Lillian Heker and Amy Tan are two fictional authors who illustrate varying perspectives on the social mores and social conditions surrounding their child protagonists. Heker exemplifies in her short story, A Stolen Party, an incident where a child is prejudicially judged based on parent’s social and economic status. She exemplifies an incident where her child protagonist receives differential treatment solely based on her family’s unfortunate financial status. She demonstrates that her protagonist’s personality and talents exceed those of a wealthy family’s child. Through the short story, Heker conveys to the audience that children should be perceived based off their personality and talents, and not viewed by their parent’s financial and educational …show more content…
Rosaura’s mother is perceived by others as financially unfortunate, working as a maid for the family of Rosaura’s best friend, Luciana. Her mother’s economic status play a fundamental role in how the protagonist is treated throughout the short story. In an exemplifying incident, the protagonist is invited to Luciana’s birthday party where Luciana’s mom, Senora Inez, treats Rosaura according to her mother’s employment status. Throughout her friend’s party, Rosaura tries her best to help out, wanting to be a helpful friend. Unfortunately, Senora Inez perceives her as an underlying worker. She pays Rosaura for her attendance and help instead of showering Rosaura with presents similarly to how she treats the other guests. Heker writes in her short story, “[Senora Inez] rummaged in her purse. In her hand appeared two bills. ‘You really and truly earned this,’ she said handing them over [to Rosaura]” (Heker 4). Rosaura is shocked and disturbed to find that she has been treated as a worker merely due to her mother’s social status. She vehemently believed that she deserved to be treated as one of Luciana’s friend, rather than one of Senora Inez’s maid’s family members. The money that Senora Ines pays Rosaura symbolizes Rosaura’s lower social status, simply attributed to her mother’s employment as a maid. By paying Rosaura, Senora Ines implies that her family is of higher social status than Rosaura’s family. Rosaura and the other children in the short story are prejudicially treated accordingly to their family’s social and economic
“Children are not blind to race. Instead, like all of us, they notice differences” and the character of Ellen Foster is no exception to the rule (Olson). Ellen Foster is the story of a strong willed and highly opinionated and pragmatic child named Ellen, growing up in the midst of poverty and abuse in the rural south. Her life is filled with tragedy from the death and possible suicide of her mother to the abuse she endures at the hands of her alcoholic father and his friends. Despite her hardships as such an early age, she never gives up hope for a better life. In addition to her struggles with poverty she is surrounded by a culture of racism in a society that is post Jim Crow
Hattie spent much of her younger years living with different relatives because both of her parents had died when she was five. As Hattie was “tossed” from one relative’s home to another throughout her childhood, she never had a sense of belonging. To make matters worse, her relatives treated her like a hassle—as though her very existence was an annoyance. Needless to say, Hattie’s relatives were neither supportive nor encouraging of her. By age 16, Hattie’s feeling of self-worth was at an all time low. The story did not describe her appearance in depth, but it did say she was very modest and dressed humbly.
Toni Cade Bambara addresses how knowledge is the means by which one can escape out of poverty in her story The Lesson. In her story she identifies with race, economic inequality, and literary epiphany during the early 1970’s. In this story children of African American progeny come face to face with their own poverty and reality. This realism of society’s social standard was made known to them on a sunny afternoon field trip to a toy store on Fifth Avenue. Through the use of an African American protagonist Miss Moore and antagonist Sylvia who later becomes the sub protagonist and White society the antagonist “the lesson” was ironically taught. Sylvia belong to a lower economic class, which affects her views of herself within highlights the economic difference created by classism.
Rafaela is married to an older man and “gets locked indoors because her husband is afraid Rafaela will run away since she is too beautiful to look at” (79). The narrator Esperanza notes that because Rafaela is locked in the house she gives the passing kids money to run to the store to bring her back juice. Esperanza states that “Rafaela who drinks and drinks coconut and papaya juice on Tuesdays and wishes there were sweeter drinks, not bitter like an empty room, but sweet sweet like the island, like the dance hall down the street where women much older than her throw green eyes easily like dice and open homes with keys. And always there is someone offering sweeter drinks, someone promising to keep them on a silver string” (81). Esperanza is being to notice a common occurrence in the treatment of women on Mango Street. Rafaela is locked away by her husband as he wants to keep her from running off. This mirrors the relationship between Earl and his wife. Rafaela is described in more detail however allowing readers a deeper connection to her experience in her marriage. Esperanza witnesses Rafaela’s confinement in the house each time she passes by with friends and Rafaela sends them down money to buy her a drink from the store since she is unable to go herself. There is also an interesting comparison in which the confined room is compared to being bitter whereas the sweet drink is compared to being the
Creating “worlds of their own, with particular kinds of boundaries separating them from the larger world”, families ideally provide encouragement and protection for each of their members (Handel, xxiv). In J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, however, the Dursleys and Aunt Marge fail to fulfill their roles as Harry’s primary caregivers. In Russell Hoban’s The Mouse and His Child, the father mouse is unable to give his child all that he needs and longs for. In these two children’s stories, the expectation that families will provide physical support, emotional support, and encouragement for their children is not met.
Toni Cade Bambara’s THE LESSON and David Adams Richards’s DANE stories each describe the lack of quality education and social inequality. Both these collections of stories focus on children, and readers are able to see the effect of social and economic disadvantage on children and its long term effects. The author uses the paperweight to symbolize the importance of education in the story THE LESSON, the price of their future is going to be something that they will have to strive for and look at their past current dwellings. Each of the two stories details the life and times of a group of kids from the point of view of the main characters. Bambara’s narrator is portrayed as a strong minded individual at the end of the story while Richards’s narrator, on the other hand, deteriorates his life and displays vulnerability.
...’ family is in deep alcoholism, depriving children the benefits of a proper upbringing. The Johnsons are also chaotic and tyrannical. Jimmie and his ilk of brawling youths epitomize the violence that rocked the society. In the middle of this violence is pursuit of vanity. Children are fighting viciously to establish the superior one. Adults are watching on indifferently. Maggie gets into prostitution because of pursuing an elegant life. She lacks appreciation of her beauty and persona. In the end, the question to ponder is whether human beings have the capacity to make personal choices in midst of immense social circumstances. Regrettably, Johnsons share the blame for the kind of person that their children turned out. The society too has remained passive in the midst of great social trepidation. Maggie and Jimmie share the blame for pursuit of vainglorious vanity.
Children are seen as adorable, fun loving, and hard to control. Ida Fink uses a child in “The Key Game” to be the key to this family’s life. The setting is placed during the start of World War II; Jews all around were being taken. Fink uses a boy who doesn’t look the traditional Jewish, “And their chubby, blue-eyed, three-year-old child” (Fink). As they read on the emotional connection is stronger because there is a face to go with this character. Fink draws a reader in by making connections to a family member the reader may know. A blue-eyed, chubby child is the picture child of America. A child in any story makes readers more attached especially if they have children of their own. The child is three way too young to be responsible for the safety of the father, yet has to be. Throughout the story, we see how the mother struggles with making her child play the game because no child should be responsible like
Estrella and Cleofilas have come to accept that they don’t get much for their hard labor. They both learned how society looks at immigrants from other countries. They both were looked down upon. Estrella works hard in the hot heat. She comes to realize that picking grapes doesn’t earn enough money, and it all depended on the piece rate of the grapes. Society turns around, eats the grapes and doesn’t think twice about how the grapes came to their mouths. When the society doesn’t think of the age or person that has picked the grapes.
A family is, by far, the simplest possible functional social unit. Straightforward and personal, it is in far contrast to the labyrinthine politics and secretive policies of a typical Orwellian government. However, Amy Rand’s novella shows that despite its simplicity, the impact that a family has on an individual possesses the capacity to depose countless such governments, and, fearful of this power, the government of this novella separates children from their families.
The mother from “Tuesday Siesta” just lost her son and had gone with her daughter to the priest’s house to go visit her son’s grave… ““He’s the thief who was killed here last week”, said the woman in the same tone voice, “I am his mother”” (Marquez 374). He was a thief and was killed by an old widow, named Rebecca, who was terrified and fired gun shots when she heard someone in the front of her house. She accepts the fact that he was a thief because it pains her less than when he was a boxer. The mother from the other story, “The Stolen Party” is also confronted by a difficult situation. Rosaura’s mother was concerned that her daughter would be used/treated as a maid, instead of being treated like every other guest. Her daughter is separated from the rest of the people at the party because she is not as wealthy and she is only the maid’s daughter. Rosaura being an ignorant child, refused to believe this at the beginning of the story and throughout the party. She finally comes to the realization that she cannot break through class stereotypes. “In her hand appeared two bills. You really and truly earned this, she said handing them over. Thank you for all your help” (Heker 32). The harsh reality is exposed to Rosaura when Luciana’s mother hands her money to thank her for all her help during the
In the story, “A&P” by John Updike, the student identifies the differences of social classes between Sammy, a checkout clerk and Queenie, a wealthy girl that visit’s the store. Though not from the same class structure, Sammy is compelled to interact with the girl, however fails in doing so because she is considered privileged.
The Victorian Era was a time of social evolution as well as technological and economic advance. A distinct, unique middle class was formed alongside the traditional working class and wealthy aristocracy. However, there were certain individuals that fell outside this model of Victorian society. The “abandoned child” was society’s scapegoat- a person without a past, without connections, without status. They could appear in any class, at any time. The upper and middle classes often had a somewhat romantic perception of them, due to their prevalence in Victorian literature. Novels like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights made heroines/heroes out of orphans, portraying them as respectable yet troubled (Cunningham,“Orphan Texts”). However, orphans were also often treated with disdain and distrust, due to their reputation as “criminally prone” individuals. They were a victim of classic “Victorian contradictions” that characterized most aspects of Victorian society.
Sometimes growing up we experience situations that can change our perspective on life. Especially, when these situations happen unexpectedly; we are in disbelief. In Toni Cade Bambara short story “The Lesson” written in first person; it delves into the struggle of a girl, Sylvia, who realizes the economic and social injustice surrounding her. However, with the help of Miss Moore Sylvia comes to grip with this issue, and opts to overcome it. In “The Lesson” Miss Moore wanted to impart on Sylvia and the other children is the value of a dollar, the importance of education, and to fathom the social and economic injustice that bounded them.
“The third day- it was Wednesday of the first week- Charles bounced a see-saw on to the head of a little girl and made her bleed,” (1). In the short story “Charles” written by Shirley Jackson, Laurie, the main character of the story, is a young kindergartener who is able to run around causing trouble at school and at the same time, pretend that it is only another boy in his class that is making the trouble. “Charles” teaches you that parents do not know everything about their child even though the child lives in the same house as them. Laurie’s parents do not know what he is like at school. Laurie is flamboyant, and arrogant yet creative and those characteristics make him the perfect troublemaker.