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Emma Kirkpatrick
Mrs. Campbell
Gifted/Honors ELA
19 May 2014
P. L. Travers
P. L. Travers was an influential writer and her life is a legacy. She was studious throughout her life and, she always enjoyed reading a good novel. Pamela Lyndon Travers lived a long life. She was a victorious survivor of a depressing childhood.
P. L. Travers was born Helen Lyndon Goff in Queensland, Australia, in August of 1899. She experienced a harsh childhood. Her mother and father were Margaret Morehead and Travers Robert Goff. P. L. Travers’s father was the only man in her life, and he played an important role in her early childhood. He died an unexpected death when she was merely seven-years-old. Her memories of her father greatly impacted her decision to write. He loved to tell myths, which led to the development of his daughter’s imagination (Brody 2-6).
Early in P. L. Travers’s life, she moved with her mother to her aunt’s house. Mr. Goff wrote letters to them from Maryborough, where he was still working. The Goff parents decided to remain detached from their children, despite the difficulty of their lives, thus allowing Helen to develop a very meditative mind.
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Her parents, being so detached, impacted her future independence. In 1902, Travers Goff was demoted from his job as a bank manager, and the family moved to Brisbane. Barbara Irene, Helen’s sister, was born that year and Cicely Margaret was born in 1905. Financial problems arose and Travers Goff’s past drinking problems worsened. South of Brisbane was the town of Allora, where Travers’s job transferred. Travers Goff fell very ill in 1907 and his health continued to decline at a rapid pace. The family moved to Bowral because of the...
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...ppins and the House Next Door is the final book in the series and is the most mysterious. A boy from the South Seas becomes an added character, and he needs help getting back to his homeland. Mr. Banks imagines that an astronomer lives in the house next door and gazes at the stars at night (Brody 42-43).
The Mary Poppins series is considered to be classic. It ensures that P. L. Travers’s legacy will endure. The character of Mary Poppins is a part of popular culture and continues to delight young and old alike. Her sayings are a part of the
Kirkpatrick 6 cultural vocabulary. J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, is a big fan of Mary Poppins. Travers was an author for adults, but she spoke to a youthful part in everyone. Her work combines fantasy and reality, showing that fantasy and imagination are major pieces of the real world (Brody 67).
Mary Poppins, the classic novel and movie is based around a nanny who comes with the wind to help a family. Its prequel Saving Mr Banks, is the story how how the movie was created and the hardships they went through to create this masterpiece. Walt Disney and his producers encountered many issues while creating this film but they persevered to make this enjoyment available worldwide.
...ve interest was free born and wished to marry her. However, after Harriet?s attempts to pursued her master to sell her to the young neighbor failed she was left worse off than before. Dr. Norcom was so cruel he forbade Harriet anymore contact with the young man. Harriet?s next love came when she gave birth to her first child. Her son Benny was conceived as a way to get around Dr. Norcom?s reign of terror. However, this is a subject that was very painful for her. She conveys to the reader that she has great regret for the length she went to stop her Master. Along with her own guilt she carries the memories of her Grandmother?s reaction to the news of her pregnancy. Clearly this was a very traumatic time in Harriet?s life. In light of these difficult events Harriet once again found love and hope in her new born son. ?When I was most sorely oppressed I found solace in his smiles. I loved to watch his infant slumber: but always there was a dark cloud over my enjoyment. I could never forget that he was a slave.? (Jacobs p. 62)
Martinez, Elizabeth Coonrod. "Humble creator of an iconic novel." Americas [English Edition] May-June 2009: 62+. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 8 Mar. 2014.
Before Mrs. Ames and the mother realize the restrictions of their old lives, their worlds have been full of disillusionment and ignorance. Mrs. Ames, for example, is oppressed by her husband’s silence and the search for love and tenderness from anyone, because she lives each day alone, ignored by her scornful husband. And, as a result of being left companionless, she does not mature, rather she longs for tenderness. In other words, Boyle explains her dysfunctional relationship with her husband, “The mystery and silence of her husband’s mind lay like a chiding finger of her lips. Her eyes were gray for the light had been extinguished in them” (57). That is, Mrs. Ames’ spirit remains oppressed by her husband who treats her as a child, and, in doing so, isolates her from his world.
The heroine, Mrs. P, has some carries some characteristics parallel to Louise Mallard in “Hour.” The women of her time are limited by cultural convention. Yet, Mrs. P, (like Louise) begins to experience a new freedom of imagination, a zest for life , in the immediate absence of her husband. She realizes, through interior monologues, that she has been held back, that her station in life cannot and will not afford her the kind of freedom to explore freely and openly the emotions that are as much a part of her as they are not a part of Leonce. Here is a primary irony.
While Doris Goodwin’s mother and father were a very important part of her life growing up her sisters were just as important. She talks about how while Charlotte, her oldest sister was not around as much as her other older sister, Jeanne she was still very important to her. She goes into detail about a shopping trip that was taken with the oldest and youngest siblings and how after the shopping trip to Sa...
The Harry Potter series, written by J. K. Rowling, is about a young boy who finds out he is a wizard and uses his magic powers to vanquish evil. The series is currently the target of many protestors, as they scrutinize and penalize the books for their creative and imaginative topics. Ranging from education to religion, protestors' reasoning's behind theses attacks have sparked nationwide debates. Everything from censorship to book burning, protesting and pulling theses books from school shelves, have been done to outlaw the Potter series. Elizabeth D. Schafer, author of "Harry and History", summarizes how these controversies stem forth and how she disagrees with the protests against the Potter series. Censorship of the Harry Potter books is a vain attempt to maintain control and power over citizens as their rights and freedom of choice is being severely violated by forbidding the viewing of certain sources of entertainment.
Mary Poppins has an extraordinary ability to use her imagination and make believe the she is in a painting eating raspberry- jam cakes, wearing her finest dress when in all actuality she is just standing there observing a picture of
Griffin strikes all of these aspects in her essay. What is most compelling about the essay, however, is the way Griffin incorporated personal, family, and world history into a chilling story of narrative and autobiography, without ever losing the factual evidence the story provided. The chapter reads like an entire novel, which helps the audience to understand the concepts with a clear and complete view of her history, not needing to read any other part of the book. Two other authors, Richard Rodriguez, and Ralph Ellison, who write about their experiences in life can possibly be better understood as historical texts when viewed through the eyes of Griffin. Rodriguez explores his own educational history in his essay “The Achievement of Desire” and Ralph Ellison depicts his own journeys and personal growth in his essay, “An Extravagance of Laughter”. Both essays, which when seen through Susan Griffin’s perspective, can be reopened and examined from a different historical view, perhaps allowing them to be understood with a more lucid view of history and what it is really about.
Throughout this novel, the reader is left with the task of putting the pieces together to a highly complex puzzle. While solving this puzzle, the reader learns valuable information about Mrs. Ross’s harsh past, which greatly influences her entire life. The root of Mrs. Ross’s troubles ultimately lies within the shocking death of “Mrs. Ross’s only brother, a boy called Monty Miles who had been killed while walking home…A wayward trolley left the tracks to strike him down” ( ). According to the narrator “The mourning had gone on for years”() and this event truly traumatized Mrs. Ross as “the world was full of trolley cars and Mrs. Ross ...
She continues in this sequel to talk about the abuse she faced and the dysfunction that surrounded her life as a child and as a teen, and the ‘empty space’ in which she lived in as a result. She talks about the multiple personalities she was exhibiting, the rebellious “Willie” and the kind “Carol”; as well as hearing noises and her sensory problems. In this book, the author puts more emphasis on the “consciousness” and “awareness” and how important that was for her therapeutic process. She could not just be on “auto-pilot” and act normal; the road to recovery was filled with self-awareness and the need to process all the pieces of the puzzle—often with the guidance and assistance of her therapist. She had a need to analyze the abstract concept of emotions as well as feelings and thoughts. Connecting with others who go through what she did was also integral to her
Her family life is depicted with contradictions of order and chaos, love and animosity, conventionality and avant-garde. Although the underlying story of her father’s dark secret was troubling, it lends itself to a better understanding of the family dynamics and what was normal for her family. The author doesn’t seem to suggest that her father’s behavior was acceptable or even tolerable. However, the ending of this excerpt leaves the reader with an undeniable sense that the author felt a connection to her father even if it wasn’t one that was desirable. This is best understood with her reaction to his suicide when she states, “But his absence resonated retroactively, echoing back through all the time I knew him. Maybe it was the converse of the way amputees feel pain in a missing limb.” (pg. 399)
Helen’s early life was very much shaped by her loss and abandonment. The greatest loss Helen experienced was the death of her parents. As she was orphaned by the age of six, it left her with great grief, darkened childhood memories and bewilderment of where she truly belonged. She eventually found her position as a labourer in her uncle’s house. After working on her uncle’s farm for two years and being denied an opportunity for education, she faced the most significant abandonment in her life: being turned
Mrs. Mallard’s repressed married life is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern. This is clearly evident in the great care that her sister and husband’s friend Richard show to break the news of her husband’s tragic death as gently as they can. They think that she is so much in love with him that hearing the news of his death would aggravate her poor heart condition and lead to death. Little do they know that she did not love him dearly at all and in fact took the news in a very positive way, opening her arms to welcome a new life without her husband. This can be seen in the fact that when she storms into her room and her focus shifts drastically from that of her husband’s death to nature that is symbolic of new life and possibilities awaiting her. Her senses came to life; they come alive to the beauty in the nature. Her eyes could reach the vastness of the sky; she could smell the delicious breath of rain in the air; and ears became attentive to a song f...
When Jane is shunned by Mr. Brocklehurst in front of the entire Lowood population, Helen is the one person that does not immediately judge Jane. In fact, she makes her feel more comfortable in a place that is filled with punishment and hypocrisy. Though Lowood does not truly feel like home, Helen is able to provide Jane with not only all the compassion she needs as well as support and respect. This is one of the first loves Jane experiences on her journey and it allows her to become more open to the love she finds in her future endeavors.