The story is about a girl named Maya who came to America with her family a few years ago. They adjust to their new life very slowly. Maya has a lot of responsibilities such as cooking, translating, and taking care of her brother, Nurzhan.
While adjusting to America, she makes a new friend, Shannon Lui from her gymnastics team. Gymnastics is Maya’s favorite thing to do. She felt grateful when her father let her do it. She feels free to swing and flip and no worries.
When she receives a permission slip to the Spring Fling, a social dance, she is called to the office by Mr. Walsh. Nervously, she walked with him to the office. When she gets there, she learns that her brother, Nurzhan got into a fight with a boy bullying him and got suspended.
Maggie's American Dream is Margaret Comer's inspiring biography written by her son James P. Comer. It also doubles as the autobiography of James P. Comer himself. It a great story of a person overcoming obstacles to reach their goals and dreams.
Brooke L. Blower, Becoming Americans in Paris: Transatlantic Politics and Culture between the World Wars. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
She takes a job in a white lady named Ms. Cullinan’s home as a maid, who calls her Mary for her own convenience and lack of respect. This enrages Maya and in order to get away she smashes the finest china to get her fired. At her eighth-grade graduation, a white man comes to speak in front of everyone and he states that black students can only become athletes or servants which makes Maya furious. Later, when Maya develops a nasty toothache, Momma decides to take her to a white dentist who refuses to work on her. Momma claims that she lent him money during the Great Depression so he owes her a favor but he says he’d rather stick his hands in a dogs’ mouth. Lastly, one day while Bailey is walking home he sees a dead black man rotting in a river and a white man present at the scene says he will put both the dead man and Bailey in his truck. This terrifies Bailey and Momma wants to get them out of Staples so she sends them to Vivian’s again in San Francisco. There they live with Vivian and her husband Daddy Clidell who is a nice man to Maya, and has a lot of money from his businesses. One summer Maya goes to live with her father Big Bailey and his girlfriend Dolores, who are poor and live in a trailer. Maya and Dolores do not get along and constantly fight, so Maya runs away and lives with a group of homeless teens
In the second story of Drown by Junot Diaz, Yunior and Rafa have already been in the United States of America for about three years. In this story, their mother’s sister came to the United States. They travel to the Bronx in order to celebrate their aunts and uncles’ arrival. In Fiesta 1980, we meet their father and sister, and learn more about their mother. Through the way they all interact, we learn more about each family member’s characteristics and their family dynamic.
The story begins with Titas birth prematurely when Mama Elena was chopping onions. Tita grows up with Nacha the most dominant figure in her life, and follows Mama Elenas routine of cooking, cleaning and sewing. At every incident she can, Mama Elena criticizes Tita and even beats her if she tries to speak up. One day Tita tells her mother that Pedro wants to come and ask for her hand, but according to the family tradition she cannot marry because she is the youngest daughter. Mama Elena tells Pedro he can marry Rosaura- one of her older daughters, and Pedro agrees to the arrangement just to be closer to his true love- Tita.
The story revolves around the reality that Mexican girls are raised to find a man and get married. They have a mind set about having a man in their l...
This is probably one of the most moving books I have ever read in my life. It is basically a narrative story of the life of an El Salvadorian women named: Maria Teresa Tula. Maria is a wonderful storyteller and the fact the she is describing her own real life experiences greatly add to the impact of the book.
is about a murder in a small South American Village. It is based on an
Throughout my life I have always had one person who has stuck with me through thick and thin, my mother, Genoveva. My mother’s devotion was to her two daughters, she always prayed that my sister and I would have a better life then what she had and pushed through every obstacle for us. She is from Mexico, Puebla and is a very loud, assertive woman. She always believed in herself and whenever she put her mind to it, she always got the job done. She came to America in 1982 when she was just 16. Even though her journey was made from a rash decision, having to be forced to do something illegal and having to get accustomed to life in America she is just glad that she can now have a happy life with her family.
While she might think that her plans are working, they only lead her down a path of destruction. She lands in a boarding house, when child services find her, she goes to jail, becomes pregnant by a man who she believed was rich. Also she becomes sentenced to 15 years in prison, over a street fight with a former friend she double crossed. In the end, she is still serving time and was freed by the warden to go to her mother’s funeral. To only discover that her two sisters were adopted by the man she once loved, her sister is with the man who impregnated her, and the younger sister has become just like her. She wants to warn her sister, but she realizes if she is just like her there is no use in giving her advice. She just decides that her sister must figure it out by
It begins with a happy 9-year-old girl named Ling who lives in a hospital complex with her father, a very successful surgeon, and her mother, a well-known doctor. Her mother, known as Mrs. Chang, is very strict, always nagging Ling to act like a woman and to be perfect in almost every way. Ling believes it is because her mother never wanted to have a daughter. Father, on the other hand, Mr. Chang, spent much time with Ling, and got very close to her, teaching her reading and English lessons. He would
“Finally, then, I saw England, the real England, not a picture, not a painting, not through a story in a book, but England land, for the first time.”. This passage dragged me into her personal journey of reflection and realization. It made me realize the reality of when she hated England and understood the concept of the text especially when she talks about how she finally felt about England when she moved on to live there with her husband and two kids. This time she saw England in real life. “In me, the space between the idea of it and its reality had become filled with hatred” this sentence represents the result of not having a clear version about England and now her heart is filled with hatred. She illustrates the reality of England and all her thoughts about it was wrong and how she feels toward England. “so when I at last saw it I wanted to take it into my hands and tear it into little pieces and then crumble it up as if it were clay, child’s clay” she said these words as a revenge action when she was disappointed when she knew the truth.
“Women Hollering Creek” is a story about the young woman, who is brought to Texas, Seguin, from Mexico by her husband, Juan Pedro. As a teenager, she idolizes romantic Mexican telenovelas, that are part of a Mexican culture, and based on them, she created in her mind a model of her ideal life as a married woman. Therefore, when Juan Pedro appeared in her life and she is given to him by her father, Cleofilas is optimistic and positive that her novel has just begun. However, when facing the reality, she discovers instead a life of neglect, abuse, and loneliness. She is trapped by her cultural role as a wife, which leads to complete isolation. She has no friends, no vehicle of her own, no job, nowhere to go. With the lack of finance and the lack of personal freedom to arrange her own life, Cleofilas is aware of her dependence on hu...
Just like before, wishing to be a fly, Gretchen wishes to be human again. However this time she isn’t weak and shy, she is a confident like a superhero. With her sudden confidence, she confront...
Maya knows that to be black and female is to be faced with violence and violation. This is brought into focus when she goes to live with her mother and is raped by her mother’s boyfriend. When Maya is faced with this catastrophe, tells who did this to her, and the man is killed, she believes her voice killed him. She withdraws into herself and vows never to speak again. Her mother feeling that she has done everything in her power to make Maya talk, but can cannot reach her, sends Maya and her brother back to Stamps. After Maya returns to Stamps and with the help of her Teacher-Ms. Flowers she begins to speak again.