Book Report
“My Sister, My Sorrow” by Bebe Faas Rice, explores the natural human reactions to death, sickness and love. It delves into sibling rivalry, adolescent fear and stereotypes and gives insight into how beautiful the world seems when your life is on the line.
“Leukemia is one of those diseases that creep up on you suddenly and catch you by surprise”
‘The story revolves around her thoughts and feelings towards friends, family, the meaning of life, depression, love, jealousy, cancer, etc.
During the course of the book, the reader begins to understand much about what type of Leukemia it is that Beth has. Explained by the author in lame-mans terms, it becomes simple and enjoyable. Facts and story line fuse together to make an interesting chapter. “My toothbrush in the morning looked like an accessory to a suicide attempt” the signs of cancer are explained to the reader in an interesting, informative way. Beth explains all the emotions that she feels, she doesn’t leave anything out. As the reader goes through the pages they actually understanding the feelings and the emotions that are being explained. The way she tries to explain grief to the reader is through what she sees “I’ll never forget that night, with Mum out in the kitchen, sobbing as she scraped the carrots for dinner. Artists and sculptors usually depict grief as a heavily veiled figure leaning on a tombstone, but they’re wrong. What grief really is, is a middle-aged woman with a carrot parer in one hand, la...
I always looked at death as such a sad thing that is eventually going to occur to everyone. However, after reading this book, it made me realize death can actually be a beautiful thing. Death allows a person to go to a next life, one where they will be loved and others will be there for them. It was interesting to be able to read about stories that these hospice care workers witnessed themselves. I have experienced a few deaths within my life and I never coped with them very well. After reading this book, I honestly believe I will be able to look at the positive side of death and be able to deal with my emotions better. I can also help others surrounding me deal with a death that they are experiencing. This book was filled with information that I loved learning. For example, I never knew that a dying person can choose a time to die. The thought of this never occurred to me before. I always thought that when it was someone’s time to go, they had no choice. But, a dying person can “put off” passing on until they see a certain person or event that has great significance in their life. Nevertheless, there are still people who will wait to die until they’re all alone in the room. This book makes you think of real life situations and think what you would do in them. Taken as a whole, it was a very in depth book that changes the way you would naturally perceive
...ed to confront the deep pain that she has carried in her heart; she must give an account of her life as she comes closer to the shadow of death.
I remember the first time I came to America; I was 10 years old. Everything was exciting! From getting into an airplane, to viewing magnificent, huge buildings from a bird’s eye view in the plane. It was truly memorable. After staying few days at my mother’s house, my father and I wanted to see what Dallas looks like. But because my mother was working the whole day, it wasn’t convenient for her to show us the area except only on Sundays. Finally, we went out to the nearby mall with my mother. My father and I were astonished after looking at a variety of stores. But after looking at different stores, we were finally tired and hungry, so we went into McDonald’s. Not being familiar with fast food restaurants, we were curious to try American
One of the main themes of this novel is the fight against cancer. All three of the main characters struggle with cancer. Hazel struggles with her terminal lung cancer, and Isaac has to have his eyes removed because of cancer. Augustus, who has already lost a leg to Osteoscarcoma, struggles with his cancer returning. However, they all learn through this that their cancer does not control them. They still live their lives to the fullest that they can, and make the best of what they have.
It tells the story of a woman who lives secluded in mind, body, and soul for about three months in what is a “hereditary estate” (Gilman 462) , but how she portrays to the reader as “a haunted mansion” (Gilman 463). Extremely unhappy in her current situation (a suffering woman who nobody believes is truly ill), she escapes through her writing. Having to keep her passion of writing a secret and hiding it from her husband, housekeeper, family and friends, the story has untold endings to her thoughts due to the abrupt arrival of unexpected guests. The diary helps us to see the quick, spiraling downfall and eventual breakdown of an unstable woman whose isolation from society may have encouraged her imminent disease. Through quickly written journal entries, the audience can see the unfolding of the unstable woman. This enlarges the view of the narrative because it helps show a plot line of the progression of an illness (which is the theme as a whole of the
For the readers out there who haven’t had the privilege of reading this book, let’s take a moment to recap and spill the beans on this unbelievably amazing piece of literature. It all starts out with the reader knowing the main character, Hazel Grace Lancaster. Hazel has had cancer since she was a little girl, the big part of this information is that Hazel’s cancer is terminal. She has a type of cancer that makes it almost impossible for her to breath on her own, this is known as stage 4 thyroid cancer. Sometime during Hazel’s life, her parents decided that she was depressed, so they've sent her to a support group. Hazel drags on and on about how horribly boring it is, but soon her perspective changes when Isaac, a friend from group brings ...
The story of Laura Bodey intrigued me much more than the other half of the book. This is because it was more personal. It was more than just facts. Laura Bodey is a mother of two, a divorced wife, and “in” a relationship with a married man. She has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She starts going on chemotherapy. Her body is becoming more and more weak. She has to go through several treatments. When she is almost through with her set of treatments, the doctors find that the chemo isn’t working.
Alice Sebold’s, The Lovely Bones, not only explores the grief which arises in the characters but also uses important metaphors and points of view to enable the reader to feel sympathy towards the characters who have just suffered from a loss.
My ancestors moved from Canada to America, they started living in the northern areas and worked very hard to earn food. When I was small the life was very good, all the kids of the community used to play and enjoy the time, but as I started growing up I realized that life is not just about playing around. Most of the people in my community do not know the actual meaning of life and they have spent their whole life inside a specific area and with limited knowledge. I started to find opportunities to study and learn more things that no one knows. In my quest for knowledge and curiosity to know the unknown I learned many things.
I’ve lived in Palestine the first eleven years of my life. I stayed there and went to school
They do well in steering away from the common dreadful metaphors of illness in literature by discussing them in a realistic way to conjure acceptance that death is a reality of life. They also show the impact of the use of/belief that illness as a metaphor for death and fixating on it and how it can affect one’s journey through life. This is seen in how the Fitzgerald family from The Fault In Our Stars is torn apart by not accepting the possibility of Kate’s death and losing touch of other important aspects of life which led them to become estranged. This strange family dynamic is beautifully narrated in the story in such a way that the reader feels as though they are able to read every character’s brain in the story to find out that even though they have become significantly distant, they all love each other but are unable to show it because they feel neglected compared to Kate, who they all love and are dedicated to saving. They feel as though their
“The Sun and Moon” by Chrysanthemum Ti is about a sister who just can't live up to her brothers accomplishments. Everything Ti does, she feels like she falls short of her older brother and begins to envy his talent. This competition makes her lose track of the importance of her brother in Ti’s life. She started to see her brother as a goal to beat instead of a childhood companion that is with her no matter what. Ti uses hyperbole, metaphor, and symbolism to show that competence can make people lose track of the fact that they have caring that benefit them in their lives.
But family life is difficult, to say the least, and Sabitri’s daughter, Bela, turns her back on her mother and joins her boyfriend, who must run away from India because of his politics, to marry him in the United States. Bela’s daughter, Tara, stung when her parents divorce, descends into drink and drugs. The tale begins in 1995 with Sabitri, now sixty-seven, writing to Tara, influence her to finish college. It ends, after many twists and turns in the chronology, in 2020, with Tara, about to take her mother to Sunny Hills and who, in cleaning her house, finds the photo albums. “The books are jumbled and in no chronological order.” The novel sorts its stories not by date but by theme.
Another example of grief in this story is when the woman on the train doesn’t respond to her husband asking how she is doing, the woman reacts per the following quote, “The wife, instead of answering, pulled up her collar again to her eyes, so as to hide her face.” I believe this woman has been grieving that her son is going to be sent to the front of the line for a period. She is having a difficult time with coping and coming to terms with the
My heart was pounding as I boarded my flight leaving the Bangkok International Airport. A flight attendant in a grey dress with a red bow draped over her shoulder announced; “Welcome aboard flight AA350 to the United States.” My journey began that day.