Dreamland by Sarah Dessen, Penguin Group Inc: New York, 2000
"When Eliza, Lindsay, and I all finally stood up to walk to the ambulance to get bandaged up, the crowd stood and gave us a standing O. We went on to win the game bug, but my topple made everything else anticlimactic."
(47)
anticlimax, n. an event, period, or outcome that is strikingly less important or dramatic than expected
The protagonist, Caitlin, has fallen off the top of the cheerleader's pyramid at the season's biggest football game. She also injured several other cheerleaders as she fell. She was distracted because she heard someone in the crowd yell out her sister's name. Caitlin has hated cheerleading ever since she made the team and falling from the top of the pyramid certainly didn't entice her to stick with it. Thankfully nobody was hurt too seriously but it put a damper on the entire evening.
As in reality, the crowd will probably not remember the opposing team, the cheerleading routine, or even the score of the game but nobody will forget the distracted cheerleader who lost her balance on top of the pyramid. Nothing else seems important anymore. It doesn't matter that the cheerleaders walked away unharmed and they won the game, all most people will remember was the drama of the accident.
I think this incident really emphasizes how much Caitlin's sister was on her mind and how unfocused and unaware of her surroundings Caitlin was. She was very wrapped up in the drama left by Cass and when she heard someone yell her name she thought Cass might be there. These two sisters, despite their differences, were obviously close. Caitlin must now suffer from the aftermath Cass left behind when she ran away.
" You know,' he said thoughtfully, you ask a lot of questions.'
I do not,' I said indignantly."
(77)
indignation, adj. anger aroused by something unjust, unworthy, or mean
Caitlin has been asking her new boyfriend Rogerson questions about his family and friends, something a typical date might consist of. Rogerson however, is not a typical boyfriend. He told her that she asks a lot of questions, which angered Caitlin. She felt ignored on the date, while he talked to his friends and rarely introduced her. She admits later that, "
it's not like I want sparkling conversation
I just wondered why you asked me out tonight, if you didn't really want me here.'" (77) For this moment she stands up for herself, not accepting his accusations as a conclusion to her pressure for conversation.
The fourth Chapter of Estella Blackburn’s non fiction novel Broken lives “A Fathers Influence”, exposes readers to Eric Edgar Cooke and John Button’s time of adolescence. The chapter juxtaposes the two main characters too provide the reader with character analyses so later they may make judgment on the verdict. The chapter includes accounts of the crimes and punishments that Cooke contended with from 1948 to 1958. Cooke’s psychiatric assessment that he received during one of his first convictions and his life after conviction, marring Sally Lavin. It also exposes John Button’s crime of truancy, and his move from the UK to Australia.
In the play And When We Awoke There Was Light and Light by Laura Jacqmin, she analyzes the ethical issues revolving around service in America. The main character Katie, struggles with this common ethical issue just like all other Americans when making a life decision that challenges one’s morals. Katie struggles with conflicting messages about service, not being fully committed to helping David, her pen pal from Uganda and then realizing in the end that David is more important than Harvard.
In her story, “Greenleaf”, the author Flannery O’Conner shows us that people can sometimes blind their factual vision of the world through a mask of dreams, so that they would not be able to make a distinction between reality and their dreams of reality. O’Conner unveils this through the use of point of view , character, irony, and
Each person has a place that calls to them, a house, plot of land, town, a place that one can call home. It fundamentally changes a person, becoming a part of who they are. The old summer cabins, the bedroom that was always comfortable, the library that always had a good book ready. The places that inspire a sense of nostalgic happiness, a place where nothing can go wrong.
In the novel, Beauty by Robin Mc Kinley, the family of a wealthy merchant looses their wealth when the shipment boats get lost at sea. There are three daughters named Hope, Grace, and Honour, whom is nicknamed Beauty, and a father. The family is forced to move to the country and start a life more modest than accustomed. After the family adapts to country life, one of the older sisters gets married to an iron worker who used to work at the shipyard owned by the father. They have babies. Life goes on in the country.
After, that incident it was difficult for her to trust Charlie. It confirmed Marion's earlier statement that her sister had died because of Charlie's ill treatment. All he had done when he came back to Paris the second time were forgotten in that split
A study has found and proven that as a result of the amount of contact activity involved with cheerleading, “two thirds of very serious sports injuries suffered by girls in the United States” (Global Issues in Context). This inevitably highlights the rigors and risks cheerleaders endure as a result of their participation. In effect of cheerleading not being recognized as a sport and cheerleaders not being recognized as athletes, there is little awareness and support for the injuries cheerleaders encounter. Furthermore, according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, “cheerleading is also among the top 20 sports with highest rate of head injuries” (Huffington Post). These head injuries include but are not limited to skull fractures, cervical spine injuries, brain injury, concussions, paralysis, and in severe cases, death. Nonetheless, as a result of cheerleading lacking recognition, injuries are typically underestimated despite their severity. It is important to consider the exertion a cheerleader must put in when completing a stunt. Being tossed or held in the air is the flyer who is then supported by two bases and a back spot. Despite being held up by a minimum of four people, one wrong move can result in the stunt collapsing, which can sometimes result in injury to both the
Her eyes were heavy, her body weak. As she crawled into the bathroom two feet away, Abby felt her body slowly succumbing to the numbness. All of her pain would be gone in less than 10 minutes, so why would she want to turn back? What about the senior trip Abby had planned with her best friend? What about the chair at the dinner table that would now be vacant? A couple of hours later Abby’s family came home from her little sister’s soccer game. Little did they know what they would find as they approached the top of the stairs. Her little sister, Ali, stood still as she looked down at her feet. There on the cold floor lay her big sister, her role model, and her super hero. Ali was crushed when she saw the pill bottle in her hand and the pale color of her skin. Her mom fell to her knees screaming and crying, wondering where she
The fundamental characteristic of magical realism is its duality, which enables the reader to experience both the character’s past and the present. In the novel, Monkey Beach, Eden Robinson uses this literary device to address the the trauma and mistreatment of the Haisla community in Canada by unveiling the intimate memories of the protagonist, Lisamarie, and the resulting consequences of this oppression. Monkey Beach illustrates how abuse in the past leads to another form of self-medication in the future - a neverending, vicious cycle for the members of the Haisla community. Many characters in Monkey Beach are scarred from childhood sexual abuse and family neglect, and resort to drug and alcohol abuse as a coping mechanism. These appalling memories are an account of the impact of colonization on the Haisla territory which continues to haunt the Aboriginal community throughout generations.
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, written by Joanne Greenberg, has by far been the most difficult book to read and understand. With its difficulty aside, I couldn't set the book down. I found it so interesting to read what goes on inside a person's head who suffers from schizophrenia. It made me understand and appreciate why people with a mental illness behave the way they do. We can't see what goes on in their thoughts, or what they are feeling. So why are we so quick to judge? This book has taught me not to judge, or laugh at a person's behavior while suffering from an illness. It has made me have a greater sympathy and respect for the sufferers of mental illnesses. I can't imagine living in the mentality world as Deborah Blau. Her world was so real to her, the world of Yri. She couldn't escape. She couldn't betray her god Anterrabae. Imagine walking one day in her shoes. It's a scary thought.
The story that Jess Walter tells, much like any other novel, is one of joy and sorrow. Lives intersect and separate, people fall into and out of love, and dreams are made and broken. What Walter does with his plot though is quite different. He writes it in a way where the whole book itself relies on the reader’s ability to realize that though some people meet for only a brief amount of time, their dreams and hopes, can hinge on even the briefest moments. Sometimes the characters in the novel have their stories intersect, some in very interesting ways, and other times you see their story as it is and was, just them. Walter does a wonderful job of bringing together many different lives, many stories, and showing how just because you feel alone, does not mean you are, your life and story can at any moment intersect with another and create a whole different story. Perhaps, Alvis Bender puts the idea that Walter is trying to convey into the best words, “Stories are people. I’m a story, you’re a story . . . your father is a story. Our stories go in every direction, but sometimes, if we’re lucky, our stories join into one, and for a while, we’re less alone.”
We have all heard the African proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” The response given by Emma Donoghue’s novel Room, simply states, “If you’ve got a village. But if you don’t, then maybe it just takes two people” (Donoghue 234). For Jack, Room is where he was born and has been raised for the past five years; it is his home and his world. Jack’s “Ma” on the other hand knows that Room is not a home, in fact, it is a prison. Since Ma’s kidnapping, seven years prior, she has survived in the shed of her capturer’s backyard. This novel contains literary elements that are not only crucial to the story but give significance as well. The Point-of-view brings a powerful perspective for the audience, while the setting and atmosphere not only affect the characters but evokes emotion and gives the reader a mental picture of their lives, and the impacting theme along-side with conflict, both internal and external, are shown throughout the novel.
The novel, Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other (2011) written by Sherry Turkle, presents many controversial views, and demonstrating numerous examples of how technology is replacing complex pieces and relationships in our life. The book is slightly divided into two parts with the first focused on social robots and their relationships with people. The second half is much different, focusing on the online world and it’s presence in society. Overall, Turkle makes many personally agreeable and disagreeable points in the book that bring it together as a whole.
A person's ability to develop is due to two factors, maturation and learning. Although maturation, or the biological development of genes, is important, it is the learning - the process through which we develop through our experiences, which make us who we are (Shaffer, 8). In pre-modern times, a child was not treated like they are today. The child was dressed like and worked along side adults, in hope that they would become them, yet more modern times the child's need to play and be treated differently than adults has become recognized. Along with these notions of pre-modern children and their developmental skills came the ideas of original sin and innate purity. These philosophical ideas about children were the views that children were either born "good" or "bad" and that these were the basis for what would come of their life.
The next day, at school, Cassie immediately walked up to Raquel. “Hey, Raq,” she said, “How come you didn’t reply to my text last night?”