Jennifer Toth details the stories of many who face extreme opposition in the choices they have made in order to survive the ever present wickedness of today’s society. In the book Mole People, Jennifer Toth (1993) exonerates the myths of mole people, those who have chosen to live underground in New York City. Toth quickly becomes immersed not only in the emotional connections she has established, but also in her benevolence towards the underground homeless. Toth (1993) comments, “Tunnel people always amaze outsiders at how well they hide” (p.157). Throughout her writing process, Toth had to overcome many obstacles in order to gain a credible insight into the Mole People’s community.
Laura Hillenbrand’s choice to write Unbroken in third person benefits the book. After tieing with Lash for the Olympic qualifying 5,000m race and making the Olympic team, “... Sylvia returned from work the next day, the house was packed with well-wishers and newsmen. Louie’s 12 year old sister, Virginia, clutched one of Louie’s trophies and told reporters of her plans to be the next great Zamperini runner.”
In the book Sold by Patricia McCormick, Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who is sold into slavery by the people she trusts. While slavery has been around for thousands of years, the slavery in this book is human trafficking. McCormick illustrates the contrast between living and pretending in Lakshmi's hometown wth her childhood love, her educational status, and the meaning of the tv. Lakshmi's childhood love presents the life that she imagines she would have in the future in her home village in the Himalayas. Lakshmi believes that her childhood love, Krishna, will wait for her to come back so that they can be happy: "I want to tell him where I'm going, to tell him that I will return as soon as I am able to with a cash dowry for our wedding.
Poverty is one of the main provocations towards human trafficking. In the book entitled Sold by Patricia McCormick, a young girl named Lakshmi is unintentionally sold to a brothel in India, where she would fall into the trap of prostitution. Before she leaves, her mother says to her, “you will make us proud… as the first member of the family to leave the mountain.” (pg.51). Lakshmi and her family of four are dirt poor.
Lucille Parkinson McCarthy, author of the article, “A Stranger in Strange Lands: A College Student Writing Across the Curriculum”, conducted an experiment that followed one student over a twenty-one month period, through three separate college classes to record his behavioral changes in response to each of the class’s differences in their writing expectations. The purpose was to provide both student and professor a better understanding of the difficulties a student faces while adjusting to the different social and academic settings of each class. McCarthy chose to enter her study without any sort of hypothesis, therefore allowing herself an opportunity to better understand how each writing assignment related to the class specifically and “what
The Strength of One’s Love for Their Family Legend, by Marie Lu is about two teenagers, June and Day. Both of their motives to fight harder, love longer, and remember more deeply, are driven from the paramount love they have for their families. June is determined to seek justice for her murdered brother, Metias, and Day is focused on giving his family a better life than his own. The major themes and personalities of the book are best portrayed in chapter 4 In this chapter, June’s relentless desire to get revenge for her brother’s murder is introduced through Metias’ death.
In the story Among the Hidden by Margaret Petersen Haddix, the character Luke shows bravery. First of all, Luke sees movement in the sports families house when everyone has already left, he continues watching for any movement until he saw the lights and TV on and had no doubt that someone was hiding in that house. Peterson says, "Mark thought of a plan, he saw that they left their sliding door open so he would go and sneak in from their." "He counted 28 people because that was the magic number and started his journey from his house to the sports families house." (Haddix 53)
The Olympic athlete Gail Devers once said, “Sometimes we fall, sometimes we stumble, but we can’t stay down. We can’t allow life to beat us down. Everything happens for a reason, and it builds character in us, and it tells us what we are about and how strong we really are when we think we could be that strong.” In Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, Louis Zamperini demonstrated Devers’ words with the utmost determination when, even life was rearing its ugly head, Louis never gave up hope and survived being stranded in the Pacific for 47 days. In all, Louie’s determination was one of his greatest virtues and his life saving quality that Hillenbrand described in his story.
Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa, once said, “For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others”. This means that being free is more than not being physically locked up, but to go beyond the physical. It is about living life in a way that helps others achieve the freedom that they deserve. In the novel, Among the Hidden, by Margaret Peterson Haddix, Luke Garner is a third child and because of the Population Law he is illegal and doesn’t have the freedom that his brothers have. Similarly, in “Two Sisters Two Americas”, by Brooke Ross, Veronica Saravia came to the US without permission, making her an illegal immigrant, yet her younger sister, who was born
Book Review: On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City Jaleesa Reed University of Georgia Book Review: On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City is a fascinating ethnography that seeks to expose and unpack the everyday lives of African American men living in Philadelphia. The author, Alice Goffman, examines the lives of these men who are “on the run” not only from the laws that seek to restrict their lives, but also from their own identities that have become synonymous with outstanding warrants, prison time, and running. Like ethnographers before her, Goffman immerses herself in the lives of her informants. Her study reveals the oppressive nature of neoliberal America and urges
A unique world of fairies and mystical creatures set The Lost Erwain apart from other teen stories. No / Yes Yes Does the story deliver on its premise?
Family Family is a large part of The Color Purple. Alice walker says makes many points about various subjects, but her opinion on family is clear. Family is not defined by blood relation or marriage, or any traditional connection. This is very clear in The Color Purple, through the life of Celie and her journey as a person Celie is introduced as an abused child/mother of her Pa’s children.
In the book, where only two children are allowed per family, the third child Trey sets out to find his friend Lee ( Luke also a third child).This a character v.s. society type conflict. When Trey arrived at Mr. Talbot’s house, the population police came to arrest Mr. Talbot, where Trey was terrified and hid behind a flower pot. Trey found Luke’s brother Mark and decided they should sneak into the Grant’s house ( a very rich family but was killed during a party ) to find Luke. While they tried to sneak in the population police found Mark trying to sneak while Trey got outside just in time. Later, Trey decided to join up for the population police in order to save Mark from execution.
“Our Secret” In Griffin’s essay, “Our Secret”, she describes history through the lives of multiple people. These histories are taken from the present, and the past with knowledge from the person’s public, private, and individual lives. These events portray the image on how the present can relate to the past and visa versa. Every cause has an effect on a situation, which can change events in the future.
“I Was Sleeping Where the Black Oaks Move” written by Louise Erdrich focuses on a child and a grandfather horrifically observing a flood consuming their entire village and the surrounding trees, obliterating the nests of the herons that had lived there. In the future they remember back to the day when they started cleaning up after the flood, when they notice the herons without their habitat “dancing” in the sky. According to the poet’s biographical context, many of the poems the poet had wrote themselves were a metaphor. There could be many viable explanations and themes to this fascinating poem, and the main literary devices that constitute this poem are imagery, personification, and a metaphor.
