offense from the looks, but she overcame the obstacle of the judgements that others will make. As the theme of book, it could be that there will be various obstacles in life, but what matters is not how large the obstacle is, but how they are overcome. Maisie had a number of challenges that she was faced with, and some took longer to conquer than others, yet she managed to defeat her doubts and live with no fears. It really shows how strong Maisie became from the beginning.

But you just keep living day after day, after terrible day.” This woman plays a key role in the theme of suffering. We see her in the past, being tortured by it. We see her actions causing it for multiple people. But sadly, in the all of what she has done, come back to bite her.