Growing Up White Trash 'And Ulysses By Heather O'

The pathway to gaining pride, self-esteem and personal satisfaction is a difficult decision of knowing what is right and important to yourself in which the memoir “On Growing Up White Trash” by Heather O’Neil and the poem “Ulysses” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson demonstrates the contrast between the two the main characters Heather and Ulysses going through this similar aspect in their lives.

The memoir “Growing Up White Trash” by Heather O’Neil demonstrates how Heather herself has gone through different stages of her life by experimenting through different boyfriends where she has struggled to find her pride, self-esteem, and personal satisfaction leading up to a point where eventually, she learns to love herself by acknowledging what is important

Her encounter with this boy dramatically changes the way she views herself as she loses confidence, pride, and self-esteem when she starts to change the way she dresses to impress others, making new friends who did not know her past, and lies about her life by fabricating her identity to cover up her true background. Heather’s new identity even changes her taste in guys making her go for guys from the suburbs with two-story houses so these guys were above her level meaning that if she dates these types of guys, she can possibly have class as well as them. Heather’s relationship with this suburban guy seems sturdy to her as they have lasted a few years and the thought of having kids in the far future caused her to ask her boyfriend as he responds that “he couldn’t see himself having a child with someone from a white trash background” (O’Neil 16). Heather is startled by her boyfriend's response because she thinks that she can escape her white trash background by changing her appearance and how she appears to people she meets but this causes her to realize

As Ulysses returns from the war and has left his kingdom to its downfall, he notices that his civilians are now savage due to them hoarding goods, no profit caused by abandonment and no leader to guide them. Ulysses looks over his abandoned kingdom and wallows, “That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me” (Tennyson 5). He expresses his displeasure in coming back to his kingdom that has fallen apart after his years of disappearance but sees it as everyone else's fault but his. With Ulysses being gone for a great amount of time, his people become undisciplined believing that the world is against him ignoring the fact that he abandoned them and expects too much with his pride too high thinking he is not getting what he believes he deserves. Ulysses proceeds to display arrogance when he starts to reminisce about his life and how much he prefers his past adventures more than his present situation as king of a corrupt kingdom. He compares his life to how much entertainment and adventure he used to have when he expresses “For always roaming with a hungry heart / Much have I seen and known; cities of men” (Tennyson 12-13). Ulysses refers that he is still hungry for excitement in his life and does not want to deal with a rubbish