Free Essay on Ecology of a Cracker Childhood

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Free Essay on Ecology of a Cracker Childhood

By reading Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, it is safe to assume that Janisse Ray, the main character, author, is one who doesn't conform and has a stubborn nature. For instance, when Ray wants to play football with the boys in her class at recess she gets angered when they tell her no she can not play with them; so instead of accepting their reply she jumps in the game anyway and tackles the boy with the football. The boys angry with the fact that their friend, a guy, got tackled by a girl went chasing after her. Why did Ray feel the need to make a statement by taking down the boy with the football? Perhaps it was her feminist nature, driving her to show the boys that just because she was a female didn't mean that she was not able to do as they did. Whether or not it was feminism, Ray, still has the heart of a revolutionary.

Ray suspected that the boys' rejection was due to the fact that she was a girl, but her suspicions were repudiated when she saw a girl playing with them. The only difference between Janisse and the other girl was that the other girl was not wearing a dress. The Ray family's religious convictions required the females of the family to wear a dress, providing for the boys uneasiness when it came down to allowing her to play with them. Janisse, dress or not, felt capable of partaking in the sport. It is women like Ray, who will not take no for an answer, that has brought equal rights to their gender in sports, jobs and even around the house.

America was founded, and has been very successful because of people like Ray, who want to leave their backgrounds or use them to learn from them in order to better their lives in the future; the kind of people that will do anything, whether it is leaving their homeland for a foreign soil in search of a new life and freedom, or tackling the boy with the football. Things have been changed, invented, and made better by people that will not take no for an answer.

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