Analysis Of The Book 'Make Lemonade'

Important has a different meaning to everyone, because everyone has different important things in their life. For some people, it is their family, or their friends, or something they love to do. For LaVaughn in Make Lemonade, by Virginia Euwer Wolff, the thing most important to her is her education. LaVaughn is a 14 year old girl who babysits for college money because her mom does not have any. Her main babysitting job in this book is for Jolly, a teen mom who is struggling to work and take care of her kids. LaVaughn goes through ups and downs with Jolly and tries to help her -- but one thing sticks with her the whole time: throughout Make Lemonade,

LaVaughn, the main character in Make lemonade, also has a greatly changing identity throughout the book as well. Unlike Jolly, LaVaughn has a mother, but similarly to Jolly she doesn’t have a father. This may contribute to LaVaughn’s identity changes throughout the book since she does not have a fatherly figure in her life. Although with LaVaughn her identity is more affected by how others view her, and not by how she feels. We get one of our first looks into LaVaughan's identity shortly after she talks to Jolly about having the job.

LaVaughn, on the other hand, is a fourteen year old whose priority is to get good grades in school and to go to college. She wants to go to college in order to move out of her unsafe neighborhood. LaVaughn states, “that’s why the word COLLEGE is in our house... it’s what will get me out of here” (Pg 11). Going to college is very important in her household since she will be the first in her family and in her building to extend her education further. LaVaughn demonstrates her maturity and responsibility when she offers to babysit two sloppy, drippy kids in order to raise money for college. At her babysitting job, LaVaughn grows fond of Jeremy and Jilly although the job isn’t doing her much good because she is “too tired to study and keep her grades up”, according to Myrtle and Annie. She is very diligent, determined, and caring. LaVaughn is looking after Jolly and guiding her on the right path, even though she is way younger.

In today’s society, family is often attempted to be organized within a social structure. Within this structure family typically is consisted of mom, dad, daughter, and son. However, many families do not fit into this configuration. These families may include same sex couples, separated or divorced families, extended families, or even blended families. Even though these families may be happy and healthy, to many they are not considered real families. Going along with the topic of imperfect families, both Barbara Kingsolver and Richard Rodriguez try to break down the traditional family structure through their writing. While Kingsolver’s “Stone Soup” and Rodriguez’s “Family Values” explore the ideas of different family structures and traditional American values, “Stone Soup” breaks down what an actual family is like while “Family Values” expresses the value of family in different cultures.

Do you know someone who had to sacrifice their education because the had children before graduation? Have you ever met someone who’s biggest goal is to make it to college? These are two examples of what characters are going through during the novel. Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff, is a story about the financial struggles some people have to to go through in life. It is also about how you have to step up and help these people if you are in a better position than them. Throughout the book there are a few very obvious themes. One is the fact that the characters want education in order to achieve their dreams and benefit their lives. They know that it will help them later in life.

What is a family? As a young child, Kingsolver played in her room with a toy set called “The Family of Dolls”, which served as the perfect example of what a “real” family is: “four in number, who came with the factory-assigned names of Dad, Mom, Sis, and Junior.” She always ended up comparing her family to this perfect idea of a family that she played with. As a grown-up Kingsolver went through divorce herself, creating a “broken” home for her child. Kingsolver experienced the abnormalness and society’s ideals pushed through her head. But although her family was

While the issues regarding poverty are addressed in both the books Make Lemonade by Virginia Wolfe and “South of the Slot” by Jack London, each author has a very different view of the life of the lower class. In “South of the Slot” the lives of the lower class are heavily romanticized while Make Lemonade provides a more grounded and unsettling look at the struggles of the lower class. In "South of the Slot” the protagonist Freddie Drummond is a wealthy sociologist who becomes fascinated with the carefree way of life of the impoverished workers he studies. Make Lemonade on the other hand is written from the perspective of Verna Lavaughn, a penurious student who attempts to look after a young mother Jolly who is struggling to raise her children

Author and sociologist, Dalton Conley, is a Caucasian boy who grows up in a predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhood in the Lower East Side of Manhattan during the 1970’s and 80’s. In his book, Honky, he tells us a unique view through a young boy’s eyes uncovering the way in which individuals are perceived in social reality, and how some groups of people are classified. He also speaks about how some groups get better opportunities and privileges then others. This book is a very powerful autobiography, according to his book, written by, “not your typical middle class white male.” (prologue, p. xiii) He goes on to say that he is middle class, even though his parents didn’t have any money and that he is a white boy, even though he grew up in an inner city housing project where mostly everyone was Black or Hispanic. Dalton speaks about his experience as a white boy exploring his definition of race and class and saying that, “race and class are nothing more than a set of stories we tell ourselves to get through the world, to organize our reality.” (prologue, p. xiv) He describes his childhood as a “social science experiment, Find out what being middle class really means by raising a kid from a so-called good family in a so-called bad neighborhood.” (prologue, p. xiii)

There is a big connection between our family and our identity. Family shapes us into the person we become and takes a big part in developing our identity. No matter if their influence is life changeable or not, their presence in our lives is enough to create changes. In the book, Hunger of Memory, Richard Rodriguez described his life as a Mexican-American trying to adapt to the new ways of life and how this has cause him to become distant with his family. On the other hand, in the essay, “The Love of My Life”, the author Cheryl Strayed discussed the affects her mother’s death had on her and her outlook in life. Both authors can relate in terms of the importance of how family helps in shaping one into the person they become. Although identities can be self-built, our families are important in the process because they provide the support needed to build and find identity.

An example of how her family values each other is her description of the conventions and norms of her family. They are thoroughly supportive of one another, attending every graduation, baby shower, birthday, and house warming party. Her father and siblings have burial plots together so that they are never separated. Life is lived with everyone being connected and concerned for not only each person’s well-being, but happiness as well. She says her “relatives form an alliance that represents a genuine and enduring love of family…”

The Moore family is a family that is made up of three generations, starting with the grandparents, parents, along with the children. The Moore family also consist of multiple racial groups, such as African American and Caucasian that causes divided within the family because of the cultural differences within each group. The Moore family is made up of Jessica, Caucasian mother, Ed, African American father, Derrick, adopted African American son, Terrence, Jessica’s biological biracial son, and Debbie, Ed’s biological biracial daughter. With the listing of the both husband and wife along with the children, it is clear that this family has encounter a few life transitions, trajectories, cohorts, turning points, and life events. Understanding life course perspective will assist with understanding the family dynamics that are displayed within the Moore family. Life transitions, trajectories, cohorts, turning points, life events, along with other terms will be defined and discussed to fully examine the Moore’s family behavior and life events that guided their family’s development. With all of the issues that the Moore family has encountered both Jessica’s and Ed’s marital problems may be seen as the core of their family’s dysfunction, therefore, this will be explained under the life course perspective.

This change in environment changes how Jolly and LaVaughn see Jolly’s apartment. Before Jolly went to school she thought that partway done was good enough (130). Once she starts going to school, “the dishes are stacked neat and orderly, the counter doesn’t have yuck in the cracks” (143). Readers can see that this a major change in her identity after going to school. Their apartment was originally disorderly and messy, but now it was cleaned and done completely with dishes done rather than lying in the sink. Not only does Jolly’s identity so does LaVaughn’s. LaVaughn starts to speak up to Jolly about one about something and Jolly does not sit there and take. Jolly shows LaVaughn that she has a problem with wanting to change people (131-3). This is a part of LaVaughn readers had not seen yet. Jolly shows readers that LaVaughn has a problem with wanting to change people but that is just a part of her identity. Jolly also shows readers that part of LaVaughn’s identity is that she is clueless of her actions and what she shows people with her actions. Without being in this environment, readers would not have learned this about LaVaughn’s identity. Not only does Jolly’s apartment show new parts of LaVaughn’s identity, but also the neighborhood shows new parts of Jolly’s identity. Being in the bad neighborhood that she is in changes Jolly’s

Jalapeno bagels is about a boy named Pablo whom cannot decide what to take to school for International Day. He wants to bring something from his parents’ baker. He wants something that represent his heritage but he cannot decide what to bring. His mother who is Mexican baked pan dulce and change bars. His father who is Jewish baked bagels and challah. Both of the bake good were good but while helping his parents with the bakery on Sunday morning, Pablo made a decision on what to bring. He decided to bring jalapeno bagels because they are a mixture both of his parents and just like him too. The multicultural representations in the story line is Mexican and Jewish. The pictures that were drawn in the book, the family has the same color of skin even though the parents are different cultures and the main character is mixed. There were no different skin colors.

In every home, there is a different definition of family and how family should treat each other. Two short stories were read by an author named Flannery O’Connor. “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. It was about a dysfunctional family who encounters a criminal named “The Misfit”. The grandmother which is the main character is very judgmental towards others and sometimes her own family at times. This story starts off with a disagreement on where to go for a family trip, but they decide on going to Florida for the family trip after a while of arguing. On this trip, it showed what type of family they are. They talk about everything with one another as well as bicker and fight but at the end of the day, they are still family and love each other. They come together the most in panicking situations such as the accident and waiting for a car to help them. The point of this paper is the theme of family. Specifically, family is a theme in this short story because it depicts a dysfunctional family; the family you see on a crazy television show and can’t get enough of because they’re funny but also they have serious moments. There 's the two troublesome and annoying kids, the hot-headed dad who tries to maintain control of a situation and fails, the wife busy attending to the baby, and the grandmother, who 's a case all to herself (and also the main character). Though the story starts out seeming like a comedy, it takes a serious turn when the family encounters a criminal, who kills them

What is family in your opinion? Family can be a source of support, compassion, optimism, love and happiness, but family can also be a cause of depression, betrayal, hurt and pain. Family is not always determined based on having the same DNA but it is the relationships that people can make or have with one another. Family can consist of several different people like, friends, co-workers, classmates, a community, etc... Some family members can be your worst enemies because they have the most information of secrets to bring a relative down. Being able to trust a person, depend on them, and be carefree is a person that can be valued as being a part of a family. In the movie Little Miss Sunshine, their dysfunctional family is loving, supportive, optimistic and motivating. The movie is filled with humor about a modern middle-class family that is about to encounter a financial catastrophe but in the midst of their struggles they still find the beauty in life and the meaning in life. The beginning of the movie Richard, the father is giving a motivational speech about winning, he states “There are two types of people in this world, winners and losers”.(Little Miss Sunshine) Richard is a protagonist motivational speaker that is obsessed with winning. He is so consumed with achieving that he ridicules his family for not being perfect throughout the film. Richard trying to build up the ideal life or what he thinks is the ‘American Dream’ around himself. He chooses to ignore aspects of the life around him that he sees as unacceptable or out of sync with his ideal lifestyle, trying instead to fulfil his role as the authorative head of the family and provider. Sheryl is the mother who is optimist, she is always giving words of encouragement even when Richard is trying to bring down his family and she is all about being truly honest. Frank is the brother of Sheryl whom at the beginning attempts to commit suicide due to a broken heart and losing his standing as Americas pre-eminent Proust Scholar. Dwayne is the son of Richard and Sheryl and is committed to joining the air force. He also is very committed that he takes a vow of silence until he gets into the air force, but then he finds out he is color blind and breaks his