Amanda’s essay is particularly interesting
Amanda’s essay is particularly interesting
Beginning with the departure from New York’s Grand Central Station, Gordon paints a detailed picture of the excited scene. The reader is placed inside that traveling sleep car, watching the many young children excitedly bouncing in their crowded seats preparing to take their very first train ride. It is easy to mentally see that freshly sewn clothes resting on their young shoulders, and the colored ribbons that determined each child’s destination. The books tone takes on a hopeful and excited outlook, tinged with slight sadness as the nuns remaining in New York are forced to depart from the children they have grown to love. Along with the excitement of “going home” as the children were told they were doing, comes the sad and grim tale of how most, if not all, the orphans came into the care of the nuns. The tear filled scenes of young, usually unwed mothers departing with their babies because they could not afford to keep them, left more often than not with now birth history and with no name of their own. “Searching through the Foundlings records ninety years later, I could find only five mothers names for this shipment of fifty seven children.” (Gordon, pg7)…
In addition to the influence of the children’s perspective on the reader’s interpretation of the adults’ roles in the novel, the reader also makes inferences and conclusions about the adults based on their actions. Consider the various failures of the adult characters in this novel: moral failures, the failure to parent well, and the failure to negotiate life successfully, to name just a few. You may choose to analyze only one character and his or her failures, or write a comparative analysis of several characters, but in any case, build an essay in which you posit reasons for the failures of adults to protect children and to offer hope to the next…
1. How would you describe Coyne’s point of view in this piece? Detached or involved? Insider or outsider? How does her point of view affect your perception of the federal prison for women that she writes about in this piece?…
2. The narrator describes the room with the yellow wallpaper as a former nursery — that is, a room in a large house where children played, ate their meals, and may have been educated. What evidence is there that it may have a different function? How does that discrepancy help develop the character of the narrator and communicate the themes of the story?…
“Undressing Aunt Frieda,” is a poem about the narrator’s remembrance of his Aunts life while visiting her on a death bed. The narrative is in first person, and takes place as the narrator and his daughter are about to leave the relative. The first half of the poem explores Frieda and her past. The second half is about how the narrator and daughter have grown and learned from the aunt. While undressing her aunt, the narrator feels emotions and remembers his past with Frieda. The poem describes these emotions and memories in a metaphor explaining unique characteristics of how Aunt Frieda undressed, and how she impacted the relatives.…
My father had disappeared before my birth, and my mother never mentioned a single thing about him. Whenever she mentioned him, she did so out of spite and resentment. My mother and I lived happily together, singing and laughing at the things Grover’s Corners had for us. As I grew up, however, my mother changed from the sweet, kind person I had known to a cynical old woman who smoked cigarettes constantly. The mother I used to sing church hymns with had long disappeared, replaced by a vicious woman who considered her son as nothing more than a hindrance.…
The three stories to be discussed in this essay are “The Bouquet” by Charles W. Chesnutt, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and “Gimpel the Fool” by Isaac Bashevis Singer. It’s interesting to dissect these pieces of literature to see how they reflect the time period they were written in, by whom they were written, and if the stories they read have any abnormalities outside what is expected.…
Coyne’s novel is powerful, I found this fascinating. It describes in small details the whole situation, the visiting room, the vendor machine, candy and popcorn and the marble floor. She gave the filling all of us are a part of it. The characterization of the relationship between mothers and their separated children helps to understand women’s misery in prison. This story is beneficial for both the women and for children. Appreciate…
Elisa Allen is a lonesome woman who gets pleasure from growing her chrysanthemums. Since her husband, Henry, is constantly working with the cattle in their farm, Elisa never receives enough attention or any kind of affection. This neglect from her husband causes her to turn to her chrysanthemums, which she is very proud of. Early in the story, Steinbeck uses little symbolic phrases to let the reader know that the chrysanthemums are an extension of Elisa. As the chrysanthemums express Elisa’s feminine side when her husband inhibits her, she needs to care for them as if they were her. The existence of the flowers mirrors her own existence. When Steinbeck writes about how Elisa cares for the chrysanthemums, he says "she turned the soil over and over, and smoothed it and patted it firm". It is assumed by the reader that Elisa is childless, however it is not by her choice. The way she cares for her flowers, is the way she would take care of her children, since they replace her non-existent kids. She sees the chrysanthemums as a replacement for not only children, but also for her womanhood. Elisa’s desire to grow and nurture the flowers is both inspiring and disturbing, as her unstable nature has much to do with her husband’s lack of understanding his wife. Her husband’s remark, “I wish you’d work out in the orchard and raise some apples that big”, shows how little of an interest he has for her chrysanthemums or herself. This demonstrates how Elisa does not feel appreciated by her husband and therefore she takes care of her…
When it comes to raising a child, families fall into the category of either emphasizing concerted cultivation or accomplishment of natural growth. In Annette Lareau’s first chapter of, “Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life,” she talks a bit about the different families she researched and the various methods the parents are categorizing in about raising their child. Through her observations of these families, she noticed middle-class families practice a particular parenting style known as concerted cultivation, where the parents believe they must promote the growth and development of their child’s abilities and skills. These types of parents often push their kids to join a variety of activities and are very active in their child’s…
The very essence of childhood is never forgotten. A memory, a scent, a certain feeling will never be lost in time, as the child transforms from the younger years of bliss to an older life of enduring hardships and burdens. Yet with his aging, memories are still alive in everyone. Many of the memories etched in the brain forever are caused by a parent or parents in the way they choose to raise their young sometimes creating a negative memory and also creating very positive, pleasant memories. Torn between the beliefs of two parents, Zora Neale Hurston is able to show both sides of childhood memories in her autobiography. Through diction and manipulation of point of view, Zora Neale Hurston conveys not only a plentiful and satisfying childhood within the bounds of her own childhood but also a sense of a childhood restricted by fears of the outside worlds and the fears that was apart of it.…
As my classmate, Ethan Salem, said in his historian’s report, the book, “Sula” has a distinct secondary focus to the relationships between parents and their children. In the story “Sula”, we witness a friendship between two friends fade away through the years as they grew. Betrayal serves as the main cause of the halt in the friendship between Nel Wright and Sula Peace. One of the side characters in the story, Eva, Sula’s grandmother, plays a significant role in the story. Eva is unable to tell her daughter, Hannah, who is also Sula’s Mother, that she loves her. While stunned by her mother’s reaction to her question, Hannah accidentally sets herself on fire. Ironically, Sula hears Hannah admit that she does not like her in an earlier chapter. After discovering this chain of events, I intend to explain why the matriarchal figures in the Peace and Wright families were so rigid in relation to their feelings about their daughters. Also, I intend to explain the effects of this book lacking a father figure.…
In Anne Tyler’s “Teenage Wasteland,” the reader is given insight into the difficulty of parenting through Daisy’s desperate attempt to stop her son from his seemingly uncontrollable downward spiral. The paranoia of her “perfect” parenting techniques leads to the tainting of Donny’s innocence over time and eventually his mysterious disappearance at the end of the story. Through symbols of innocence and corruption, Tyler demonstrates the importance of keeping one’s head clear and focused while parenting, and that using common sense and logic is far more effective than relying on idealism and hope.…
In the 1800's the production Industry developed on an extensive scale and the mechanization of industry resulted in the abuse of children who were forced to work in terrible conditions in factories, mines and mills. The poor treatment of young employees brought attention to the issue of child labor. The sources above are a few examples of the severity of working conditions for children in the 1800's. Although they all discuss or represent child labor, the pictures offer a different view of the issue than the letter does. The first picture, at first glance, seems innocent, but if examined closely the boys expresion speaks a thousand words.…
The passage starts out with a tone of easy humor, which then changes into a heavy sense of obligation and irony. An easy, carefree relationship is quickly established through the mother’s words, which hold such pride and hope for her children, coupled with humorous descriptions such as the “blue wig” on her head, or a coat so large “you’ll only be able to see [her] eyes”. This lift in emotions only serves to accentuate the sudden weight that is attached to Rodriguez’ words in the following paragraphs. Words like “tired”, “uncomfortably warm” and “listless”, which, when coupled with a focus on material value in the second paragraph, evoke a sense of obligation instead of joy. This change in tone also serves to show the irony of the situation, for even though the predictions proudly made by the mother had come true, they now carry none of the initial joy they had in the past. These descriptions, when contrasted with the opening paragraph, work to reveal the lost relationship, a change from the carefree past to the present.…