Upon reading the first page, I knew I would like this book. The writing style is almost like a memoir; it’s in the first person from the perspective of Nomi Nickel. The first ten chapters give us a look into Nomi nickels past, her opinions, and thoughts. They show the transition of her thoughts from a straight edge Mennonite follower to a rebellious teenager. She has a dry sense of humor that is thrown into her everyday activities. It’s a surprise when it happens, like when the garbage men throw out Ray’s hutch, not only was that unexpected but Ray’s reaction was surprising. Many of the teens in the town represent a character foil. On Saturday nights they go out drinking, partying, having sex, and on Sunday they return to their strict religious …show more content…
He’s extreme in his religious beliefs. When I was first introduced to him I did not like him, but after learning his back story it all made sense, and I felt sorry for him. It’s pretty sad and pathetic that one bad relationship changed him from an ordinary guy finding his way in the world to an extreme religious leader. I think he uses his religion to protect himself. Outside of the Mennonite faith, everything was too free he couldn’t handle the pressure of it. He’s more comfortable in the boundaries of his religion where no one can judge him as he’s in control. Travis does not seem to be good boyfriend material. He shows little respect for Nomi by leaving her out in the rain, and his constant need to change her. Nomi often feels pressured to talk and say something intelligent to satisfy him. It saddens me to think that she stays with him; I believe this is caused by boredom and low self-esteem. I think the type of people that follow this religion are either born into it and brain washed beyond repair, or they’re too afraid of going to hell, so they stay. Tash seems to take on her mother’s characteristics, and Nomi takes on her fathers. I like that Nomi remains with her father, but I worry that she will leave as she likes to talk about leaving. I don’t want Ray to be left all alone. I was surprised to learn that Trudie left ray, they seemed very much in
I can relate this book to my life in many ways; it was easier for me to relate to this book because were both 18 year old girls who want to live life the right way. Also I don’t want to live life trying to be like everyone else, so this was really encouraging to me. A part that helped me was the part about confidence and how important that is. Its important to have confidence in your faith because say you get in a situation you can protect your faith and stand up for what you believe. Another part that I can really apply to my life was how when people were talking about her she didn’t even beg to know. Personally whenever I hear that someone was talking about me, I really want to know what they said! This helped me to learn that why fill my brain with negativity sinful gossip, because that’s not what Jesus would do.
The Jump-Off Creek introduces the reader to the unforgiving Blue Mountains and the harsh pioneer lifestyle with the tale of Lydia Sanderson, a widow who moves west from Pennsylvania to take up residence in a rundown homestead. She and other characters battle nature, finances, and even each other on occasion in a fight for survival in the harsh Oregon wilderness. Although the story is vividly expressed through the use of precise detail and 1800s slang, it failed to give me a reason to care because the characters are depicted as emotionally inhibited.
Poverty and low wages have been a problem ever since money became the only thing that people began to care about. In Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich, she presents the question, “How does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled?” This question is what started her experiment of living like a low wage worker in America. Ehrenreich ends up going to Key West, Portland, and Minneapolis to see how low wage work was dealt with in different states. With this experiment she developed her main argument which was that people working at low wages can’t live life in comfort because of how little they make monthly and that the economic system is to blame.
The Amish culture in general try to withhold the same traditions, values, and language as the original Amish. This individual Amish subculture in Indiana displayed in the Devil's Playground goes to show just how culturally diverse society can be. Though the ultimate desire of the Amish is to be a good example of Christ, the community encourages a positive deviance of their teenagers called Runspringa. Starting at age sixteen Amish teens are allowed the opportunity to explore the English world to better educate their decision to commit their life to the church and the simple way of living or leave the community turning to a life of relative deviance. This value contradiction often results in role conflict within the young people.
Winesburg, Ohio is a story of lost or nonexistent connections with other human beings. Every character throughout the text has a want, a need, to connect with someone or something. Each individual faces a life of isolation. In most cases the solitary nature of their lives is self-inflicted. This self-punishment seems to be the outcome of a deeply personal hatred towards the characters' perceived differences with the rest of the Winesburg population. This is the fact that elevates Winesburg, Ohio above the rest. It is the fact that every man hides a part of himself from the eyes of others.
Stanley, D. A. (Ed.). (1999). Novels for Students Volume 7. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Research.
When most people hear about rapes, murders, and drugs they think about the news and movies. They never would have thought a book could express these controversial topics correctly. I was one of those people before I read “The Glass Castle” and “A Place to Stand. ““The Glass Castle” is about a girl that grows up with parent that shouldn’t have kids. She struggles with growing up poor and not getting the support she needs when awful things happened. “A Place to Stand” is about a boy who grows up without his parents around and eventually ends up in a maximum security prison for selling drugs. Most of the book is focused on him learning how to read and write in prison and all the awful things that happen there. These books were marvelous representations of the authors, Jeannette Walls and Jimmy Santiago Baca, lives. They had many negative things happen to them through out there life but they were able to persist and become the well-respected people they are today. They made their life relevant to us with their memoirs. I liked both of these books very much but there was one that I enjoyed a lot more than the other. “The Glass Castle” was a more superior book than “A Place to Stand.” I enjoyed the short story aspect of “The Glass Castle” compared the long narrative of “A Place to Stand.” It was a lot easier to put down Jeanette’s book without becoming confused the next time you read it. Also I love the whimsy Jeannette puts on topics that aren’t typically whimsical. Jimmy’s novel is completely serious throughout the whole book. Finally, every character in “The Glass Castle” seems to develop and grow throughout the book. Other than Jimmy most of the characters either die or are never seen again by the end of the books. These are bot...
The book “Nickel and Dimed” is a very thought provoking read. Dr. Ehrenreich begins her book with the introduction by discussing with the audience how she developed the idea for this book during an expensive lunch. Dr. Ehrenreich speculated how workers with such little skill and education survive on such inadequate incomes. She can not fathom how these people are surviving, and wants to find out and understand their “tricks”. Dr. Ehrenreich decides to consider an experiment where she examines the consequences of the welfare reform by going out and trying to work and survive in the low wage work environment all while living a low wage lifestyle. She also decides to make some rules for her experiment. The first rule is she can
The lack of support and affection protagonists, Sula Peace and Nel Wright, causes them to construct their lives on their own without a motherly figure. Toni Morrison’s novel, Sula, displays the development of Sula and Nel through childhood into adulthood. Before Sula and Nel enter the story, Morrison describes the history of the Peace and Wright family. The Peace family live abnormally to their town of Medallion, Ohio. Whereas the Wrights have a conventional life style, living up to society’s expectations.The importance of a healthy mother-daughter relationship is shown through the interactions of Eva and Hannah Peace, Hannah and Sula, and between Helene Wright and Nel. When Sula and Nel become friends they realize the improper parenting they
Sinclair Lewis makes point of the efforts that Carol produces to reform her new home. These efforts can be perceived by the townspeople as unwelcomed and unsuccessful. Some of Carol’s ideas are ludicrous, out of proportion and not ready for the slow-moving town. She tries several different approaches to reforming the town from the moment of her arrival. She goes from architectural reform to poetic reform to artistic to introducing liberalism to amusing social functions. All of these tactics she hopes will spring forth a reform movement to beautify and culturalize the town and people. Her initial attempts at bringing the town out of its shell consisted of throwing fun and exciting parties. Such as her Chinese house-warming party on page 66. She plans this social event as a way to bring the people out of their normal funeral parlor routine of sitting in a circle and making small talk. For the moment she is successful, but soon after she implements sledding, skiing and skating outings, people begin to recoil back into their normal routines. Again, Carol is frustrated with the progress of the town, and she soon feels rejected by the social elite at the Jolly Seventeen club on page 78. Her attempts to open the minds of the Jolly Seventeen to the issues of the lower class, backfires into a discussion of foreign incompetencies and laziness. Her reputation becomes the antithesis of Gopher Prairie social beliefs and structure. After presumably months of social reclusion, Carol is coe...
Oftentimes, life is a treacherous and unforgiving place; coincidentally the underlying message of both “The Glass Castle” and “The Grapes of Wrath.” These texts include a series of challenges to the lives of two very different families in unique time periods. In order to survive, these families must overcome the challenges of addiction, poverty, and disparity in their own ways. Steinbeck’s, “The Grapes of Wrath,” details the lives of the Joads, Oklahoma farmers in the Great Depression of the 1930s; who travel west in search of a better life. A sense of community unifies the families and keeps the Joads together as a whole. Walls’s memoir “The Glass Castle,” tells of the highly unstable and nomadic life of protagonist Jeannette through the early stages of her life. The Walls children manage to prosper in their own individual ways, stemming from decades of suffering and adversity. The Joads and Walls’s alike share characteristics that help them get
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, published in 2001 by Barbara Ehrenreich, is a book about an author who goes undercover and examines lives of the working lower class by living and working in similar conditions. Ehrenreich sets out to learn how people survive off of minimum wage. For her experiment, she applies rules including that she cannot use skills acquired from her education or work during her job search. She also must take the highest-paying job offered to her and try her best to keep it. For her search of a home, she has to take the cheapest she can find. For the experiment, Ehrenreich took on low-wage jobs in three cities: in Florida, Maine, and Minnesota.
...ut men, family ties and financial stability would be difficult to obtain, which were necessary to secure an identity in the early south. Early Southern women were ultimately forced to identify themselves by the males to which they were tied. Three female characters from the works read thus far, struggled without men to identify them. For Désirée, her past and family heritage proved too much to overcome. Without the surname provided by her husband, Désirée was without an identity to call her own and gave way to societal code. Yet, due to their internal fight for self-satisfaction, Lena and Janie were able to overcome their lack of identity by establishing their own without the aid of a male. In conclusion, identity is attainable for some women. However, it takes a Southern woman dedicated to her own beliefs to overcome such obstacles and return stronger than before.
The perfect, suburban family has become a prominant theme and stereotype in American culture. Families from the works of Anne Tyler represent the exact opposite of this cultural stereotype. None of Tyler's novels contain families with faithful, domestic wives, breadwinning husbands, and 2.3 well-behaved, perfect children. Tyler kills this misconcieved stereotype in Breathing Lessons, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, and The Accidental Tourist. Anne Tyler grew up with her parents on a series of experimental communes, so she developed a different perception of family life. She observes domestic life from the view of an outsider looking in. Minor-- and sometimes major-- flaws characterize the average family in Tyler's novels because many of today's families are imperfect. Because of her communal upbringing, she observes family life more honestly than do writers who romanticize family life. Tyler's novels show that the picture most people see when they think of the typical American family is shifting from the Cleavers to the Simpsons.
In Nickels and Dimes by Barbara Ehrenreich, the author decides to experience the life of an average worker in the service industry in order to record and show to the world how they survive with a minimum wage, long working hours, and tiring jobs without much compensation with health insurance or being allowed to take breaks. As she journeys fourth she also discovers new things about herself that she didn’t ever think would happen to her unless she actually worked as a waitress or in hotel service.