Born in 1934, Elisabeth Schiesser lived a hard life right from the start. THESIS Her journey started in Yugoslavia with her family of 7 and a normal life. It was her home until it was taken over by Hitler’s army on April 6 1941. The Germans invaded and changed everything. All the men were forced to fight for Nazi army. After the war Elisabeth’s family was forced into a concentration camp along with many other families. After three years of being trapped they escaped and headed for their next destination. They crossed the border into Austria with the help of a civilian, as they did not have the proper papers. Later on, at the young age of 19 she left with a friend to Canada and started a new life. In order to get through the war, Elizabeth and…
Her father said “as long as you say your prayers, did the good deeds that God wanted you to do, and lived so far away from the big city. The Nazis won’t come here for six Jews.”…
following the collapse of the East German regime. She does this by sharing stories of ‘human…
Jeannette Walls tells the story of her dysfunctional childhood during the 70’s. Her life is dismal to the reader because so many negative things happen throughout her first 6 years of life. She is full of optimism and joy. She is able to see the good in every person and every situation. Jeannette tells the intriguing yet disturbing story of her childhood without putting pity on herself.…
Connie was a slender girl with long dark blondish hair and thought of herself as being very beautiful. She had a little bit of pep to her walk, as if she was bouncing on a trampoline as she walked around everywhere. She was a very happy and enthusiastic girl unless she was with her family. She felt as though she was not good enough in her mothers’ eyes and was always being picked on and compared to her older sister. For example, her mom would say, “Why don’t you keep your room clean like your sister?” (Oates 436) She enjoyed getting out of the house as often as she could and she would go to the shopping center with her friends where they would sneak across the street to a restaurant where the older kids would hang out. She was never the same person she pretended to be at home. She would act and dress one way at home, but when she went out she was free to express herself.…
When people come of age, they follow through with their actions that they think are right for their welfare. In Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, Lily Owens, a fourteen-year-old girl, had always done things behind her father’s back to avoid inhumane punishments. She never wanted to tell T. Ray, her father, about her whereabouts, because he never approved, or believed her. And every time she told her T. Ray about things she thought she would not get in trouble for, she would receive a punishment anyway because her father never trusted her. Her mother, who was accidently shot by Lily at age 4, was a forbidden topic in her house, but when Lily found some object that were her mother’s in the attic, she felt somehow closer to her. Every night she would sneak out of the house, to look at those objects while being sure that T. Ray would never find out, but one night she fell asleep under a tree, and her T. Ray was furious when he found her. “In a matter of seconds I knew exactly what I had to do-leave. I had to get away from T. Ray, who was probably on his way back this minute to do Lord-knows-what to me.” (p. 41). She knew what she had to do instantly. All her life she was harmed and beaten by T. Ray, and she knew that it would be in her best interest to leave T. Ray, before he did something truly awful. She left, and never thought about going back to her home. She did, however, have a moment of weakness when she was making honey deliveries with Zack, a fellow worker of the business the family she was staying with owned. She called T. Ray, but when she found out he did not want her back, she realized had no regrets of leaving T. Ray. She knew what was best for her, and going back to live with T. Ray, was not one of…
She was determined to find more, to be loved and have better. Better wasn’t always obtainable and by the age of 14, Sherry became an empty spirit, residing in foster home after foster home. One of the low points of her journey she was sexually assaulted at gunpoint for the second time.…
Loretta was a bit of a handle full in school she was often very angry. She would often get into fights with her fellow classmates who relentlessly taunted and teased her. One day her teachers let her out of class so that she would not meet up with her bullies and she told Loretta to “runaway and run fast” and Loretta did just that. As result Loretta realized her love for running. However, once in high school Loretta once again found herself being pushed around and once again Loretta’s angry side emerged. She beat one of her classmates and was expelled from school. Upon being expelled she was then placed at a workshop for the mentally challenged but was fired soon for fighting a fellow co-worker. As a result of this Loretta was placed with a social worker by the name of Janet McFarland who introduced her to the Special Olympics.…
Shayla Smith stayed a few nights of summer vacation with her friend, Tamara, whose Mom and Dad, Bob and Susan Tuttle, took Shayla and their daughter, Tamara, camping. Shayla’s mom was happy for the break, as Shayla is dyslexic, and that has caused her to have a difficult time at school. Consequently, she acts out, and is a handful for her single mom!…
Margo found her parents peacefully sitting on their leather furniture, sipping their afternoon cup of scalding coffee. She remembered when they first adopted her. **The day was blustery and dim. At age four, Margo’s day consisted of building blocks towering up really high, then toppling down onto her -- long afternoon naps -- and brightly colored crayons doodling onto the paper. Margo was found sitting on a petite bean bag…
Growing up, Janis passed her time by spending time with her family and friends. The neighborhood kids would hang out everyday and play outside. At noon when the whistle would blow, the kids would go to their houses to eat lunch. When they finished, they would all come back outside to continue playing. Janis and her friends were always outside. Janis’ family did not have…
At just six months old, Norma Jeane was placed in a foster home because her mother was placed in an insane asylum for her mental breakdowns. In 1935, at age nine, she entered an orphanage and stayed there for two years. On the whole her childhood appears to have been passed in the care of people with comfortable homes and surroundings (Andersen 1994).…
“Hi, I’m Marissa.” I said as she came into my house with her belongings. I saw the puffy thick dark brown curls as soon as she walked into the front door. Like most of our foster children, she was from Bridgeport the largest city in Connecticut. She was Italian and Puerto-Rican with light beige skin. She was chubby and had awfully large feet for someone who was only 8 years old. She was very hesitant and looked down at her feet with her thick-lensed bifocal glasses and said, “Hello.”…
My parents divorced when I was 3. My mother ran off with another man, my father moved to Salem with my younger sister, and I was left to live with my grandparents. My grandmother made it no secret that I was not exactly a welcome addition in her eyes. My older cousin Lindsey, whom I idolized, loathed my existence. Living in a small town where everyone knew everyone, I became known as “Little Orphan Annie.”…
Her time spent in hiding for fear of being sent to a concentration camp forced her to mature more quickly. She became interested in the status of the war by listening to the news and wanted to know if the allies were getting closer to saving them. They listened to the radio at 6 o’clock in the evening when the workers left the…