Bethany Hamilton, a shark attack survivor once stated, "Courage doesn't mean you get afraid. Courage means you don't let fear stop you." Author, Gail Giles wrote the novel Girls Like Us about two special ed high school graduates named Biddy and Quincy. They end up living together in the real world helping out an elderly lady named Elizabeth. Though they struggle in the beginning with their friendship, a tragic incident draws them closer than they ever imagined. Despite all the struggles the girls have faced, they found their shining light through having courage and building up confidence. Courage is enhanced through the symbolic use of objects and character development. Throughout the novel, the shy and secluded Biddy, was unable to function in public situations without her coat which is symbolically used as her shield, until she realized that she shouldn't let her rape define the way she leads her life, and, with her newfound courageousness, is able to put her coat away forever. “I watched her go in the store. I walked fast and hard back to our home. I hung up my coat. I looked at it for a long time. I felt some ashamed. If Quincy had the gumption to go to work, why was I so scaredy that I had to wear my coat? I closed the closet door. I wasn’t gonna wear it no more.” (Giles 170). Biddy is the type of girl …show more content…
Biddy was a shy, secluded girl who gained the courage of going out in public without her coat despite her past. Courage allowed a reluctant Quincy turn in Robert and his friend for his heinous act. Last, going from foster home to foster home and not having a structured family in her life, Quincy accepted Biddy and Miss Lizzy into her life, which for quincy took quite some courage. Biddy and Quincy were able to overcome difficult tasks in life by having audacity to overcome obstacles they thought they would never
Moving back in with her parents was just a minor setback for her. It actually help her make a business plan, that she was able to talk over with her parents. They even agreed to front her some money to get started, but she wanted to earn her own portion first.
Authors in many instances use the main elements in the story such as setting and narrative to prove a point in the story. For example, writers often use characters, their actions, and their interaction with other characters to support or prove a theme. In the short story “Our Thirteenth Summer”, Barry Callaghan effectively uses characters to develop the theme that childhood is fragile and easily influenced. One of the ways that Callaghan makes effective use of characters to develop the theme is by describing the tension between Bobbie and his parents. This usage of characters supports the theme because Bobbie’s childhood is no longer free to do what he wishes, but has to bow down to his parents’
Question One: Doug has a difficult family life. His father behaves less like a parent and more like a bully, but in Marysville, Doug meets other adults who show him kindness and compassion. Name a few of the adult characters in Okay For Now who offer Doug guidance and instruction. What does Doug learn from them? Support your response with evidence from the text.
I was pleased to have attended a lecture cosponsored by the Ethics Center, the Fresno State office of the president, the Fresno Bee and Valley PBS. The lecture began with Dr. Castro recognizing a few leaders on campus, including a past Fresno State president, Dr. John D. Welty and campus volunteer Mary Castro. Dr. Castro then mentioned a few things about Mr. Brooks stating that he is a columnist for the New York Times and an analyst for the PBS “News Hour” and NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Dr. Brooks also teaches at Yale University, one the finest university in the country. Dr. Castro continued by saying that he learned that Mr. Brooks office hours are from 9am to 1pm and how “cool” it sounded to him. I was surprised how many people attended the event. I was fortunate to find a seat. David Brooks mentioned how he has some remote roots in the Central Valley because his father grew in Chowchilla, CA but Mr. Brooks grew in New York.
Jimmy knows too well the agonies of abandonment. First, when his mother, Cecilia, ran away with Richard to pursue a better lifestyle. Then, due to his father’s, Damacio Baca, alcoholisms and violent behavior; he also had to leave Jimmy behind. In spite of the drawbacks from abandonment to being a maximum security prisoner in Arizona State Prison, Jimmy preserver’s the darkness of prison by overcoming his illiteracy. However Cecilia and Damacio is not as fortunate as their child; Cecilia is shot by Richard after confronting him for a divorce and Damacio chokes to death after he is released from the detox center(Baca 263). Therefore the most significant event in this section of the memoir, A Place to Stand by Jimmy Santiago Baca is the death of Jimmy’s parents.
Grace has been told for more than half her life that she was crazy. Her mother’s death that she witnesses was an accident, there was no scarred man, and there was nothing she could do to change what had happened. But Grace knew they were wrong. With the help of her friends Noah, Megan and Rosie, she managed to discover that the scarred man was Dominic, the first love of her mother, who was there to kill her mother, but chose instead to stage her death. Grace came down just as Dominic was taking the picture, and picked up the gun that was lying on the floor. Firing blinding, she missed Dominic and shot her mother instead. The traumatic moment of shooting her mother was blocked from Grace’s mind as it was unable to handle what she did. Her family tries to protect her from this, saying it was an accident, trying to get Grace to stop pushing. When pushing too hard, Grace discovers the truth of what happened that night, and what she did, and with the
There are two types of Americans that are portrayed in The Ugly American. The two types of Americans portrayed in The Ugly American are the ethnocentric Americans, who believe that their ways are superior to all others, and don’t really care about stopping the spread of communism; and then there are the kind hearted Americans, who truly care about defeating communism. Through multiple characters we learn how these two types of Americans think and how they represent not only themselves, but their country.
My essay will be on how one character is dynamic throughout Okay For Now. Gary D. Schmidt is the author of Okay For Now. He tells a thrilling story about a young boy whose life changes very fast and it affects all of his family. The character analysis is on Doug Swieteck. This essay will be showing how Doug hates his life at first ,but then changes his mind throughout the book.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a 2001 film produced by Joel and Ethan Coen set in 1930’s Mississippi. The film is loosely based on The Odyssey by Homer. George Clooney stars as Ulysses Everett McGill, John Turturro as Pete Hogwallop, and Tim Blake Nelson as Delmar O'Donnell. Everett convinces Pete and Delmar to run away from prison to search for treasure. Pete and Delmar have big plans as to what they plan to do with the treasure; Pete wants to open a restaurant, and Delmar wants to buy back his family’s farm. The men have several adventures along the way and meet interesting characters. The first person they come to is a nameless man on a railroad hand cart warning the men to not seek treasure. They continue on and meet Tommy who is a black
All refugees, the circumstances notwithstanding, face immense hardship throughout their lives. In time, these hardships give way to new opportunities, dreams, and perspectives, as even in the face of suffering, one always retains their intrinsic self. Kim Ha, the protagonist in Thanhha Lai’s Inside Out and Back Again, experienced this through her family’s daring escape from war-torn South Vietnam. Consequently, Inside Out and Back Again serves as a fitting title for her story.
The Coen Brothers’ film, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, is loosely based on Homer’s famous Greek epic, The Odyssey, in that certain features in the film resemble those found in Homer’s epic, but the film still reveals its own sense of originality by making it more relatable to the modern world. While The Odyssey is set in Ancient Greece and O Brother, Where Art Thou? is set in the southern part of the United States during the 1930’s, the works are similar in following a protagonist who encounters setbacks on his journey home. Through the heroes’ struggles, both pieces of work reveal similar themes of humility, loyalty, and perseverance. The Coen Brothers’ film’s lack of important epic elements sets it apart from The Odyssey. Class
when they don't have the full story. Girls Like Us by Gail Giles shows just how different someone can be from the way the world sees them. Girls Like Us tells of Biddy and Quincy, graduates of their high school’s special ed program, who are paired together as roommates in their first experience of the world on their own. Initially, it seems like a bad set up because the two couldn’t be more different. Quincy is very skeptical of the everything and is always ready to fight, while mild mannered Biddy is too scared of the world to leave her house. But as they face their pasts and new problems together they realize that they might have more in common than they thought
In the novel Catch Me If You Can by Frank William Abagnale, Frank is a well defined static character. Even though he faces different challenges throughout the novel, he remains the same a the end of the story as he was in the beginning. Being said this, he still continued to run away from his problems and did cons. He is a confident individual who ran away from home at a young age to find a life for himself. Frank is a smart, young and charismatic boy. During his early teen years, his parents started to go through a divorce, which left him torn between whom to choose to stay with. After learning about the divorce that was about to take place, Frank decides to runaway. Frank states, “One June morning of 1964, I woke up and knew it was time to go.
The book I chose to interpret, I Like Myself by Karen Beaumont, introduces a young girl who has become confident in who she is. Being confident in who one is something that most children deal with some point in their life. Within the book, I identified themes such as self-acceptance, self-esteem, and individualization that relate to Erickson’s psychosocial stages of development, William James’ theoretical approach to the self, Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems theory, and Harter’s Self-Perception theory.
An event that had a big impact on Shy was when the man committed suicide by jumping off the boat. As Shy’s friend, Rodney, said, “You were thrashing around in your sleep, bro. You dreaming about the jumper again?” (Pena 14). This event affected Shy because it was all he could think and care about. Shy could never get his mind off of this horrible event that happened to him days after his first day of work. A character that affected Shy’s growth was Carmen. Even though Carmen was engaged Shy had a huge crush on her. As the author explained Shy’s emotions, “The girl looked so good it made his heart hurt. A few strands of thick brown hair in her face. Full lips and dark eyes. He did his best to keep his eyes on her eyes so she wouldn’t think he