Another Holiday for the Prince

1168 Words3 Pages

In “Another Holiday for the Prince” by Elizabeth Jolley the author draws upon many themes, one in particular that Jolley illustrates is how poverty influences changes in the individual lives within one family. To begin with the head of the family; a father is never mentioned in the story, not even once. But by not having a father figure in the story the reader can understand a lot. In society the man is the one who earns the money and provides all the essentials for his family, however this story is presented in a society were the mother has to be the man of the family. Ones self-esteem can be diminished as a result of poverty, alienation; destructive effects of a week personality or society on the individual. The author effectively conveys this theme through the use of characterization, symbolism and contrast. Jolley uses characterization to individualize each character in a poverty stricken family. The son is referred to as a prince by his mother several times throughout the story even though he is a high school dropout. “Mother always called him Prince; she worried about him all the time. I couldn’t think why. He was only my brother and a drop out at that” (117). The author portrays the son to be someone with low self-esteem because he is poor and a drop out he lives a miserable life. His mother tries to provide him with as much, but is unable to do this because of her social status is society. “‘Sleeps the best thing he can have. I wish he’d eat!’ She watched me as I took bread and spread the butter thick, she was never mean about butter, when we didn’t have other things we always had plenty of butter” (117). Through this passage the author convincingly demonstrates that they are poor and cannot afford an assortment of thing... ... middle of paper ... ...eral topic of school. The sister strives to graduate and go to school even though she is poor while her brother blames the school for him dropping out and not graduating. “I got out my social studies. Hot legs has this idea of a test every Wednesday” (118). This demonstrates that she is driven to study for class and get good grades while her brother tries to convince her that school is worth nothing and that there is no point in attending. “‘Why don’t you get out before they chuck you out. That’s all crap,’ he said, knocking the books across the floor. ‘You’ll only fail your exam and they don’t want failures, spoils their bloody numbers. They’ll ask you to leave, see if they don’t’” (118). The brother tries to convince his sister that school is not a necessity and that living the way he does, being a drop out living in a poverty stricken family is the best thing.

Show More
Related

  • And When We Awoke there Was Light by Laura Jacqmin

    791 Words  | 2 Pages

    Katie’s teacher, Mr. Dubey, puts a very high emphasis on the students at Katie’s school about how important school is. Because Katie starts to feel bad for using David to get into Harvard, his attitude toward the topic changes and he tells that she should be self-serving and not really care what people say and to not "ruin the rest of your life just because you feel a little guilty right now"(74). All of these conflicting messages on what Katie should be like, how she should treat others an...

    Read More

  • No Solutions Offered in There Are No Children Here

    1330 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lafeyette and Pharoah are faced with many hardships in their day to day activities. Their apartment, the once beautiful complex, now has broken appliances, poor plumbing, horrible security and from the basement come smells that one housing manager described as “foul odors” that “no equipment presently in use by staff could be used to withstand the odor beyond a minute” (p. 240). The boys wake up every morning in this horrible public housing that would most likely be condemned if it was located in any decent neighborhood. Lafeyette and Pharoah get ready for school, usually putting on clothes which have been washed the night before in the bath tub, and then leave for school. Pharoah, who loves school, is always in a hurry to get there, leaving the apartment before anyone else. School is the one place for Pharoah to stand out and get away from the neighborhood for a while. He even attended a summer school program that was supported by the University of Illinois. Lafeyette, on the other hand, isn’t into school very much; which explains why he has such a large number of tardies. Both boys are always careful as they walk through the streets to school to be alert for gunfire, they don’t want to die young like so many friends of theirs.

    Read More

  • Shame Dick Gregory

    585 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Shame” by Dick Gregory is a fantastic story because it raises controversy about the perception of the poor and about the shame it brings to people. The concept of poverty brings shame and embarrassment because the others had qualities that he didn't. This story is about a poverty-stricken little boy, who was in love with his childhood crush, Helene Tucker. Gregory was trying to impress her by working hard and giving her gifts. Richard Gregory was poor and didn't have much in life, like a daddy or anyone to look up to. In the story, the others don't know what he feels and why he's in the story, the author was having a fundraiser donation for his classroom. The author chose to one-up Helene tuckers donation by double or in that vicinity. He saved up just for that day and the teacher called for donation but skipped the author. The author felt embarrassed that he wasn't getting his donation taken up, but little did he know the donation was for him. The main purpose of this story is to show the reader that society does not

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Other Wes's Last Chance

    701 Words  | 2 Pages

    The lack of education can lead to poverty and poverty can lead to a lack of education, this is a cycle that is hard to get out of. Author Wes mother was able to go to college and get her degree. She wasn 't the first to go or the first two finished. She was able to overcome the situation poverty and found a way to go to college. This desire for college was something she gave to author Wes. She knew the public school was a bad place to be for her son so she did what she had to have the money to send Wes to Riverdale Country School. Author Wes got the schooling that had more of a focus on attending college as an end goal by attending Riverdale Country School. Since he went to Riverdale Country School he got the desire to get a degree that he probably would have never got in the public school in his neighborhood. The other Wes mother 's life was different and she didn 't put that need to get a degree into her

    Read More

  • Holden's Ambivalence In The Catcher In The Rye

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    Pencey Preparatory, a prestigious private school, only emphasizes intellectual education and ignores anything else, including personal characteristic development. For one thing, teachers’ do not regard themselves as good moral standards. Instead, their words are not matched by deeds, which bring in Holden’s query for the world. Those prestigious private schools expel students who break the rules to maintain the schools’ good social reputation. However, to expel Holden, his latest headmaster lies when he writes to Holden’s father. He exaggerates and imposes many things like “cutting classes and coming unprepared to all classes” that Holden haven’t done on him to make the expelling more reasonable (101). The headmaster’s behavior breaks the basic rules and moral codes of a teacher, but he doesn’t think he himself has any problem. The double standard make it understandable that Holden feels ambivalence. For another, the educational system in Pencey Preparatory is conflicted with students’ personality development. Students who show their own characteristic and do not meet teachers’ requirement won’t be regard as good students even they really do well. Richard Kinsella, who speak “better than anybody else’s”, is not confident and always shows nervous because no one praise him. (100) Instead, “ they were always yelling ‘Digression!’ at him, which was terrible” (100). Teachers don’t allow mistake, using

    Read More

  • Reflective Essay On Writing Lessons By Stanley Fish

    257 Words  | 1 Pages

    I did not read this short narrative just to read it. What I began to do was put myself in the shoes of the student whom

    Read More

  • Hannah Wing: A Cultural Experience

    1215 Words  | 3 Pages

    When asked about discipline at home she said that if you got in trouble you picked your own switch and braced yourself to get your butt beaten. At home their was always a consequence and you knew it. When she talked about school she said “money could get you out of just about anything”. She explained a situation in which a student got expelled, but then their parents made “some generous donations” and that student was allowed to return. “The only exception was if a girl got pregnant then the girl, not the dude, would be kicked out!” Going along with values, Lindsey said that something the school did not value that her home did was food. She mentioned that the school could mess up any food, yet at home, if Lindsey came home with good grades like an A on a test her dad would fix up a big dinner to celebrate. Lastly she talked about how school valued education versus how her culture viewed it. She went on to say that “our school only cares about grades because it reflected good on the school, but my parents value

    Read More

  • Social Class in A & P by John Updike

    372 Words  | 1 Pages

    As the student begins his essay, he points out that Sammy is part of the lower class structure. He is an “eighteen-year-old boy who is working as a checkout clerk in an A&P in a small New England town five miles from the beach” (2191). While working an afternoon shift on Thursday, he notices “these girls in nothing but bathing suits” (2191) enter the store. It is in this scene that the student begins to identify the differences between the group of girls and Sammy.

    Read More

  • The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

    766 Words  | 2 Pages

    Junior sometimes had to go to bed hungry, but that wasn’t the worst thing about being in poverty. He made a diary entry stating, “Poverty= empty refrigerator+empty stomach. And sure sometimes my family misses a meal…and hey, in a weird way, being hungry makes food taste better (8).” This really puts the diary reader in his shoes about how many times he had to go without food and starve while trying to go to sleep, simply because his family couldn’t afford it. But to Junior, being hungry wasn’t necessarily that bad. What he felt was the worst thing about his poverty was that there was no money to save his beloved animal Oscar. Oscar became really ill and Junior wanted to take the animal to the doctor, but the family couldn’t afford it. When it came down to it, his father had to put the dog out of misery, and decided to shoot him. Visualizing someone having to shoot your best animal friend is heart wrenching. Most people have been in Juniors shoes where they have a sick animal, however they never imagine having to shoot it. This comparison of being hungry and losing an animal, shows Junior’s great strength at a young age about going through poverty, and sometimes even hope...

    Read More

  • What is Poverty?

    1070 Words  | 3 Pages

    Her use of connotative language creates many harsh images of her experiences in a life of poverty, a life of poverty. By using these images, Parker is capable of causing the damage. reader to feel many emotions and forces the reader to question his or her own stereotypes of the poor. With the use of connotative language and the ability to arouse emotion, Parker successfully compels the reader to examine his or her. thoughts and beliefs on who the poor are.

    Read More

  • Impact of Poverty on the lives of Raskolnikov, Gregor Samsa, and The Samsa Family

    1264 Words  | 3 Pages

    Poverty on social conditions affects everyone in every part of the world, no matter if they are rich or poor. First of all, everyone is divided into some sort of social class. The most known classes are the economic classes- the lower class, the middle class, and the higher class. The lower class goes through arduous labor all day and night to earn decent amounts of money to provide for themselves and their families. Most likely, they are the only source of income for the entire family. The higher class works hard to keep up or raise their high social status. They also work hard so they don’t loss their social rank, which permits them to hold a higher power over the middle and lower classes. Similarities of decisions made by characters in these two literary works will analyzed to understand the meaning behind the actions and influences of the social classes on each other.

    Read More

  • Conflicts, Relationships, and Friendships in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations

    652 Words  | 2 Pages

    The main thesis or central theme displayed throughout the novel is that happiness, love, loyalty, family, human affection, and friendship are the important aspects of life, rather than social class or wealth. A prime example of this is how Joe (poor blacksmith) is much happi...

    Read More

  • The Scholarship Jacket, By Eve Bunting

    1162 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this story, a girl has had straight As for 8 years, and wants the scholarship jacket that symbolizes hard work, really badly. However, since she is Mexican, and a bit poor, one of her teachers does not want to give her the jacket. The Board decides that they would have to make Martha pay for the jacket. Despite that her grandfather has enough money, he tells Martha that he will not pay for the jacket, since it will not be a scholarship jacket any longer. Martha is very miserable, however, she does not steal the money from her grandfather. When she tells her principal what her grandfather said, the principal decides to change the rules for her and she gets the scholarship jacket. In the text it states, “ “Then if you pay for it, Marta, it’s not a scholarship jacket, is it? Tell your principal I will not pay the fifteen dollars.”..... “Okay. We’ll make an exception in your case. I’ll tell the Board, you’ll get your jacket.” ” While Martha did have enough money for the jacket, she still listened to what her grandfather had said. She made the decision not to steal the money and take it to her principal. This portrays the importance of listening to your adults because they know what is best for you and also to make wise decisions. If Martha had taken the money and given it to the principal, she would have got the scholarship jacket, however, it would have no value. Anyone else could pay for the jacket to get it, so it would not symbolize the hard work and effort that one put into the school year. Anyone could pay money and get the jacket. Martha was able to kill two birds with one stone because she was able to get the jacket without giving a single penny. Even though it is tempting to make the wrong choices that will give one what they want, taking the right

    Read More

  • From Poverty to Fame: Biography of Louisa May Alcott

    1144 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Alcott family was always struggling to survive, and often was forced to move from place to place in order to find work. Bronson Alcott was an extremely educated man, but because he had a hard time of supporting his family they were “Impoverished and often moved like vagabonds to smaller and smaller quarters” (Butos). Bronson was a schoolteacher who believed in teaching his students more than just simple memorization. For this reason, he was usually out of work, leaving his growing family with no income. However, the children never really understood just how poor they were until later on in their lives. Alcott’s family was so poor that her mother’s family, a prominent Boston family, urged her mother to disclaim her husband. As soon as she was able to realize how poor they were, she vowed that she would gratify her family by pulling them out of poverty. Alcott lived in an extremely poor family growing up, but she still had a good childh...

    Read More

  • What is Poverty Reflection

    536 Words  | 2 Pages

    The piece evokes some shock about the disparity of her situation, how little she has, and her sheer hopelessness. By describing her situation in such detail, it makes it clear she truly is poor and her situation is really that desperate. I've heard people say that no one can really be that poor in the America, they must just be too lazy to work. The author points out t...

    Read More

More about Another Holiday for the Prince

Open Document