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How does a child/young person's environment affect their development
Five uses of children's literature
How does a child/young person's environment affect their development
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Jack Gladney and his family are no ordinary group of people. Jack, the protagonist of White Noise by Don Delillo, and his wife Babette live crippled by the fear of death. The couple only recently married and all of their kids that live with them come from different marriages. Wilder is the youngest, followed by Steffie, Denise, and then Heinrich. All of the children have experienced different upbringings from different parents and as a result, each of Jack and Babette’s children have unique personalities that make them distinct from each other and even their parents. The Gladney house would not be the same without the four eccentric children, who drive the plot of the novel. It is actually the children in the novel who influence Jack and Babette’s …show more content…
While in the supermarket, Steffie holds Jack's hand to console his anxiety about Wilder and Jack comes to the conclusion that the gesture is meant to comfort and reassure him. She realizes her father is upset and tries to give him confidence, which surprises Jack (Delillo 39). Jack is freaked out after Wilder disappears, and the most reassuring, calming thing he can have is his child’s support. Steffie’s sensitivity allows her personality to be heavily influenced by everything and everyone around her, specifically the media. Jack finds peace in watching his children and while at an evacuation camp for the Airborne Toxic Event, Jack watches Steffie sleep, “who peacefully murmurs, 'Toyota Celica', an indication of the gentle brainwashing of commercial television. But Gladney …show more content…
disaster, Jack is once again disturbed instead of comforted by his daughter’s choices and does not know how to react. Steffie pretends to be dead, a victim of the proposed disaster and Jack "could hardly bear to look”, questioning how she could think of herself like that “at the age of nine—already a victim, trying to polish her skills? How natural she looked, how deeply imbued with the idea of a sweeping disaster. Is this the future she envisions? … She had a history of being devout in her victimhood" (195). The thought of death does not bother Steffie near as much as it does Jack and pretending to be dead does not faze her. Jack spends the novel’s entirety trying to escape and overcome the weight his fear puts on him. Given his intense phobias, Jack cannot comprehend how his daughter can be so immune to the concept of death and imagine herself dead, especially at such a young
Jack's disgust in colored people and assertion of his hate toward Negroes impact Clare Kendry, his wife, to re-estimate her value of life. When Clare and Irene run into each other at the restaurant, Clare is confident of her `passing' and is even sorry to those who didn't do the same thing. Passing to the white society is "even worth the price" to Clare (160). She believes that wealth is everybody's final desire and by passing she achieves that in a "frightfully easy" way (158). However she doubts her confidence on her passed life since the tea party in her house.
Jack Salmon, Susie’s father, is most vocal about his sorrow for losing his daughter. However, his initial reaction was much different. Upon hearing that Susie’s ski hat had been found, he immediately retreats upstairs because “he [is] too devastated to reach out to [Abigail] sitting on the carpet…he could not let [her] see him” (Sebold 32). Jack retreats initially because he did not know what to do or say to console his family and he did not want them to see him upset. This first reaction, although it is small, is the first indicator of the marital problems to come. After recovering from the initial shock, Jack decides that he must bring justice for his daughter’s sake and allows this goal to completely engulf his life. He is both an intuitive and instrumental griever, experiencing outbursts of uncontrolled emotions then channeling that emotion into capturing the killer. He focuses his efforts in such an e...
Normally, Death appears scarier than Dream in appearance alone in popular culture. However, in this reimagining of Lady Death and the Sandman, both characters are shown in a gothic, punk style (8. 4 pages in). This style for Death makes her more approachable, losing the cloak and scythe that she is usually depicted with. Indeed, other characters’ reactions to her throughout the eighth issue is one of acceptance and in no way fear as they meet her, as if she is a friend. It helps that Death is given something for the reader to relate to within her first introduction, talking about the movie Mary Poppins (8. 4, 5 pages in). Such a classic, well beloved movie is hard to associate with the harshness of death people usually imagine. To compound this contradiction is the caring nature she displays towards her brother, asking, “What’s the matter? I know something's wrong” (8. 6 pages in). This image of Death as a person with a warmer, caring personality that watches Disney movies conflicts with the cultural norm as does Dream’s
In Don Delilo’s, White Noise different themes are shown throughout the novel. Some themes that are shown often are the fear of death, loss of identity, technology as the enemy and American consumerism. The society represented in the novel views the people as objects and is emotionally detached from many things. The culture that’s represented in the novel adds to the loss of individualism, but also works hand in hand with consumerism.
... the subject, but that it is a main fulfillment of corruptness. Delillo explores this doomsday and death leitmotif in his book, White Noise. Known to be his standout book, White Noise expresses the life a professor named Jack Gladney who fixates himself on Hitler studies. Upon this odd obsession, he gains interest from the thought of immortality. Even though Hitler is one of the most hated individuals in history, Jack believes that the amount of deaths during the holocaust belittles Jack’s own death. Since Jack and his wife, Babette, are shown to be so afraid of death, they numb their anxieties by consuming dosages of pills. Along with over dosing, the couple is often caught exchanging opinions about which of them were going to die first. Apart from the intensified anguish they would feel if the other died, this also encourages Jack and Babette’s fear of dying.
One of the main characters in the novel is Wilder, the youngest son of Babette, Jack Gladney’s wife. Wilder
We have all heard the African proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” The response given by Emma Donoghue’s novel Room, simply states, “If you’ve got a village. But if you don’t, then maybe it just takes two people” (Donoghue 234). For Jack, Room is where he was born and has been raised for the past five years; it is his home and his world. Jack’s “Ma” on the other hand knows that Room is not a home, in fact, it is a prison. Since Ma’s kidnapping, seven years prior, she has survived in the shed of her capturer’s backyard. This novel contains literary elements that are not only crucial to the story but give significance as well. The Point-of-view brings a powerful perspective for the audience, while the setting and atmosphere not only affect the characters but evokes emotion and gives the reader a mental picture of their lives, and the impacting theme along-side with conflict, both internal and external, are shown throughout the novel.
As an individual prone to abuse, King depicts Danny as intuitive and able to recognize the severity of his surroundings which could be a representation of King’s fear from his own children’s recognition. King’s connection of himself to Jack in a fictional manner acts as a source of therapy for the inner issues which he refused to acknowledge himself. His strong character development of Jack does not solely represent him as a villain, but instead deeply conveys his mental incapacities as an addict. In contrast to Jacks outcome, King’s wife is able to help him persevere through his short-comings and survive for her family while Wendy failed to release her husband from the hold of alcoholism. King uses Jack as a shell for the identity of his former self without realizing his recognition of his own disease.
Lastly, is Piggy’s murder. The boys showed no sympathy for the littlun that burned to death, having the characteristic of innocence would at least make them feel guilt. The next two were murders and the boys all had a part to play in it somehow. Being alone with just themselves forced them to find who they truly are in order to survive, which meant no rules or innocence, just survival of the
Therefore, most people are afraid of death, since they fear the unknown. But the passage also tells of people’s hope that through their religion and love, they will be able to obtain consciousness in an eternal life. The closing scene tied the ideas found in the entire play, as well as the hymn, together. Emily realized that living people do not really understand death.
Early in the novel, the Dashwood family experiences the loss of a father and husband. Emotional pain is inflicted upon each of the girls, but Elinor is still able to exert herself. In this difficult time, she is able to consult with her half-brother, receive her sister-in-law on her arrival and treats her with appropriate attention. Aware of the civilization’s expectation of propriety Elinor rouses her mother to do the same. After losing their father, the family of young women is reduced to near-poverty by the selfishness and greed of their sister-in-law, Fanny. Their father’s estate is bequeathed to their half-brother, John Dashwood, and they are left without anywhere to go. Fanny easily persuades John not to give the girls the monetary assistance that was requested from his father. Trying to convince her husband, Johnny, not to give his sisters anything, Fanny inconsiderately says that the China is, “A great deal too handsome, in my opinion, for any place they can afford to love in…Your father thought only of them… and you owe no particular gratitu...
The book White Noise by Don DeLillo traces the protagonist-narrator Jack Gladney’s gradual and astounding progress in life as he tries to conform to the postmodern world to which he belongs while trying to retain his moral and ethical principles. The book discusses the postmodern and cultural explorations in an open and Western living system that incorporates within itself a consumeristically dominant culture vibrant with supermarket-grocery shopping, globalization, mass media dependency, and anticipation towards establishing a concrete, dynamic, and self-created individuality.
But in the novel written by Emma Donoghue or the movie based on her novel, the two protagonists Joy and her five-year-old son Jack only have a poky and poorly ventilated room that bears a resemblance to a jail or damp basement where people use it to store goods. To cap it all, the only window
They are also quick to begin their family, having first a son, then two daughters, and another son. Their large country home becomes the center of family gatherings and parties, which Harriet particularly enjoys. She is worn out from her four young chi... ... middle of paper ... ... normal and pathological.
...igued with the raptures of his wife” (9). Their children provide them with companions as well as people to take their sides. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s relationship revolves around their children because without them, they would have an impossible time living alone together.