Herndon transparently describes the state of her family before Katie’s sickness. With three children and busy schedules, Herndon and her husband, Wes, have practically been living separate lives. Katie’s condition forces the family’s dynamics to shift, and the shift is most powerfully uncovered in the book’s distinctive, thought-provoking ending.…
Her family of three consisting of her grandfather, mother, and herself runs a small coffee shop. Her family usually works relentlessly before, during, and after the shop’s hours. Their kind slave, Eliza, works just as relentlessly around the kitchens. Mattie herself has the easy job as a waitress and usually works much less than her family and slave. Even so, she never puts her heart into her work. This demonstrates how foolish and selfish she is; but just in a few weeks her world will change epically for herself and everyone around her.…
Eva’s father abandoned her mother and five children, forcing them to live on their own in a single-roomed brick house. Eva’s family was poor. The only thing their family had was a sewing machine which Juana slaved over day and night. Her children would try to get her to stop sewing, but she would respond by saying “I do not have time to stop.”…
“…It’s as if she’s been walking on a wire, trying to keep her balance, and now, for the first time, she is on solid ground.“ (259). As Molly learns Vivian's stories can help her on how she can handle difficult situations in her life, Molly understands that she and Vivian may be orphans and both have been moved from place to place, it wasn’t always their faults. Molly takes on the job at Vivian's to fulfill 50 hours of community service. She gains so much more than what she thought she would through the experience. Molly sees the comparisons between her life and Vivian's. Vivian’s story helps Molly; the story gives Molly hope. It allows her not to look at the past and have it defines her as a…
Sarah Starxynski is a young Jewish girl living in Paris. She lives a very normal life up unti the mooring when French policemen came to take her family and her away. Sarah's younger brother, Charlie, doesn't want to go, so Sarah hides him in a secret cupboard and locks him in. When Sarah locks him in and puts the key in her pocket, she thinks that she will return soon to let him out.…
According to writer Thomas LeClair, “The elegant, measured prose of Housekeeping transforms a year in the life of two small-town teenage girls into a profound meditation on loss, transiency, and the shelters we use for protection” (389). The three main characters Ruth, Lucille, and Sylvie all discover their sense of self and a place to call home. Artist Rosemary Booth writes:…
In “Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story” by Russell Banks, the main character Ron believing himself to be so much more above the woman he once dated because of his great looks. Ron was a successful lawyer in the state of New Hampshire when he met a woman named Sarah Cole. Except there was a catch—Sarah Cole was the most homely woman Ron had ever seen. Despite that, Ron and Sarah eventually engage in a relationship that would soon take a turn for the worst. Now, 10 years later, Ron tries to relive those past events with Sarah, to figure out what if what he had done to Sarah was wrong. Ron comes to the conclusion that he mistreated Sarah because he was so obsessed with the idea that he was so much better looking than her, and he looks back to those events with much regret, wishing he could change his ways, and although they were on different ends of the social spectrum, he truly did love her for everything that she was.…
An example shows Louise Mallard was over confident, and no tasks were too tough to handle. In addition to caring for several children, which isn’t an easy task as a single parent. It can have it’s benefits to be independent, but these days it takes both parents to raise a family. The male dominance of Louise’s husband has always imitated her, and Louise felt distant with her husband. When her husband was no longer going to be around going by the news, Louise now felt more in charge of her world. The symbols used in the story, clouds, and sky played a role as Louise sat comfortably in her armchair. Moreover, the armchair where Louise can get away from it all to grieve…
The book is split into three parts, the first detailing the life of Sarah, a young teenage girl who lives through the nuclear war with her family and what they must do to survive. It shows the struggles of a family trying to survive the nuclear fallout, how they must change how they live, the food they eat and the way they interact with each other. Sarah’s story brings to light how hard it would be to live in a world that had suffered a nuclear war and the horror that would be a constant in your life. It details how Sarah must overcome the awkward relationship with her stepmother to try and ensure her family’s survival. Sarah’s little sister, Catherine, has a very strong instinct to survive, she makes a cubby under the table, will only eat canned food and drink bottled water that had no chance of contamination. Catherine is the only family member to survive.…
Present in all of mankind, and every species in the animal kingdom, is the innate concept of war; the existence of good and evil and power and inferiority disturb our natural instinct of survival. Like Water for Chocolate is set during the Mexican Revolution, where life on the De la Garza ranch mimics life for the renegades. The author, Laura Esquivel, diligently wrote this novel to create a definition of the word…
Social class today does not affect our relationships as it did back then. In As You Like it by William Shakespeare and The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, plays that are set in the past it has an evident impact on the relationships of some of the characters, while others totally defy it. In the plays As You Like It and The Importance of Being Earnest it is evident how social class has a negative impact on relationships. Where the characters lived and who their family was and the way they acted based on class affected whether or not people could have a relationship.…
In the story “Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story”, the author, Russell Banks tells us a story about a man named Ron who meets a woman named Sarah. It tells a story about a high class man meeting an underclass woman. In the story Ron speaks of Sarah as if she’s kind of a low life, saying she was unattractive and the homeliest woman he had ever met. At the same time he kind of ends up with this girl regardless of all the things he said, in a way he considered her his lover. Throughout the narration it is shown that even though Ron says all these things, he doesn’t want to be seen with her in public or meet her kids, regardless of all that he still ends up falling in love with her…
Write a close analysis of 40 lines of poetry by Carol Ann Duffy and discuss how far these lines reflect her view on love as presented in “The Worlds Wife”…
It wasn’t just a house; it was a capacious, pastel, lemon colored house overflowing with numerous memories, accompanied by two spacious acres of land filled with a smelly horse stable and another small house with a gigantic RV next to it. It was everything that you could ask for, but it started to go downhill when her dad was diagnosed with a brain tumor.…
Baldo and his older brother Leon were both waiting for their visitor riding a carratela. When Baldo saw his older brother's wife, who is Maria, he was amazed by her beauty as he narrates their journey to their home in Nagrebcan. Maria felt a bit anxious because of meeting Leon and Baldo's parents for the first time, but along their way home, she discovered the differences of the life of the people lived there and the life in the city where she met and fell in love with Leon.…