In class we read “The Boy Code” written by a journalist, Michele Landsberg. I liked the format/layout of the article because the author initiated her introduction with an abstract outline, which gives the reader an overview of the topic. For example, “Landsberg questions the worldwide tendency to raise boys to be tough and emotionally limited.” This statement (located in the last sentence of the abstract) tells the reader the author will explain her concerns about the controversial issue throughout the article. Thus, the abstract benefits readers as it helps them understand what they will be reading and how it will impact them and their lifestyle.
In “Girl Unprotected”, Sports writer and journalist Laura Robinson argues that if you examine the Judicial system, then you will find a strong bias against victims of hockey abuses with an emphasis against women. Throughout her essay, Robinson uses the case against Mike Danton and the NHL to emphasize the issues of gender inequality and the lack of recognition to the abuses in hockey. In her essay, Laura Robinson begins her argument by claiming that “women’s bodies were only allowed to be adjectives to describe men” (Robinson 326). By doing so, she suggests that women’s bodies are all that the men in hockey care about while their mind’s and talents are ignored and lack in value. To reinforce her thesis, Robinson also includes a quote from a
In the book “There Are No Children Here” written by Alex Kotlowitz, there is a passage where the main characters Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers mother LaJoe makes mention of Henry Horner Homes living conditions transformation over her thirty-one year residence. In this short passage, she is quoted as saying “When I got my apartment I thought this is what it was meant to be” (24). Her statement reflects how thirty-one years ago, she thought everything that was required for living a happy and fulfilling life was achieved. She believed that her luck had changed, and she was one of the few to have a life on the other side of the fence where the grass was greener. I believe LaJoe was oblivious like so many others, as to what the future may hold for
In the book “There Are No Children Here” written by Alex Kotlowitz, there is a passage where one of the main character Lafeyette, is attempting to convey his troubled thoughts to his mother through obscurities. Due to the sudden death of his friend Bird Leg, he tells his mother that his dead friend’s spirit is appearing and trying to tell him something. Unfortunately, even though his mother LaJoe tries to get him to verbalize his thoughts and feelings, his only reply to the death of his friend is quoted as saying, “That talking wasn’t going to help him, that every-thing that goes wrong keeps going on and everything that’s right doesn’t stay right.” (55) In his quote, there is depth to his view on life around him that one can interpret by reading between the lines. He is simply
The novel Between Us could have an emotional response from readers, my response to one specific character and events in the novel. The novel Between Us, by Clare Atkins, is about a friendship develop between two very different teenagers, Ana, and Jono. Ana is an Iranian Asylums Seeker who attends a high school during the day. Jono is a Vietnamese-Australian boy who is a music-loving skater who has a difficult time of things. My response to one of the characters, Jono, is that I can relate to him in many ways, including, cultural struggles, uses friends as a distraction from problems and struggles with people leaving.
In the poem “forgiving my father”, Lucille Clifton writes of a young daughter reminiscing about her father’s recent death. The daughter talks about it being Friday, it being payday. She discusses her father and how he owed her and her dead mother money when really they just wanted him to be present. The daughter feels she has had no time with her father and she resents him for it. He was not present in her life and now he has passed away, leaving her with a yearning for something that she will never obtain.
Our country’s obesity crisis has continued to get worse over the years despite our trying to fix the problem, well some of us. In the documentary “Fed Up”, which is written and produced by Stephanie Soechtig in 2014, she talks about the ongoing crisis of childhood obesity. She claims that processed foods are packed with too much sugar and served everywhere and that big food companies have refused to help end this crisis. She attempts to use this documentary to drive people to action. Soechtig builds up the documentary with very dramatic emotional appeals and statistics and uses this hold on the audience to effectively make them believe her argument and motivate them to do something about this crisis.
George Saunders first published The Semplica Girl Diaries in The New Yorker in 2012 and then again in his collection of short stories Tenth of December, in 2013. The main characters are a middle aged, unnamed man and his family (a wife, two daughters and a son). In an interview Saunders admitted that the inspiration for this twisted story came from a dream which explains the origin of a strange concept in it— Semplica girls, women from underdeveloped countries paid to hang in rich people’s gardens, connected to each other by a wire in their brains. However, the main message is a conscious writing choice. This story explores the struggles deprived people go through and choices they make when facing them.
Have you ever wanted someone to tie you up to a chair? Have you ever tried to control your environment and the people in it? Controlling things can make you feel safe and empowering especially if you did not have a father growing up. Some individuals like controlling people by questioning them at random locations. Some also like to be controlling to the point of obscene acts from random men.
‘Daddy’s little girls’ is a touching movie. The movie incites sadness in its viewers, the anguish felt by the protagonist and his children is one that many can identify with and understand. The central character Monty was an ambitious young man who grew up in an inner city community, he had three beautiful girls with is former partner, Jennifer. Monty’s daughters remained his priority throughout the movie and he fought tirelessly for the benefit of his children. Monty had to endure the selfishness of Jennifer, her poor parenting skills and her bad ill sense of judgement.
The realistic fiction story, “Ashes”, by Susan Beth Pfeffer is about a young girl who has two very polar opposite parents. A fun, but irresponsible father, and a practical, proactive mother. Ashes faces a major dilemma when her financially troubled father asks Ashes to steal from her mother’s emergency fund for his own personal needs. Sometimes, the people you love most can be selfish and deceive you. This relates to my story because Ashes’ dad is manipulative, deceptive, and selfish.
In Hughes’s short essay, which he ironically titles “Salvation,” he tells the reader about one of his most significant childhood memories. Hughes provides background about a huge revival at his aunt’s church. He flashes forward to the day where he was supposed to be called upon by Jesus and greeted by a bright light his aunt repeatedly tells him about. Hughes recalls that he sat on the mourners’ bench right in the front row with the rest of the unsaved children.
In “Only Daughter” by Sandra Cisneros, she describes a series of events throughout her life that all relate to her relationship with her father. Cisneros begins her story by talking about how she was seen as “only a daughter”. She then transitions to talking about her education and her father’s opinion on what it is for and worth. Cisneros then ends it with a conclusion between her and her father which involved one of her stories. Throughout the story, Cisneros talks about what she believed her father thought about her and her career choices, and they turn out to be a bit different than what she thought.
Anne Bradstreet’s three elegies for her grandchildren are very sanding and have many similarities, as well as differences. The three poems by Bradstreet are titled, “In Memory of My Dear Grandchild, Elizabeth Bradstreet, Who Deceased August, 1665, Being a Year and a Half Old," " In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Anne Bradstreet, Who Deceased June 20, 1669, Being Three Years and Seven Months Old," and "On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet, Who Died on 16 November, 1669, Being But a Month, and One Day Old.” In the very first poem, it would seem her first grandchild had pasted away at a year and a half old. Bradstreet’s talk about how God gives and takes away.
The Nun’s Priest’s Tale Moral Lessons This story is about a widow who lives with her two daughters in a small cottage house with a few animals. She has three sows, three cows, a sheep, come chickens and one beautiful rooster by the name of Chanticleer. In this story Chanticleer the rooster is a special character who is in love with one hen named Pertelote. Chanticleer is so in love with Pertelote that him being in love makes him loose his mind and makes him stop believing in himself.
