"Crossing the Swamp," a poem by Mary Oliver, confesses a struggle through "pathless, seamless, peerless mud" to a triumphant solitary victory in a "breathing palace of leaves. " Oliver's affair with the "black, slack earthsoup" is demonstrated as she faces her long coming combat against herself. Throughout this free verse poem, the wild spirit of the author is sensed in this flexible writing style. While Oliver's indecisiveness is obvious throughout the text, it is physically obvious in the shape of the poem itself.
The novel Alandra’s Lilacs, by Tressa Bowers, tells the story of a Deaf woman, Alandra, and her mother Tressa. The story begins before Alandra was born and tells Tressa’s narative up to Alandra’s adulthood. Throughout the book, the reader sees the challenges that come with having a deaf child. We see both the achievements and setbacks faced by Alandra and her mother. Although being deaf may seem like a misfortune to most, Tressa reveals her experiences with Deaf culture and seeing deafness in a new light.
Claire Aguilar-Hwang Mrs. Veitch 2 2/15/18 Endless Possibilities Entering a rocket, risking life, exhilarating adventures waiting. Travelling to the moon, to the endless possibilities in outer space, just like what 37 year old Charlie Gordon feels in the science fiction short story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes. He has a surgery, risking his life. There are highs and lows waiting for him the minute the surgery is complete.
Chains, a novel written by Laurie Halse Anderson follows a young enslaved girl named Isabel at the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. Isabel is sold to Elihu and Ann Lockton, along with her five year old sister Ruth, after her original owner dies. The girls are shipped to the house and Ann Lockton, who demands to be called Madam Lockton, is terrible to them. She beats the girls and constantly yells at them. After this, Madam Lockton sells Ruth, making Isabel mad.
In the historical fiction book, A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. The character statement, though Salva has gone through so much, he persists, is proven in many ways throughout the story. Two pieces of evidence to prove the statement, are shown towards the beginning and end of the story. The claim is generally expressed shortly after the main character, Salva’s, uncle gets shot by the Rebel soldiers. Though Salva was feeling down at times, he always remembers his uncle's words, “You need to walk only as far as those bushes.”
In the historical fiction book, A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, the main character Salva is persistent throughout the entire story. When 11-year-old Salva, who is a member of the Dinka tribe, is forced out of his country by the fatal South Sudanese war, he is confronted with many life-threatening obstacles. Yet, he still finds a way to make headway and persevere. When grieving with the loss of his uncle, and leading a group of young men out of a refugee camp, Salva persevered. One way Salvator persevered, is when grieving with the loss of his uncle.
Imagine you’re Salva, attending school and suddenly hearing a gunshot. The story “A Long Walk to Water” by Linda Sue Park, tells about the journey of a young boy named Salva, living in a village called Loun-Ariik, located in Southern Sudan. Southern Sudan was in the middle of a war, this is one of the hardships Salva faced, along with lack of water, and lack of food. One day while Salva was in school, he heard a gunshot. He runs to a near bush, and this is what begins his long walk.
The book Long Walk To Water by Linda Sue Park where a young boy named Salva walks across South Sudan during a civil war and eventually he gets to the United States and helps South Sudan by planting wells across the country. The poem “Lost boys of Sudan” is by Leslie Lane. Many young boys survive walking for hundreds of miles through disease, war and starvation to live, but their lives will never be the same again. The theme of both texts is in the face of obstacles, maintain perseverance in order to overcome them. Though both texts present the common theme in similar ways, there are also differences in their approach and development.
Historical Fiction Essay "A story can always break into pieces while it sits inside a book on a shelf and, decades after we have read it even twenty times, it can open us up, by cut or caress, to a new truth." – Andre Dubus, from Movable Meditations. The story Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson takes place in New York during the year 1777 where the main character, Isabel, an African-American slave is fighting for her and her younger sisters freedom during the American Revolutionary War. The theme developed throughout Chains is perseverance and courage. In Chains the protagonist is Isabel, a thirteen year old girl, who was enslaved in Rhode Island.
Year of Wonders is set in Eyam, an actual village which was located in Derbyshire, England. Also known as the "plague village" for an outbreak of the Bubonic Plague in 1665 and 1666, the story of Year of Wonders is based off of this event. At the beginning of the book, Anna Frith is introduced to the readers as a house maid, mother of two young sons, and the narrator. Although she isn't a historical figure, through her eyes, the readers get to get an insight on what it was like living in the midst of a plague. As the story starts out, Anna is faced with the struggle of watching her friends (Anys and Mem) being accused by mobs of being witches because they are midwives who deliver newborns and use charms and herbs to heal the sick.
The novel, So Far from the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins, communicates through the character’s actions that families are loyal to each other even when it doesn’t benefit themselves. In the book, Yoko's actions indicate that she is counting on her family to help her when she needs it. In the book, Yoko and her family arrived at a checkpoint on their way to Seoul to escape the Korean Communists who were trying to kill them. After being treated, they had to sleep at the station which was crowded with escapees to wait for the brother who was separated.
The story begins to unfold as fourteen-year-old Lily Melissa Owens lies in her bed, watching the bees she is often visited by buzz around her room in Sylvan, South Carolina during the year of 1964. As she lies there, she thinks about her deceased mother, Deborah Fontanel Owens. Lily believes that she was the one who shot her mother when she was only four years old. Since she was so young, she does not remember the exact details. All she can remember is that her parents were arguing, and she picked up the gun that her mother had dropped.
In the book Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, Lauren’s views on the world change throughout the book. When she goes from a safer life than others to living on the streets with no knowledge of what to do, she must reevaluate her beliefs. In the beginning of the book, she is very morally right, but towards the end she does what she must do to survive. As she lived more on the street, her views became more flexible, and she gained a deeper understanding of life on the street. Her views are also heavily influenced by outside forces that she grew up with.
“While craving justice for ourselves, it is never wise to be unjust to others. ”- Lew Wallace. Lew Wallace is an American lawyer. He writes about religious points.
Loss of Childhood Innocence Published in 1988, The Flowers by Alice Walker, a young African American girl named Myop lives in a sharecropper cabin surrounded by flowers. Myop goes about her day wandering around the farm and picking flowers from the nearby woods. While collecting different stems, she discovers a dead body. Myop doesn’t pay much attention to it, until she sees a noose. Myop is oblivious to the harsh reality of the world around her which ultimately demonstrates that childhood innocence blurs the line between peaceful existence and real life.
