Grant Ciccarello
Summer Reading
Growing Up
Russell Baker

The first thing that I noticed when I started reading the book, “Growing up” by Russell Baker was the style in which baker used throughout this book. Growing up is told in first person as an autobiographical memoir from Russell Baker’s point of view. But something that was very unique was how Baker chose to narrate from his mother 's perspective before he was born and when he was a young boy. In addition, he talks about his mother 's relations with Oluf which he was unaware about at the time. "While I was experiencing the routine miseries of childhood, my mother was discovering the Depression." (Chap. 6, p. 75) Baker often explains his mother 's, thoughts, opinions and point of view, this allowed for me to almost be in her shoes and gave me a different perspective on Russell Baker. While reading this book a theme that was very evident was women. In both Lucy’s life as Russell 's women seemed to play a huge in role their family and society. Lucy in high school argues strongly for women 's suffrage declaring it a moral right. Also Lucy thinks that in addition to women being successful that they are also responsible for successful men. The best thing that a woman can end up doing is becoming a nurse but Lucy believes that they should be a matriarch who leads men in the right direction. This book shows that everyone has struggles in their lives but you had to learn from your mistakes and overcome what you have faced