In the book “Out of the Dust” by Karen Hesse, Billie Jo is the main character; a fourteen year old girl who has had to deal with an exceptional amount of loss. She has lost her mother, brother, one of her close friends, and so much more. Billie Jo has to go through her normal life even after dealing with the loss of her mother. Billie Jo takes about her and her pa stating, “We are both changing, we are shifting to fill in the empty spaces left by Ma.” (76) Loss is something experienced by most people. However, even though it is a hard thing to deal with, everyone has to keep strong and keep going through all of the sorrow. Billie Jo shows loss throughout the entire book. Starting with her best friend, Livie. Livie had left with her family to head to the west course with Billie fJO’s desire to head west to get “out of the dust:, her first reaction is to get jealous of Livie. Everyone deals with their loss in a certain way depending on the situation. With this particular loss, most people probably would have reacted the same way if they had the same passion to get out of the dust as Billie Jo did. Livie was one of Billie Jo’s best friends, and losing her was hard. Unfortunately, this was the first of many “set backs” or “losses” to say the least. …show more content…
This is probably the biggest loss throughout the entire book. Before her mother’s death, her pa had left a pail of kerosine by the stove, which was mistaken by her pregnant ma as a pail of water used to make coffee on the stove. As the pail caught on fire, so did Ma’s apron, resulting in her Ma being scorched by the pail of kerosene that was thrown on her accidentally by Billie Jo. Billie Jo’s hands were burned severely swell. Her mother passed away leaving Billie Jo to live alone with her father and a boat load of
In the Lilies of the Field by William E. Barrett, Homer and Mother Maria both display straightforward, hardworking, and stubborn character traits. Firstly, Homer and Mother Maria both display a straightforward personality by being brutally honest about their opinions. For example, when Mother Maria asks Homer to build a chapel, Homer speaks his mind by telling her he does not want to build it. Mother Maria shows her straightforward behavior during Homer’s stay at the convent. One morning, when Homer sleeps in late, Mother to becomes extremely upset and is not afraid to show how she feels about him. Secondly, both Homer and Mother Maria display a hardworking spirit. Homer is a hardworking man because after finally agreeing to build the chapel,
In Frank Beddors, “The Looking Glass Wars” a lot of things happen that are bad. There are lots of good things too. The story is about the “Myth” of Alice Liddell stepping through a looking glass into Wonderland. The topic of this essay is the Truth of the story. The purpose of this paper is how Loyal or devoted some people are to white imagination
The Power of an Author Authors have the ability justify the worst actions. Authors have a way of romanticizing certain situations in order to convey a specific message. A good author has power to influence the reader into believing whatever it is the author wants. When it comes to the story of Hannah Dustan, authors such as John Greenleaf Whittier have romanticized her captivity story along with the actions she took throughout her journey. Introducing a character that will be seen in the story is one of the most vital parts when creating a piece of literature.
The characters in Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones are faced with the difficult task of overcoming the loss of Susie, their daughter and sister. Jack, Abigail, Buckley, and Lindsey each deal with the loss differently. However, it is Susie who has the most difficulty accepting the loss of her own life. Several psychologists separate the grieving process into two main categories: intuitive and instrumental grievers. Intuitive grievers communicate their emotional distress and “experience, express, and adapt to grief on a very affective level” (Doka, par. 27). Instrumental grievers focus their attention towards an activity, whether it is into work or into a hobby, usually relating to the loss (Doka par. 28). Although each character deals with their grief differently, there is one common denominator: the reaction of one affects all.
The childhood of Frances Piper consists of inadequate love, loss of innocence and lack of concern, ultimately leading to her disastrous life. As a six year old child, she encounters several traumatic events, explicitly the death of her loved ones and the loss of her innocence. Over the course of one week, there have been three deaths, two funerals and two burials in the Piper family. “Frances was crying so hard now that Mercedes got worried. ‘I want my Mumma to come ba-a-a-a-ack.’”( McDonald 174). As a young child, there is nothing more upsetting than losing a mother. A family is meant to comfort each other to fulfill the loss of a loved one; however, this is not the case in the Piper family. Mercedes, only a year older than Frances, tries to console her even though she herself is worried. The loss of motherly love and affection has a tremendous impact on her future since now her sole guardian, James, expresses no responsibility towards her. Instead, he molests Frances on the night of Kathleen’s funeral to lessen the grief of his lost daughter. As a result “These disturbing experiences plague Frances with overwhelming feelings of low self worth and guilt that haunt h...
The play “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry has many interesting characters. In my opinion, the most fascinating character is Ruth because of her many emotions and captivating personality. She goes through extreme emotions in the play such as happiness, sadness, anger, stress, and confusion. Ruth is very independent, firm, kind, witty, and loving.
Throughout the novel, loss is one of the main underlying messages. Billie Jo and her father experience countless losses from the beginning to the end. On loss was Billie Jo’s best friend Livie. Livie’s family ends up moving to California at the beginning of the book. Hesse writes, “Livie Killian moved away. I didn’t want her to go. We’d been friends since first grade”(8).
In the book Ask the Dust by John Fante, the main character Arturo Bandini, is a 20 year old Italian American from Colorado who comes to Los Angeles in hopes of becoming a famous writer. Arturo is very talented and can become the next big writer but faces many obstacles that stop him in his tracks. Things like his own immaturity and desire for acceptance impair his ability to achieve his dream. In the beginning of the book, Arturo is very immature and lets his desires get the best of him, but at the end of the book he becomes more objective and mature. The growth of Arturo is astounding and can be separated into stages of development. He comes to a realization that you can 't just be stuck up on something but you have to be able to move on.
Looking back on the death of Larissa’s son, Zebedee Breeze, Lorraine examines Larissa’s response to the passing of her child. Lorraine says, “I never saw her cry that day or any other. She never mentioned her sons.” (Senior 311). This statement from Lorraine shows how even though Larissa was devastated by the news of her son’s passing, she had to keep going. Women in Larissa’s position did not have the luxury of stopping everything to grieve. While someone in Lorraine’s position could take time to grieve and recover from the loss of a loved one, Larissa was expected to keep working despite the grief she felt. One of the saddest things about Zebedee’s passing, was that Larissa had to leave him and was not able to stay with her family because she had to take care of other families. Not only did Larissa have the strength to move on and keep working after her son’s passing, Larissa and other women like her also had no choice but to leave their families in order to find a way to support them. As a child, Lorraine did not understand the strength Larissa must have had to leave her family to take care of someone else’s
While it may seem that society’s restrictions continually halt the way one progresses in life, the ability to defy the odds and overcome them truly defines a person’s courage. This fact is evident in the novel, All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr, where an orphan named Werner is continuously forced to participate in cruel Nazi practices because his enrollment in the Hitler Youth is the only way he is able to get the proper education to become an engineer. Similarly, in Keeping the Faith, directed by Edward Norton, a local rabbi named Jake is restricted from publically dating his childhood best friend, Anna because of the fact that she is not Jewish. First off, characters originally alter their views and behaviour due to their circumstances,
writing -- was a compensation for loss, especially the loss of her father. She seems
Don't you think that Billie Jo and her family had a rough time? Because i think they did they lost so much and it was just terrible for all of them her friend left, the plants died, and her mother died with her little brother, so now that you know what they've been through you surely should feel sorry for them all just listen to how bad this paragraph about the whole life of Billie Jo and i bet you”ll think that it sad for all the people that had to go through with all this.
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
tragedies that befell her. She is an example of a melancholic character that is not able to let go of her loss and therefore lets it t...
A loss is defined as a feeling of grief when deprived of someone or something of value (quoted from oxforddictionaries.com). Everyday we experience a loss of one kind or another. It could be the loss of time, the loss of memory, or just the loss of personal belongings. However, these losses are very minor and don’t affect us in a significant way. Many works of literature explore this feeling. In the poems ‘Once Upon a Time’ by Gabriel Okara and ‘Mother in a Refugee Camp’ by Chinua Achebe the heartfelt, negative loss of culture and identity is revealed. Similarly, ‘Catrin’ by Gillian Clarke and ‘Mother Any Distance’ by Simon Armitage, look at the loss of a child along with the loss of identity. The loss of identity here, however, could be argued as being positive unlike the stereotypical view of a loss being negative. Finally, ‘Piano’ by D. H. Lawrence and ‘04/01/07’ by Ian McMillan also explore the loss of a loved one, their mothers. This loss is expressed as a heartfelt and distressing one.