145th Block Party Paragraph In the story “Block Party” by Walter D. Mayer, the story has elements that shows the difficulties of growing up as an teenager. One way it shows is through the characters. Peaches is kind at the end of the story. After finding out about the situation J.T. and his mom were in, she decide to give them some money. Peaches gave her $200 to JT and his mom, “Big Joe got them a little place on 141 street, across from a school. It wasn't no mansion but it was cool. Then Peaches gave them her whole 200 dollars wedding gift money, which JT said he would pay back but I know he didn't have a job (150). It shows that if you did something bad without knowing, there is always a way you can fix your mistakes. Even if you can’t fix your mistake completely, it’s better to do something rather than doing nothing and …show more content…
At the beginning of the story, Peaches was really upset about her mom getting married and she let her anger out on someone else. Later on When peaches realized her mistake and knew what she did was wrong, she went to fix her action. Another example is shown through the element of conflict, it’s hard to accept something if you want to go against it. Peaches says to Squeezie, “It doesn’t have anything to do with Big Joe… I think if she loved my daddy she wouldn’t go messing around with somebody else”(140). So Peaches mom wants to get married to Big Joe because they are in a relationship, but her daughter doesn’t want the marriage to happen. Peaches thinks that it’s not right to marry someone else if they were already married before. It wasn't that she didn't like Big Joe, she just thought that she wasn't ready for such a big change. she flips out and behave in a way she shouldn't. While growing up it can be hard to accept events that you normally
She allows her mother to control her and make decisions for her. During their conversation, she asks her mom if she should marry Mr. Jones even if she does not love him. Her mother does not seem to care until Helen mentions that he is Vice-President of the company. Her mother says that she should marry him whether she loves him or not because he will be able to take care of her and Helen. They continue to discuss how Helen can marry this man that she doesn’t like so she will never have to work again and he can support her mother, or she can say no at the risk of losing her job and not being able to support her mother anymore. Helen ties in how life is making her “feel like I’m stifling!” (591). Again, I feel this is another representation of Helen not being able to handle the pressures of society. Helen can’t talk about important decisions she has to make without feeling claustrophobic and blowing up by saying things like “I’ll kill you!” (592). I think she blows up because her mother is always nagging her and she can’t handle it in that moment anymore, especially since it is a conversation about
She would mostly be alone and sit by herself being buried in books or watching cartoons. In high school she attended a program for troubled adolescents and from there she received a wide range of support from helping her get braces to helping her get information to attend community college. (59) Even with this she was already too emotionally unstable due to her family issues and felt like she couldn’t go through with her dreams to travel and even go into the art of culinary. She suffers from psychological problems such as depression and worries constantly about almost every aspect in her life from work to family to her boyfriend and just hopes that her life won’t go downhill. (60) Overall Kayla’s family structure shows how different is it now from it was in the 1950’s as divorce rates have risen and while before Kayla’s type of family structure was rare now it is becoming more common. This story helps illustrate the contributions of stress that children possess growing up in difficult homes in which they can’t put their own futures first they must, in some cases, take care of their guardian’s futures first or others around them. Again, this adds into the inequality that many face when it comes to being able to climb up the ladder and become successful regardless of where one
Alcoholism is a debilitating disease that affects an entire family. Alcoholism can cause physical and chemical changes in the diseased person, which in turn can lead to poor life choices. Jeannette's father was an alcoholic. While growing up in poverty, Jeannette's father made decisions that caused the family to suffer greatly. When Jeannette was a young child, Rex's alcoholism was better controlled. Jeannette's father could hold a job for months at a time and provide for his family the basic needs, such as food, required to survive. At one point it their lives, all the kids “lived the high life” when Rex brought home new bicycles for them. However, as Jeannette grew older, her father's disease took control of his life. Soon Jeannette's father began to lose his jobs more often, until he finally refused to maintain a job in any sense. Due to the lack of income, the family suffered greatly financially and emotionally. Jeannette and Brian were forced to eat out of garbage cans at school to combat their...
Throughout the book, Anse is constantly complaining about not having teeth. He wants them so he can look nicer and hopefully find another wife. To get the money, Anse argues with Dewey Dell because she has money that he can use. The argument ends with Dewey Dell narrating, “He took the money and went out” (Faulkner, page 257). Anse took the money so he look fancier with teeth and impress a woman from the city. Dewey Dell also struggles with herself internally for the duration of the novel. She has sex with a man from town, Lafe, and becomes pregnant. The only support he offers her is giving her ten dollars to get an abortion, which Anse eventually takes from her. Dewey Dell is forced to try and hide her pregnancy without any help from Lafe. Vardaman too struggles with the fact of being underprivileged. He wants to purchase a toy train set from a store in town, but the family can’t afford it. He is constantly nagging about it; the train set represents wealth and prosperity, but Vardaman can’t understand why the family can’t purchase it. All of these points show the internal conflicts that the characters face throughout the novel and how their needs and wants exemplify their want to escape this lower class feeling and become more alike the
They lived in constant poverty and went to bed hungry numerous times because of their parents’ lack of money. The Walls children had to fend for themselves when they wanted something to eat. This was made clear when Jeannette said, “When we wanted money, we walked along the roadside picking up beer cans and bottles that we redeemed for two cents each” (Walls 62). They probably walked for hours only making enough money to buy a candy bar that would hold over their hunger for a few hours. The children were forced to make their own money because they knew that if they continued to wait on their parents they would starve. Jeannette also explains how she used to steal food at school. She says, “During recess at school, I’d slip back into the classroom and find something in some other kid’s lunch bag that wouldn’t be missed…and I’d gulp it down…” (Walls 68). Jeannette was hungry most of the time due to how her parents lived, and out of necessity she determined that one of the best ways to satisfy her hunger was to steal from her classmates. Both examples show that the Walls children had to rely on themselves and not be dependent on their parents. Most of the time, their parents were too self-absorbed in their own dealings and they did not have time to properly care for their children. This caused the children to become self-reliant and learn the importance of standing by each other. If it was not for
“Marigolds” is about change. Collier chose a “fourteen-going-on-fifteen” (1) year old girl because the transition from childhood to adulthood adds layers of conflict to the story. The initially obvious conflict is that of the woman and child inside Elizabeth. She represents the child when she pulls up the marigolds: “The fresh smell of early morning and dew-soaked marigolds spurred me on as I went tearing and mangling and sobbing” (5). She (as the child) is struggling inwardly against being a woman. At the end of her rampage, she is “more woman than child” (1), and the child in her loses the battle. As a woman, she wins “a kind of reality which is hidden to childhood” (5). The second conflict is also symbolic. Elizabeth represents fear. She has the feeling that “ something old and familiar [is] ending and something unknown and therefore terrifying [is] beginning” (1). The marigolds represent hope. The reason for her “great impulse towards destruction” (4) was a combination of fear for the future and bitterness towards the past. In this conflict, fear wins because Miss Lottie “never [plants] marigolds again” (5). The third conflict is the most important. It takes place inside of Elizabeth and is also between fear and hope. At the end of the story, fear may win symbolically, but hope wins inside of Elizabeth: “In that humiliating moment I looked beyond myself and into the depths of another person. This was the beginning of compassion” (5).
Introduction:The road to maturity and adulthood can be a long and difficult road for teens, especially when it comes to decision making and changing your view on the world. The popular short story, “On the Sidewalk Bleeding”, written by world-renowned author, Evan Hunter in 1957, displays this perfectly. Hunter uses the protagonist, Andy, to illustrate his development from adolescence into adulthood as he shifts from a state of ignorance to a state of knowledge, from a mindset of idealism to realism and from a selfish personality to a selflessness personality. Hunter expresses the major theme of coming of age through this protagonist character who is seen shifting from a state of adolescence to a more matured state of adulthood throughout the story.
Throughout the chapter, Shipler displays an extreme liberal bias involving people in poverty. His view in this chapter is that the childhood majorly affects a person’s future. He states, “Their future is crippled by their past” (Shipler 143). This quote is somewhat true. The adolescence years are the most important in shaping a person. However, Shipler takes this idea to the extreme and makes it seem that if a person has a bad childhood, he or she will end up in poverty. One real life example he puts in this chapter is the story of Peaches. Peaches had never known her birth parents, lost her adopted family before she was five, and was forced into a foster home. Because of her dark skin she was discriminated against and also suffered from verbal and physical abuse. ...
Ever since she was a young girl. Jeannette had set high goals for herself. Since she was so advanced in school and genuinely enjoyed learning, it made sense that she would want to do big things with her life. Whether it was being a veterinarian or a geologist, her dreams extended far beyond her homes in little desert towns or Welch, West Virginia. However, because of her poverty-stricken home life, many people believed it didn’t seem likely that she would be so successful. One day, while living in Welch, Jeannette goes to the bar to drag her drunk father back home. A neighborhood man offers them a ride back to their house, and on the ride up he and Jeannette start a conversation about school. When Jeannette tells the man that she works so hard in school because of her dream careers, the man laughs saying, “for the daughter of the town drunk, you sure got big plans” (Walls 183). Immediately, Jeannette tells the man to stop the car and gets out, taking her father with her. This seems to be a defining moment in which Jeannette is first exposed to the idea that she is inferior to others. Although this man said what he did not mean to offend her, Jeannette is clearly very hurt by his comment. To the reader, it seems as if she had never thought that her family’s situation made her subordinate to those
Just as Johnny’s courage shines through so does his fast maturity from child to adult. His childhood was stolen away from him by his illness but instead of sulking he pulls himself together. He takes every difficulty in stride, and gets through them. Even when he is feeling down he hides it for he does not want anyone else to feel his pain. Being a seventeen year old boy he wants to do the things all other seventeen year old boys do.
In Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ 2006 movie Little Miss Sunshine, they depict the tribulations of a dysfunctional family trying to get their daughter to a beauty pageant, while encompassing strong portrayals of common issues in the United States today. It communicates the individual’s struggle to be perfect, as well as the difficulties of the average middle class family in society. In this paper I will analyze three characters; Olive, Dwayne, and Richard Hoover, identifying their life stages, psychosocial development, role in the family and their resiliency through the stories challenging circumstances.
The story unfolds when, “Lengel, the store’s manager” (2191) confronts the girls because they are dressed inappropriately. To Sammy, it is a moment of embarrassment and in defiance he quits his job. The student suggests that in quitting, “Sammy challenges social inequality and is a person who is trying to
In Junot Diaz’s essay “The Money” he explains where his family stands economically. Stating that his father was regularly being fired from his forklifting jobs and his mother 's only job was to care for him and his four siblings. With the money brought home by his father, his mom would save some. Her reason was to raise enough to send to her parents back in the Dominican Republic. When his family went on a vacation, they came back to an unpleasant surprise; their house had been broke into. Eventually Diaz was able to get back their money and belongings. Diaz returned the money to his mother although she didn’t thank him for it, this disappointed him. Like Diaz I have also encountered a similar situation where I was disappointed. When I was in second grade, my life life took a completely different turn. My dad took an unexpected trip to Guatemala, on his return, the outcome was not what I expected.
Throughout the commencement of the story, the main character perceives the situation as negative. When he first thinks of the situation, he envisions being confronted with anger: “Walking to the car, which you have ruined, it occurs to you that if the three teenagers are angry teenagers, this encounter could be very unpleasant” (Par. 2). As he approaches the Camaro, he sees the three teena...
Before the accident Alice’s family wasn’t rich, but they were making it ends meet with a little extra. After the accident they had to be placed on welfare just to eat at night. Alice remembers going to bed many nights hungry and also the teasing she received at school for being so skinny. Just to make this whole ordeal Alice’s siblings were split between each other and aunts and uncles. She went from having a big happy family who was making it to just having her sister to help take care of her mother who was never the same after the accident. Alice says growing up without a father has had many influences in my life. I never had someone to make sure I was treated right by boys. Alice felt this was a big reason why she got pregnant before she was married and also why her husband never treated her like a husband should. Alice felt as if she had grown up with a father she would have finished high school and would have gone on to have healthier relationships with men. This was probably the biggest shaper in Alice’s life even though it shaped her in a negative way she will never be the same