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Summary Of Bums In The Attic By Sandra Cisneros

1256 Words6 Pages

A person sits in a room, musing about what they want their future life to be like. They wonder what they will be like as well as what the others surrounding them will be like. In A Retrieved Reformation by O. Henry, Jimmy Valentine sacrifices his life of crime for his true love. In Bums in the Attic by Sandra Cisneros, a girl wishes that she was wealthier and dreams about what she believes her future will look like. Craving for a better life is the desperate measures one takes to be happy. Yearning to be the best is only for self-reassurance; knowing you are the brightest star in the universe. Believing you are someone you are not is a hoax; even though deep down they know they are not that person, they will never admit it. After analyzing …show more content…

The speaker in Bums in the Attic is revealed as a snobby girl, which is ironic since she is considered lower class. The text reveals that the girl is ashamed of her family’s wealth status which leads to her craving for a more prosperous life. The text states “I don’t tell them I’m ashamed—all of us staring out the window like we’re hungry. I am tired of looking at what we can’t have.” (Cisneros, 77) This quote from the story shows that the speaker from Bums in the Attic finds it discriminating to gaze upon the house on the hill, and rather live in it. Although the speaker may have not wanted to be the best in the world, she definitely wanted to be a bit higher in the social class pyramid. For example the text states, ”People who live on hills sleep so close to the stars they forget those of us who live too much on earth.” (Cisneros 77) This quote shows that the speaker would rather be the best than the worst by explaining how wealthy people are so high up that they forget about the lower class people. Relating to the first point, she would rather be wealthier, or in other words “close to the stars” (Cisneros 77) While dreaming about her wealthy future, the speaker states, “One day I’ll own my own house, but I won’t forget who I am or where I came from.” (Cisneros 77) This quotes shows that the speaker believes they are someone they, in …show more content…

Longing for a better life, wishing to be the supreme, and surmising to be someone you are not all tie into the main characters from both stories. One thing that both stories teach its readers is that craving for a better life is not a bad thing. In A Reform Reformation, Jimmy went to drastic measures in order to keep the love of his life. These actions showed the dramatic results that changing your life can cause. Many people in the world need to get their mindset to changing their life for the better. Yearning to lose weight or get a higher education is similar to both Jimmy Valentine wanting go on as Ralph D. Spencer and the speaker from Bums in the Attic wanting to live a wealthier life. These mindsets can improve a person's lifestyle significantly! Everyone who decides to change their life for the better, including Jimmy Valentine and the speaker from Bums in the Attic, truly live up to Zayn Malik’s most famous quote, “There comes a day when you realise turning the page is the best feeling in the world, because you realise there's so much more to the book than the page you were stuck

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