Gaby Rodriguez spent her senior year with a fake pregnant belly on her body. She was told her entire life that she was going to end up just like the rest of her family: pregnant as a teen in high school. Defying all stereotypes, and working hard to disprove them, she used her year-long senior project to change everyone’s minds. The Pregnancy Project by Gaby Rodriguez is a realistic, eye-opening story that all teenagers should read. One of the things that makes it such a good book is the rawness you feel the whole time.
5. “ If they don’t want me, well I guess I am nothing” Barbara Haworth Attard has a negative perspective of teen issues in her novel Theories of Relativity. How I relate my thesis to my quotation is that I got quote from the story “ If they don’t want me, well I guess I am nothing”. It indicates that a teen is talking about his family and he thinks his family doesn’t want and decide to be homeless.
For example, when Lou Ann is pregnant and riding on the bus, she explains how relaxing it is to be pregnant because men do not, “rub up against her when the bus made sudden stops and turns.” Lou Ann feels as though the only way she can be left alone without being inappropriately touched is when she is visibly pregnant. Just because Lou Ann is a woman, she is leaned against and rubbed on by men. In addition, Taylor describes herself as, “Lucky that way,” because she does not have a father. Taylor hears so many stories and witnesses so many examples of poor treatment of women that she considers herself lucky to not have a father, a juxtaposition to the depression many children feel growing up without a parent.
The moment she gave birth something sunk into her mind, that she could never fully comprehend until that moment. As she holds her child in her arms, taking extra precautions, so that her child doesn’t get hurt, she realizes that it is now her job to take care of her baby. That her biggest concern is no longer herself, but the child who was not in her arms yesterday. That yesterday’s problems are no longer of concern to her. That it is her job to provide and raise a human being.
They’re babies! ”. (73) Next, Orenstein tells her audience about her feminist views the mother of a young girl. On how (experiences affect girls well-beings warning parents that a pre-occupation with body and beauty is perilous to their daughters’ mental and physical health”
“Pushed” is featured once again and is both sterile and nonchalant. This important moment and painfully emotional time of giving birth is described with no emotion. This act lacks care. To further demonstrate this lack of care “she doesn't miss a day” of work (35). Although seemingly she doesn’t have a choice, she is notably choosing work over caring for her child.
In fact, she makes it clear children should be having fun and not be worrying about their parents
Thank goodness, she turned out alright. But I’ll never risk it again. Never! The strain is simply too - too hellish,” (36). Larsen uses words provoking anxiety and horror to give the reader insight into Clare’s mind when she thinks about pregnancy and motherhood.
Water Breaking Stereotypes 3 in 10 teen American girls will get pregnant at least once before age 20. That's nearly 750,000 teen pregnancies every year. Illustrating this statistic is a memoir The Pregnancy Project where the main character Gaby, lives in poverty and is anticipated to follow in the footsteps of the stereotypes encompassing her and her community. For her senior project she decides to ask herself what if she lived up to the expectations and fake pregnancy all while hiding the truth from her family and peers. Her goal was to unearth the truth about why teen pregnancies are surrounded with negative connotations and to experience what many family members had endured.
She got pregnant because of a flower that she ate. This to me is showing women that we should do what God wants us to and that is to wait until marriage. It’s okay for a man to talk about sex and look at women in repulsing ways, but when women want sex they are called whores and sluts and to me that isn’t right. How is it okay for a man but it's repulsing for a woman?
In the short story Miracle by Judy Budnitz explores the themes of motherhood and postpartum depression. In the story Budnitz uses common horror tropes in order to magnify the experiences of a new mother suffering from postpartum depression. She uses both external characters and Julia's own point of view in order to give the reader a full picture of how Julia experiences postpartum depression and psychosis. By doing this Budnitz is able to more accurately convey to the reader the reality of motherhood with postpartum depression.
“We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business; we are each other's magnitude and bond” (Gwendolyn Brooks). In one of the most difficult eras in American history, The Great Depression forced families across America to look beyond their individual family unit and embrace unity among others with similar backgrounds. John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath tells the story of a migrant worker family The power of unity played a large role during the Great Depression because it allowed the common man to become part of a larger group with similar backgrounds. In John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck describes the creation of unity when he says “And because they were lonely and perplexed, because they had all come from a
Sethe embraces the dominant values of idealised maternity. Sethe’s fantasy is
Everybody believed that women were naturally weaker than men in the 19th century, but morally stronger. According to professional medical theories at the time, women were naturally sick while men were robust, aggressive, and healthy (Hartman). In “The Birthmark”, Aylmer states that “‘No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature that this slightest possible defect, which we hesitate whether to term it a defect or a beauty, shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection’” (Hawthorne 1). Georgiana had a red birthmark on her cheek that her husband thought was imperfect and should be removed, despite women being known for health problems.
When thinking of personal experiences, “The Mother” by Gwendolyn Brooks touches on the emotional topic of abortion. Even though this poem was published decades ago, it can still be seen very relevant to this day. Accepting abortion and the outcome can indeed be a challenging task for many, while others seem to adapt to it without much of a problem. Gwendolyn Brooks’ writing lets us take a look at the mothers view point of abortion and how a mother responds to her new situation. Throughout the poem, the speaker shows signs of grieving concern of the topic of abortion and its outcomes by presenting emotions of regret and memories, shame and guilt, and contradicting herself to almost justify what she has done.
