Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Negative effects of single parent homes on children
An essay on single parent homes
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Throughout the history of American Literature, there have been hundreds of influential pieces which have left a mark on other writers. The book “In Honor of David Anderson Brooks, My Father” by Gwendolyn Brooks utilizes a unique writing style, theme and American values. This text was sharing her father’s story and personality to the reader before he passed away. He presumably lived alone and maintained his own home.
The role of parents in a child’s life is an irreplaceable one. Children are shaped by what they see their parents do and how they see them act. Children can choose to pattern themselves after what they see their parents do or they can choose to avoid being like their parents. In the story ‘Ashes’ by Susan Beth Pfeffer, Recent research shows, fathers affect the lives of their young adult daughters in intriguing and occasionally surprising ways. Ashes’ father can be mostly described as a good parent.
In “Gilead” by Marilynne Robinson, John Ames III is the 3rd minister in a small town in Iowa. He is dying and he is aware that he is leaving his wife and children with nothing except books of his work. Ames sole purpose of the novel was to write to his son so that he would understand his family's history and along that get to know his father that most likely his son will have no recollection of his father. Ames started writing his book when he was eight years before his death which gave give a good time to write his thoughts, his regrets, his sad life, and the joy of having his son but, to not be able to be part of his life. He has never truly experienced a happy life and has lived in solitary for 40 years after the death of his sweetheart Louise and his first born son who died after birth.
Imagine getting up everyday before high school and preparing for war. For Melba Pattillo Beals this fear was a scary reality. In the beginning of “Warriors Don 't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock 's Central High” by Melba Pattillo Beals, she begins talking about what it’s like to come back to the haunted racist halls of Little Rock Central High School. This was a time when civil rights was a major issue and the color separation between white and black was about to be broken. Melba and nine other students entered Central High School becoming the first African American students to go to an all white school.
In the novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Stacey’s perspective of friendship with T.J. and Jeremy is unique and this affects the decisions he makes in Chapter 7. Stacey allows T.J. to do almost anything around him, even though T.J. is rude and naughty. But, T.J. is still Stacey’s best friend. Stacey is pretty rude to Jeremy even though Jeremy is super nice to the Logans and T.J.’s family. Stacey’s friendship with these two boys are very different.
Cassie is the main character in Mildred D. Taylor’s story “Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry”. She is a smart, curious 9 year old. As time goes on, Cassie and her family learn many lessons throughout the book. We can see her grow and get a better understanding of how blacks were treated during the 1930’s. Cassie has many racist moments that occur to her, angering her and her family.
“The Father” a short story by Hugh Garner presents the protagonist, John Purcell, the father as a selfish, irresponsible, and prejudiced man. During the story when his son Johnny comes downstairs in a pair of flannels and a blazer he seems to show concern as to why Johnny is not wearing his scout uniform, although he is actually concerned as to how this will make him look as a father. As his wife tells him the reason why his son doesn't have the full uniform he wonders angrily “if the scoutmaster thought he was too cheap to buy the boy a uniform” (2). Even though at first it may seem like he cares about his son's appearance the underlying reason for this is that he cares about how this will make him appear as a father and what others
James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" analyzes a very complex relationship between the narrator and his brother, Sonny. Before directing to the attention of the relationship between these two brothers, we have to first understand the personality of each character. Initially, the narrator has a stable job as a hardworking math teacher and makes an effort to assimilate himself to his surroundings, but has never comprehended his brother, Sonny. Sonny is the complete opposite of the narrator. Sonny separates from his brother to become a Blues musician, though becomes addicted to drugs, such as heroin, in order to control his own feelings.
Courage can be found where it is least expected. In her book, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Mildred Taylor uses Cassie as an example courage. Courage is the ability to do something, even though you are frightened of doing it, which Cassie shows a lot throughout the book. Cassie is a little girl, who is very smart, sassy, and courageous. She stands up for what she believes and helps others that need a voice.
Born in 1941 in New York, Billy Collins has grown to become an excellent writer. He currently appointed as the Poet Laureate of the United States. Billy Collins poems discuss human experiences with in life to relate to the reader. The experiences discussed or remembrance, questioning, and love.
In The Catcher in the Rye, it is observed that the novel is about grief. There are 5 stages of grief: denial, anger, depression, bargaining, and finally acceptance. The Catcher in the Rye shows how Holden goes through the grieving process. By the end of the novel it shows how Holden has reached closure or a way to let go.
In life difficulties may arise, but an “instructive eye” of a “tender parent” is a push needed in everyone’s life. Abigail Adams believed, when she wrote a letter to her son, that difficulties are needed to succeed. She offers a motherly hand to her son to not repent his voyage to France and continue down the path he is going. She uses forms of rhetoric like pathos, metaphors, and allusions to give her son a much needed push in his quest to success.
In our life, we often have experiences that teach us how and what we want to be like when we grow up. Everyone has ups and downs from time to time that make one want to stop and other times make one want to run while individually they feel free. The Garden Story by Katherine Mansfield and The First Born Son by Ernest Buckler both show how parental pressure, social pressure, and family pressure around an individual can influence the way one will treat others. Once in a while it is an advantage when they want to change the world to make it better for others, but oftentimes it is for the worse because they personally accept the problems they have and never trying to fix them. Both stories have parental influences that want them to stay as they are, tradition influences that professions stay in the family, and they are always compared to the better child that is more like by parents.
At the young age of 10, I experienced this; becoming a fatherless child. Just 22 days before my 11th birthday my father was sentenced to 8 years in the Federal penitentiary. I become a “Fatherless” child. Entering middle school this was a tough adjustment. As I matriculated through middle school, I found myself suspended and trying to fill a hole in my soul to replace my father.
Fatherless. Growing up as an African-American female, I have come to certain realizations that have made me more cautious of the people I chose to associate myself with on a day-to-day basis based on ignorance that society distributes for others’ use. For example, society portrays the black cultural without a father raised in a single-mother household in a low-income environment. By providing this image to the world, it allows them to interpret that image in any way they chose. In my case, my father was in my life for a short period of time which proved that stereotype right.