“In Country” by Bobbie Ann Mason is a story of a teenage girl, named Sam, who had lost her father in Vietnam before she was born, struggles with finding her identity. Sam takes care of her uncle, as her mother leaves to start a new life in Lexington, a few hours away from Hopewell, Kentucky. Sam believes her mother is wrong on leaving Emmett, a mentally ill veteran to fend for himself. Sam lets her mother leave and stays behind to look after him. The two of them have a unique bond. Though the pair together is happy, Emmett seems discontent with his life. He avoids social interactions, and just seems a bit out of his mind so to speak. It's as if he is waiting for something to jar him from this long rut he has been in since the war, maybe even before it. He believes himself and everything around him to be a lost cause. In regards to his house he …show more content…
Between sharp, sudden, onset headaches and publicent acne at the age of thirty-five, it is obvious that he is a troubled man. He went into Vietnam not knowing what it meant for him and his future. Despite surviving Vietnam, he finds himself suffering from trauma and not being sure of what to do with himself. He struggles great day to day, sticking to simple routines to make life more palatable, such as eating at McDonald’s every morning with fellow veterans, watching M*A*S*H on television, and worrying over his cat. Emmett is notorious for bringing the first hippies into Hopewell, Kentucky from his trip to California after he left Vietnam. He also hung a Vietcong flag from the clocktower of his town in an act of rebellion. Most people consider him a basket case. His father, who fought in World War II, does not see why Emmett cannot function as a normal man, asking him “When are you going to get a job like everybody else and stop fooling around?”. To this Emmett replies “Ain’t nothing worth doing” (45). His schtick that there are no jobs that are worth doing is a recurring
This book is about a girl name Ellen Foster who is ten years old. Her mother committed suicide by over dosing on her medication. When Ellen tried to go look for help for her mother her father stopped her. He told them that if she looked for helped he would kill them both. After her mother died she was left under her fathers custody. Her father was a drunk. He would physically and mentally abuse her. Ellen was forced to pay bills, go grocery shopping, cook for herself, and do everything else for herself. Ellen couldn't take it any more so she ran away her friends house. Starletta and her parents lived in a small cabin with one small bathroom. One day at school a teacher found a bruise on Ellen's arm. She sends Ellen to live with Julia the school's art teacher. Julia had a husband named Roy. They were both hippies. Julia and Roy cared a lot about Ellen. After Ellen turned 11 years old she was forced to go live with her grandmother. Ellen didn't want to leave Julia and Roy but her grandmother had won custody. Her grandmother was a cruel old lady. Ellen spends the summer with her grandmother. Living with her makes her very unhappy. Since her grandmother owns farmland she forces Ellen to work on the field with her black servants. Ellen meets a black woman named Mavis. Mavis and her become good friends. Mavis would talk about how she knew Ellen's mother and how much Ellen resembled her mother. Her grandmother didn't think the same. She thought that Ellen resembled her father. She also hated that man. Her grandmother would often compare her with her father. Her grandmother would torture her because she wanted revenge from her father. Her grandmother also blames her for the death of her mother. While Ellen was staying with her grandmother her father died. When her father died she didn't feel sad because she had always fantasized about killing her father. Ellen just felt a distant sadness. Ellen cried just a little bit. Her grandmother was furious because Ellen showed some emotions. She told her to never cry again. After that Ellen becomes scarred for a long time. One day her uncle Rudolph bought the flag that had been on Ellen's father's casket. Her grandmother turns him away. Later that day she burned the flag.
Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley "Scarlett" is about a southern woman who had survived the Civil War, had been widowed twice with two children. She got married again to Rhett Butler, and they had a daughter who was killed when she fell off a horse. Since the death of the child, her husband did not want anything to do with Scarlett. Rhett gave Scarlett all the money she needed, but she wanted him. Heartbroken, she went to Ireland where her father came from. She did not tell anyone in America that she was going, except for her lawyer. She met her Irish relatives, and loved them. She bought a town and a Big House in Ireland and had it refurbished. Scarlett found out that she was pregnant with Rhett's child, but before she could tell him, he divorced her and married someone else. She vowed to not tell Rhett about the baby until it was grown, even though she loved him. She told her Irish friends that she was a widow and that her two children lived with her sister on a plantation in Georgia, which she owned two-thirds of. She gave birth to a girl on Halloween and a wise old woman had to deliver her because the doctor couldn't get there. The Irish called the woman a witch and the baby a changeling because of when she was born for they were very superstitious people. They never liked the little girl and were always scared of her. One of Scarlett's cousins in Ireland was a priest, whose name was Colum O'Hara, and they had become good friends.
Dorothy May Kinnicutt was an American interior decorator. She was born in New Jersey during the year 1910. Although her nickname may suggest someone of a religious background, whose life is dedicated to prayer and penitence. Sister Parish actually got her nickname from her childhood as she was commonly referred to as “Sister”. Her older brother came up with the nickname when she was younger, because she was the only girl in a family with five children. Sister got married to Harry Parish in 1930. Together they had two daughters and one son. And as of today her granddaughter still runs an interior design company in her name.
Based on the evidence supplied by author Kent Anderson Leslie, slaves in antebellum Georgia did not always live under the oppressive system of chattel labor. According to Leslie, the rules that applied to racial hierarchy were not strictly enforced, especially when it came to propertied and wealthy planters such as David Dickson who chose to raise his mixed-race daughter at home. Amanda Dickson’s experiences during Reconstruction demonstrate that she had much more freedom after slavery was abolished than may have been expected before the Civil War. Amanda Dickson’s experiences and those of her mother in particular do not fit the presumed mold of oppressed slave with no opportunity for a better life.
My Ántonia by Willa Cather is a story of the coming of age of Jim Burden and Ántonia Shimerda. The recently orphaned Jim moves to Blackhawk Nebraska to live with his grandparents. On his trip from Virginia to Nebraska, Jim first catches glimpse of the Bohemian immigrant family who happen to be moving in near the Burdens. Because she Shimerda’s speak no english, they are quickly cheated out of their money and have moved into a small lean-to on the side of a hill. Jim’s grandmother is a very kind woman and agrees to have Jim help Ántonia learn English. The two spend much time together and go on many adventures with Jim’s pony, Dude.
JoAnn Marshall - The Roles of Southern Women, Black and White, in Society. Lillian Smith provides a description of the typical black woman and the typical white woman "of the pre-1960's American South" (Gladney 1) in her autobiographical critique of southern culture, Killers of the Dream. The typical black woman in the South is a cook, housekeeper, nursemaid, or all three wrapped up in one for at least one white family. Therefore, she is the double matriarch of the South, raising her own family and the families of her white employers: "It was not a rare sight in my generation to see a black woman with a dark baby at one breast and a white one at the other, rocking them both in her wide lap" (Smith 130). The southern black woman's duties extend far beyond rearing children, as she also serves as a family counselor, confidant, and nurse for the entire white family (Smith 129) and her own if time permits.
During the Antebellum Era, slavery was about one-third of the South’s population. The Antebellum Era was the period before the Civil War broke out. The South’s economy was booming which was credited to slavery. Their argument about slavery was that slaves were necessary and important to their economy. It would kill their economy if they got rid of slavery. Slavery was the foundation of their economy. Without any slaves, cotton would not be able to be produce. Nearly 60 % of their exports was cotton. Southerners would also point out that slaves were better working in plantations than working in a northern factory. According to them, the North had bad workplaces and long hours. They insisted that slaves were cared for and helped when they needed it unlike the North. However, slaves were still treated bad in the South. They would resist slavery in a variety of ways. For example, running away was one form of resistance. The most common form of resistance was known as “day-to-day” resistance which were
“If there is any period one would desire to be born in, is it not the age of Revolution; when the old and the new stand side by side...when the glories of the old can be compensated by the rich possibilities of the new era? This time...is a very good one.”
Adjusting back to a more civilian life was nearly impossible for veterans returning home. War became live and well inside the homes of families who housed a Vietnam veteran. Stanton Book would find himself having flashbacks of the war that he would never actually speak about. One night, after Independence Day, Eli awakes when he hears screams coming from his mother, Loretta. Immediately after, Eli finds himself in his parents’ bedroom viewing his father choking his mother. Shocked and lost for words, Eli whispers out, “Daddy” and Stanton falls to the floor (House 203). While straining to speak Loretta states, “He was asleep,” and Eli thought to himself, “I knew what she was saying, Don’t worry. He wasn’t trying to kill me. It’s all right” (House 203). The war completely took hold of Stanton’s mind and was a threat to his family. A recent study from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs reveals that, “Families of Veterans with PTSD experience more physical and verbal aggression”. Eli’s once peaceful home became the Vietnam War within itself. No longer could anyone sleep comfortably with the risk of Stanton having a mental outbreak. Throughout the novel the story is told from Eli’s point of view as ten-year-old boy, however, in the epilogue Eli is a grown man with a daughter of his own. He explains that he left
Teenage Wasteland by Anne Tyler is about the dysfunctional relationship of Daisy Coble, her troubled son, Donny, and his tutor, Cal Beadle. Instead of helping Donny with his academic career like Daisy hoped, Cal only taught Donny to disobey authority and rebel against people “with power”. In the end, Donny is expelled from his private school and is sent to public school, and then he just suddenly abandons his old home. Nobody knows where he went or why he even ran away from home.
Home is about a Korean War veteran named Frank Money who needs to save his sister from dying. The story starts with Frank describing a scene from his childhood with his sister. They were in a field with horses he describes the horses being beautiful and brutal, but on the other side some men were burying a dead African American in a hole. When Frank becomes an adult he is soon committed to a mental hospital after his time in the war. Frank soon gets a letter stating that his sister was in danger and could die if he did not hurry to save her. Then he remembers his family being evicted and not being able to take any possessions. Frank then escapes the bastion of the hospital on his way to save his sister from the mysterious person. On his way Frank Money meets many different people who offer their assistance to him because he is not wealthy. Frank makes his way to Atlanta to continue the search for is sister but is attacked by gang of thugs, who steal his wallet and hit him with a pipe. After trying to find his sister he finds his sister being an experimental patient to Dr. Beau, a doctor who conducted experiments on colored civilians. After Frank saves his sister he takes her to some friends to help her get better from the experiments. While there his sister starts to make a quilt while she got better, which they eventually laid over the man’s bones, who was lynched, when they were kids. They nailed a sign to the tree as a sign of respect showing that someone was buried there beneath the tree. Finally, after nailing the sign, Frank looks at the tree for a while thinking of everything that has happened, then his sister Cee walks over and tells him it’...
Background Known today as Madam CJ Walker that was not the name she was given on December 23, 1867. Sarah was orphaned at the young age of seven and was able to survive by working in the cotton fields of Delta and Mississippi. In an attempt to escape abuse from her sisters, (Louvenia sisters name) husband she married at the age of 14 (married Moses McWilliams). She has one daughter names Lelia, currently known as A'Lelia Walker.
A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon. A very long title for a very controversial poem about the tragic death of Emmett Till. Gwendolyn Brooks tackles the Emmett Till case in a way that has never been done before. Brooks give an artistic narrative that shows what happened in the Bryant’s household after the trial. She also challenges the reader to adopt a whole new perspective when it comes to Carolyn Bryant, the woman responsible for the death of Till. Carolyn has long since been considered as evil in the form of an entitled woman. Many people believe that she wanted Till to die because he disrespected her. That’s why she sent her husband after him. She was the reason Till was murdered in cold blood. Brooks’s poem suggest something different. She suggests that Carolyn wasn’t the instigator in this
The jostling interests that presented themselves between the political parties on the debate over slavery during the Antebellum Period (approximately between 1820-1860), led to “A Nation Divided” and ultimately to the Civil War in the United States.
Otis sat at his tattered corner booth, the pale pink and teal upholstery ripped and worn by all those who had rested there before him. His charcoal-grey hair was oily and unkept as if he hadn’t known the pleasure of a shower or a comb since his early days in the war. His once green army jacket, faded to a light grey, covered the untucked, torn, and sweat-stained Goodwill T-shirt under it. He wore an old pair of denim blue jeans that were shredded in the knees and rested three inches above his boney ankles; exposing the charity he depended upon. His eyes, filled with loneliness and despair as if he had realized a lack of purpose in his life, were set in bags of black and purple rings two layers deep. His long, slender nose was set above a full crooked mouth with little lines at the corners giving his face the character of someone who used to smile often, but the firm set of his square jaw revealed a portrait of a man who knew only failure.