Family is not the same for everyone. As the reader sees in the poems, “Snapping Beans” by Lisa Parker and “Nighttime Fires” by Regina Barreca, the two families are not the same yet they play very similar roles in the lives of the main characters. In “Snapping Beans” the reader is being introduced to a young woman, who is returning home from college for the weekend. She is sitting on the front porch beside her grandmother when she is asked: “How’s school a-goin” (15). The young lady wants to tell
The narrator portrays life in Jonesville-on-the-Grande to be routine and perhaps somewhat boring. Paredes introduces Chonita to the story as a young girl stricken with poverty who symbolizes Mexican-American children and their struggles. The reader can easily visualize Chonita as being poor and deprived as the narrator describes her as “dirty and scrawny” (page 488). The narrator is a friend of Chonita’s. He, along with all of the children in Jonesville-on-the-Grande goes to the fence at Fort Jones and listens to Chonita’s speeches daily.
English 102 February 6th 2012 Silver Waters Run Deep The short story “Silver Waters” by Amy Bloom is a story about the opportunities and future of a young woman that is cut short by mental illness. The story takes you thru the emotions of a family that has to deal with the mental illness then the loss of the person. It makes you laugh and then cry as you travel down the road with them. As I read the story I ask? :”what does this make me think?” (Lynn) (20) When you first meet Rose you are immediately drawn in to the talents of this beautiful woman.
There were three types of characters in this story; Dee was the static character who remained unchanged throughout the story, Mama was the dynamic character who caused a change in others, while Maggie was the dynamic character who changed during the story. The fact that Mama knows the inner thoughts of her daughters makes her a limited omniscient narrator. She begins telling the readers that she and Maggie will wait in their comfortable clean yard for “Her” to come. By using the word her to describe the character before stating her name, Mama makes her larger than life; someone other worldly of a higher status. Mama then goes on to describe how nervous Maggie will be until her sister leaves, “standing hopelessly in corners”, “eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe.” She then goes onto reminisce about a dream she had in which she and her daughter Dee, were reunited on a talk show.
In the stay “Everyday Use ”, by Alice Walker “momma” , who is named Mrs. Johnson is excited about her daughter Dee’s visit home. Dee is returning home to visit her mother and sister Maggie. Mama is a large big boned black woman with rough working hands. Maggie and mama have cleaned the yard and the house to try to impress Dee. Mama thought of Dee as a star.
Bracelets dangling and making noises when she moves her arm… The dress is loose and flows, and as she walks closure, I like it. I hear Maggie go "Uhnnnh" (Walker 2439). She shows a very selfish characteristic and that trait is repeatedly brought out in the story. For instance, she begins to ask for things in the house like the chair and desk. Another instance is when she asks her mother for the quilts her grandmother had made, her mother said they were for Maggie; Dee's reply was, “Maggie wouldn't appreciate the quilts” and Maggie says, “Dee can have them” (Walker 2441).
Micquelyn Montgomery Bri Kneisley 3-6-12 English 90 Loving U In the essay “I want to be a Miss America” by Julia Alvarez she talks about learning to love the inner you. Alvarez’s family came from Dominican Republic to America for a better life. Being a woman Alvarez’s struggled with America’s version of a woman. Alvarez and her three sisters would watch the Miss America Pageant’s each year admiring the young ladies. As a family they would watch the shows in their parent’s room.
The main character “Mama” takes the part as narrator in telling her story of her burnt down house and two daughters named Maggie and Dee. Talks of how she saved enough money to send Dee off to school with the help of her church and how she sometimes yearns for the TV style reunion of Dee and herself. The previous is not a complete sentence. Dee is a very selfish and snooty person, she is under the impression that she appreciates her heritage
When Chencha brings ox-tail soup for Tita to drink while visiting John Brown’s home, Tita remarks, “With the first sip, Nacha appeared there at her side, stroking her hair as she done when she was little and was sick” (55). The soup brings memories of Nacha back to Tita and while she “[relives] those moments” (55), the soup accomplishes “what none of [John Brown’s] medicines had been able to do—making Tita weep” (55). This scene shows how much Nacha means to Tita; just a mere reminder of Nacha makes Tita cry tears of joy while breaking Tita from her prolonged depression over Roberto’s death. Tita further experiences joy while reminiscing about Nacha: “on one occasion Nacha had saved up her wages for a long time to buy [Tita] ‘a little movie’ she had seen in the display window of a store… What joy she felt seeing it next to her stocking when she got up in the morning” (77). She realizes that Nacha is sorely missed; Nacha’s presence brings about a kind of happiness.
In the story by Alice Walker, “Everyday Use", the mother, Mrs. Johnson, is telling the story of the day her daughter, Dee, came home from college to visit with her and her younger daughter, Maggie. The sisters both want a family heirloom that their grandmother made, a quilt, but both have different ideas about what the heritage means. At the beginning of the story, Mrs. Johnson explains how Maggie and her prepared for the arrival of Dee, they cleaned up the yard like it was part of their living room. She describes herself as large, uneducated, and with manly-type hands. Maggie was burned in a fire when their first house burned to the ground and Mrs. Johnson begins to thinks back about that day, she can’t help but feel that Dee had something