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A separate peace theme about friendship
Theme of a separate peace
Theme of a separate peace
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More handpicked essays just for you.
A separate peace theme about friendship
Theme of a separate peace
Theme of a separate peace
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
This story has many themes and one of the main themes is that life choice of choosing to be hopeful or not. Junior has a hard life with many losses and other problems. He is lost and does not know exactly what to do. When Mr.P comes over to Junior’s house he really makes an impact on him. Mr. P talks to Junior about what is out there and that he has hope if he goes
It becomes clear that Gordy has joy when reading books as he sees each one as a mystery. Both Gordy and Junior are smart and like books, but Junior sees books differently from Gordy. After being taught how to read and understand books by Gordy, Junior begins to think of his older sister who loves romance novels, as she takes them seriously. Realizing how his sister sees books, Junior realizes that “if every
As Junior matures he realizes that he has many obstacles within his life, like the fact that he lives in poverty, a lot of people show racism towards him and his people, and the death of family members and
He dreams of being the first in his family to make it through school and go to college. This becomes quite a challenge though since money is so tight. “Seriously, I know my mother and father had their dreams when they were kids. They dreamed about being something other than poor, but they never got the chance to be anything because nobody paid attention to their dreams.” This not only shows how no one payed attention to his parents struggles, but it also shows how Junior feels about everyone just assuming he will not make it the entire way through school because of his race.
His mother and father’s dreams were just fantasies played in the hands of poverty. If his mother and father couldn’t achieve their dreams, Junior himself can’t reach success if destitution is dragging him down. To illustrate this point, “And it's not like my mother and father were born into wealth. It's not like they gambled away their family fortunes. My parents came from poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people,” (Alexie 11).
Junior's resilience helps him to create new friendships at Reardan High. Being the only native kid at school made Junior stand out and very lonely, yet despite that Junior kept going to school until he eventually gained the guts to make
Junior’s father spends all the money that they receive on alcohol. Junior's father wanted to be a musician, but he struggled with addiction and poverty. “I wish I were magical, but I am really just a poor-ass reservation kid living with his poor-ass family on the poor-ass Spokane Indian Reservation.” (Alexie 7). So with Junior's parents being poor, he knows they will try their best to give him as much as he needs.
America the free, land of opportunity--but only if you fit a specific mold. Slaves, especially women, were certainly not included. Even after their emancipation, African Americans struggled with exclusion, whether it be direct, indirect, political, social or other. James Baldwin, an African American man, contrasts the types of oppression he, and others, have faced in “A Letter to my Nephew” , drawing parallels from slavery to the discrimination of the 60’s. He explains how many think blacks must assimilate into “white” culture, but, in reality, it must be those who think that way who must escape from the mentality of needing to assimilate.
He goes through the phase of not wanting to have a good education. He ends up wanting to move to an all-white school, where no Indian would ever think of going. He is bullied and is given many dirty looks, but in the end he makes friends and they take care of him. When Junior first gets to the school he is the only Indian at Reardan, other than the mascot. He is told to leave because he doesn’t belong; just like on the reservation.
He knows that if his parents were not born into poverty, his mother would have gone to college, and his father would have become a musician. Additionally, on page eleven Junior says that his parents “dreamed about being something other than poor, but they never got the chance to be anything because nobody paid attention to their dreams.” Junior believes that he is trapped in this “circle” of poverty, and his dreams will be ignored just as his parents’ dreams had been. However, after Junior launches an old geometry book across a classroom, and it hits his teacher, Mr. P, in the face, Mr. P realizes something substantial about Junior: He has fought since his birth, beginning with the
He does this by not telling anyone he poor and about his struggles to get to and from school. Even though Junior begins being isolated from everyone when he starts Reardan he eventually is accepted and loved by his
In the article, “10 Words Every Girl Should Learn”, Soraya Chemaly talks about her opinion and observations of how men conversate with women. She speaks out about gender equality and how men “dominate” women. In my personal opinion, I agree and disagree with her on her argument. Some of the things she observed about men and wrote about in her article, I believe are incorrect because I have never experienced them. On the other hand, some of the points made at the end of the article I have noticed inside a classroom and agree with.
In the lesson plan “It’s Not All Black and White: Understanding Shades of Meaning in Words” edited by Lauren Davis (2013), I start to grasp how to teach students in grades six thru eight about the shades of meaning in words (p. 141). This lesson plan provides a good starting point for teaching an effective lesson to middle-school-aged students about the difference between the denotation of words and the connotations of words as well as why this is important for them to know this. In this paper, I will give a short summary of the lesson plan edited by Lauren Davis followed by my critique and ideas for teaching this lesson. According to the Common Core State Standards, students should learn to “distinguish amongst the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions)” and “determine the meanings of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings” (2015).
I can relate to Junior in chapter 16, during dance, dance, dance by having his family support him, Junior says, “I mean, my mother and father were working hard for me, too. They were constantly scraping together enough money to pay for gas, to get me lunch money, to buy me a new pair of jeans and a few shirts. My parents gave me just enough money so that I could pretend to have more money than I did.” ( page:119) I chose this because my parents work hard at their jobs just to get me and my younger brother’s lunch money for us to eat at school. Also, having to afford clothes which was a struggle for us because they have seven kids including, me.
As a daughter, I am impassioned to strive forward and make my parents proud. I am an older sister attentive to her sibling, but a daughter conscious of the hardships burdening the household. Each decision taken considers my family. Do I need this? Or do I want this?