Maria stumbled home after a long day of school and work. The thirteen-year old would get up at 5 each morning to tend to the family garden and to take vegetables to the market to sell. After preparing breakfast for Papa, her mother would meet her there. Her mother promised to allow her to attend school if she sold enough vegetables to help support the family.
Her father was a lazy drunkard. He worked for the city as a street sweeper. He spent his meager salary on cheap beers at dirty bars. He would usually arrive late at night in a violent temper. Maria and her mother feared him, but they accepted things the way they were. They had never known anything else, and they never considered that things could be different.
On this particular night, Maria found her father coughing in bed. She had only ever remembered him being drunk and angry but never sick. She shuddered and ran to her mother. Mama was outside their hovel nervously tilling their small garden. Sweat dripped from her frail overworked body.
“Mama, why is Papa in bed? What is wrong with him?”
“He is sick. I am not sure what is wrong.” Mama tried to smile, but her eyes brimmed with tears.
“We must take him to the doctor,” said Maria trying to comfort her mother.
“Some days we don’t even have food to eat. How do you expect us to afford a doctor?”
Maria knew that this was true. She bowed her head and walked back inside to check on the rice. As she stirred the rice, she could hear her mother softly weeping. At that moment, she realized that Papa was probably sicker than she thought. Fear filled her heart like nothing ever had before. Even Papa’s drunken violent nights had never scared her as much as this. She wished that they were not poor. She wished that they could afford a ...
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...sorry for limiting you. Allow Maria to continue on with school. I regret everything that I have done.” He paused to wipe his eyes. “Forgive me. Forgive me,” he pleaded. Mama got up and went outside because she had lost her composure. Maria remained next to Papa holding his hand tightly.
He began to cough up blood again. Maria called Mama who came back inside quickly. Papa’s body became limp. His tight grip on Maria’s hand loosened.
“It’s my time to go,” he whispered. He closed his eyes and stopped breathing.
Maria and Mama wept together uncontrollably. Time seemed to freeze. Mama held Maria until morning. When the sun shone again, Maria woke up. Men were carrying Papa out. Maria turned to Mama. Both of their eyes were swollen.
“Mama, I am going to become a doctor. I will not let poor people die like this.”
Mama pulled her in. “I will help you as much as I can.”
Although, it is a relief that Mariatu was lucky enough to have her family with her through most of her journey, she depended on them far too much. It seemed as though whenever they were gone her emotions became overwhelmingly unstable. She trusted people she should not have, because that was the nature of family and how people were on...
Unfortunately, Maria is constantly aware of the children missing from her life and is border-lining depression. Didion shows readers many symptoms of Maria’s depression throughout the novel. For example, the narrator says “When she got home she thought about calling him [Les Goodwin], but instead she went upstairs and lay face down on Kate’s empty bed, cradled Kate’s blanket, clutched Kate’s baby pillow to her stomach and fought off a wave of the dread” (Didion 23). It is obvious that Maria is depressed; however, she cannot confide in anyone. She cannot confide in Carter because he is emotionally distant nor can she confide in her lover Les Goodwin because he is a married man. Thus, leading to Maria becoming self-destructive and unintentionally seeking an identity. For example after a party, Maria “was stopped for speeding outside Tonopah and when the highway patrolman saw the silver dress and the bare feet and the Ferrari registered to someone else” the officer found out it was indeed stolen ( Didion 154). Didion creatively shows readers that Maria is acting out unintentionally because of her lack of control over life. In fact, someone who was in his or her right mind would have not stolen a car from a famous person like the one Maria did. The people in Maria’s life Maria’s notices there is a problem and start to worry about her well-being. This is shown when
Mary Karr is the daughter of laconic Texas oil worker that her family was not really wealthy. She had difficult life but the major theme of the memoir can be how the characteristics of working class family portrays. Even though they were not rich, the “love” of family reveals in the worst of circumstances. Her childhood was very difficult compared to other kids. She was raped multiple times, but she did not tell anyone. Her parents got divorced but they went back together. Her mother was alcoholic, she got addicted to diet pills and she also tried to kill her children and her new husband, Hector. Mary Karr’s siblings did not like Hector, but when their mom tried to shoot him, they protected him. This again shows the family bond that they do the things that they think is right. Pete Karr, Mary Karr’s father, reveals as ideal working class father. He treated his children warm and likes to indulge them. He is also thrifty that does not like to waste money. As a father of family, unlike Malachy McCourt from “Angela’s Ashes” he knows what to do and tries to keep the family. He flew all the way to his children when they called him. Mary Karr constantly fights with her sister, Lecia. However, throughout this memoir, it shows that she cares her deeply. When Lecia got serious injured by a jellyfish, she was very worried about her that says “I wrapped my arms around my knees, bowed my head, and prayed to a god I didn’t trust a prayer that probably went something like this: Please let Lecia not die… Don’t let them chop off her leg either…” (Carr 115). Later in the memoir, she started to hate again. Not only just the family bonding of working class were discussed in this memoir, but the friendship of working class people were also discussed. The unofficial club that her dad goes to is the group of working class men father together and drink, talk, and discuss exaggerated stories. Mary Karr
In the opening pages of the text, Mary, nineteen, is living alone in Albuquerque. Vulnerable to love, depressed and adrift, she longs for something meaningful to take her over. Just as she is “asking the universe whether or not there was more to life than just holding down boring jobs”, she takes on the job of helping an illegal (political) refugee, José Luis who had been smuggled from El Salvador to the United States, to adjust to his new life in Albuquerque. She instantly falls in love with him and hopes to start her life over with the new aim of “taking the war out of him.”(p. 4) Providing a refuge for him, Mary, as Fellner suggests, “imagines herself to be whole and complete in the experience of love”. (2001: 72) She willingly puts José Luis as the “center” of her life (p.5) with the hope that “love would free her from her dormant condition” (Fellner 2001: ...
I looked around at everyone in the room and saw the sorrow in their eyes. My eyes first fell on my grandmother, usually the beacon of strength in our family. My grandmother looked as if she had been crying for a very long period of time. Her face looked more wrinkled than before underneath the wild, white hair atop her head. The face of this once youthful person now looked like a grape that had been dried in the sun to become a raisin. Her hair looked like it had not been brushed since the previous day as if created from high wispy clouds on a bright sunny day.
Terrible heartbreak plagues the reader: “And the mother’s shrieks of wild despair / Rise ...
The mother is a selfish and stubborn woman. Raised a certain way and never falters from it. She neglects help, oppresses education and persuades people to be what she wants or she will cut them out of her life completely. Her own morals out-weight every other family member’s wants and choices. Her influence and discipline brought every member of the family’s future to serious-danger to care to her wants. She is everything a good mother isn’t and is blind with her own morals. Her stubbornness towards change and education caused the families state of desperation. The realization shown through the story is the family would be better off without a mother to anchor them down.
When she and her Ma got home, it was almost dark outside. Frances saw something suspicious, her brother(Mike), shouldn’t be out at this time. Once they got inside, Frances and her mother tucked in all the children and went to bed themselves. Frances was still wondering about Mike, “What was he doing?” She fell asleep falling wiry of her younger brother. When she up, they had breakfast, and headed to their jobs. Frances was still wondering what Mike had done. “Was he stealing? No, their Da(father) had taught them better than that before he fell ill and died. She had never seen her mother cry until then.
...parents were much more successful in the working world encouraged him to complete many daily activities such as choir and piano lessons. His parents engaged him in conversations that promoted reasoning and negotiation and they showed interest in his daily life. Harold’s mother joked around with the children, simply asking them questions about television, but never engaged them in conversations that drew them out. She wasn’t aware of Harold’s education habits and was oblivious to his dropping grades because of his missing assignments. Instead of telling one of the children to seek help for a bullying problem she told them to simply beat up the child that was bothering them until they stopped. Alex’s parents on the other hand were very involved in his schooling and in turn he scored very well in his classes. Like Lareau suspected, growing up
Her family life is depicted with contradictions of order and chaos, love and animosity, conventionality and avant-garde. Although the underlying story of her father’s dark secret was troubling, it lends itself to a better understanding of the family dynamics and what was normal for her family. The author doesn’t seem to suggest that her father’s behavior was acceptable or even tolerable. However, the ending of this excerpt leaves the reader with an undeniable sense that the author felt a connection to her father even if it wasn’t one that was desirable. This is best understood with her reaction to his suicide when she states, “But his absence resonated retroactively, echoing back through all the time I knew him. Maybe it was the converse of the way amputees feel pain in a missing limb.” (pg. 399)
Furthermore, Mary’s father was abusive in the family home to both Mary and her mother. A lifelong criminal, who was known to commit violent armed robberies, was not a good influence for Mary. Billy was often out of work, depending on earnings form Betty to sustain the house. It must be noted that there is some question if Billy is actually Mary’s father, given Betty’s profession; chances are great that Billy was just another victimizer in Mary’s lif...
The Narrator’s family treats her like a monster by resenting and neglecting her, faking her death, and locking her in her room all day. The Narrator’s family resents her, proof of this is found when the Narrator states “[My mother] came and went as quickly as she could.
It was the middle of the night when my mother got a phone call. The car ride was silent, my father had a blank stare and my mother was silently crying. I had no idea where we were headed but I knew this empty feeling in my stomach would not go away. Walking through the long bright hallways, passing through an endless amount of doors, we had finally arrived. As we
As I walked in to their bedroom, I found my mother sitting on the bed, weeping quietly, while my father lay on the bed in a near unconscious state. This sight shocked me, I had seen my father sick before, but by the reaction of my mother and the deathly look on my father’s face I knew that something was seriously wrong.
Mare and her family lived in New York City. Her mother was a single parent who tried all her best to make sure that her children had all that the need. Sometimes Mara’s mother Shana didn’t have money, so they went to bed without food. Mara’s life was not how she wanted it to be. She wanted a big house, a father, and a happy big family.