This influenced her greatly and got her started on a bad track in life. She made bad choices and could of made better choices by moving with her parents or staying at a steady job where she wasn’t selling herself for money. The fact that she was colored
It is amazing that only through great hardships, such as Esch having to fight Manny and her finding out that she is pregnant, could she receive true insight. Unfortunately, Esch’s blindness cost her her childhood and possibly a natural relationship with someone her own age. Blindness can normally be defined as the inability of one to see, but according to Fuertes and Ward, blindness is not only a physical impairment, but also a “mental flaw” that can consume someone and can be rather “unfortunate”. One of Ward's more subtle themes in her novel, Salvage the Bones, is that of blindness. Esch, the main character and heroine of the award-winning novel by Jesmyn Ward that portrays the life of a rural Mississippi family before, after, and during Hurricane Katrina, embodies Ward’s theme of subconscious blindness, by showing it to be the primary cause of Esch’s bad decisions and self-loathing.
At the beginning of the novel it is revealed to the reader that Mariam does not feel loved and accepted by her mother, her conflict with Rasheed leaves her feeling worthless and insignificant. Ironically; she ultimately finds love and acceptance with Aziza who like her is a “harami” and has been conceived out of wed lock.
Lena’s mother is dead and Marie’s left the family when she was a child. Despite the fact that Marie’s friends and father don’t approve, Lena and Marie become friends. They provide each other with an outlet to discuss issues and feelings they haven’t been able to express before. Lena has a secret about her home life and Marie can’t help her no matter how much she wants to. The author, Jacqueline Woodson, does a tremendous job at flipping stereotypes and allowing others to walk in someone else’s shoes.
In Walker’s story Dee is so far removed from her family and her sister that the story ends with no hope of resolution. While Dee is trying to forget her past and assume a new identity “Not Dee; Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo”, Maggie is happy with her heritage, in spite of her sister judgments and insults “You should try and make something of yourself Maggie… (Walker 1337) It’s a new day for us but you would never know that from the way you and mama live. The story ends with Dee leaving with her new clothes, new name, nose turned up, and a broken relationship with her family. In Baldwin’s story the narrator (Sonny's brother) initially sees little value in his Sonny however as the story progress he realizes that although Sonny may not have the education and material things that he has, he has a god giving valuable gift (Music) “freedom lurked around us ad I understood that he could help us be free if we listened (Baldwin 80).” And in spite of all the negative things that have occurred in Sonny’s life, through music he is able to rise above it all. This realization creates a newfound bond between the brothers and the stories ends with a promise of a new unbreakable
Paige Cooper 12/12/08 English 1B, Anna Mantazaris Lucy Grealy had the misfortune of at the age of nine being afflicted with a disability that was written all over her face and with being intelligent enough to know how different her life was because of it. Lucy would never know the bliss of ignorance. She completely understood what society perceived as beauty, that she once had it and had since lost it, along with her childhood and chance at a normal life. Lucy Grealy’s memoir Autobiography of a Face takes the reader through her lifetime of internal and external struggles with her disease and her desire to achieve perfect physical beauty. Lucy’s idea of beauty is external, her mothers internal.
Throughout her foster homes, she was forced into child labor, starved, and even shot at with a gun by one of her foster mothers. Also, she had lost the most precious blessing one could have in one's young life, the warmth and affection of a caring parent. She grew up missing such a vital factor that greatly influences and shapes a young teenager's life. The novel's gripping and tragic story has ironically changed the way I see the world to the better. Instead of seeing the ugliness life sometimes forces upon people, I have been revealed the beauty that exists when a truly caring family is present.
Monique states, “You know, Alexis, this is what keeps me alive – the power of words. Words live forever they point out the right direction and express feelings simply without removing what complexity exists in them. The words you were never able to find explain your suffering – the absence of those words prevented us from growing together” (14) this quote clearly illustrates the struggle between Monique and her partner Alexis. Due to the absence of Monique’s father and mother, Monique grew as a very lonely child. Now as an adult Monique has a hard time adjusting from only being in her own company to sharing and being with someone other than herself.
It is obvious that Lizabeth is miserable and despises her own hometown. Never once throughout the story does she speak of Maryland in a positive manner. It is apparent that Lizabeth longs and desperately desires better: “there must have been lush green lawns” (135). Poverty holds the minds of the children of her community captive, and they feel trapped. The children in Lizabeth’s dusty community do not even comprehend that there is an entire world outside of rural Maryland.
Her mother on the other hand, means so much to her, she doesn't want her to be alone. She decides to desert her dream, she still lives with Grandma, much like a dependant child, yet she knows Grandma would suffer from great loneliness without her” (Bloom, Harold. “List of characters in Lost in Yonkers. p67-68). Bella’s guilt caused by her mother’s fear of loneliness has left her short of any male relations.