Every time Toph is talked about in the book the sense of adoration lingers as Eggers tells his story. His brother who he raised is his main pride. Eggers had practically shaped and modeled him. There is also admiration for youth in general. Eggers seem a bit scared to grow old.
This journey is one of realisation and the pathway to maturity. This can be discussed in many different scenes from the movie. The most important thing to pete during the journey are his spiritual beliefs and ways learnt from his grandfather Jubbi. Before the journey pete was just a young boy, messing around with his best friend kalmain, believing his grandfathers 'old' ways were useless, and thinking he could look after himself but couldn't. The journey put pete into realisation that everything his grandfather had taught him had saved his and kalmains life.
The voice of Frank shows the immaturity of him during his childhood. That juvenile voice magnified the intensity of the book and grabs a hold of the readers attention. Frank McCourt, it seems, intended to write this book for anyone who has lived, or is living a hard childhood. This audience could relate with what he went through. I think Frank is trying to teach that the struggles that you go through only make you stronger when you have to face the world.
In the book, Gary talks about how his television images motivates him to have a way out of Fresno and it kept him fighting to find away out of poverty. He fought for a place where he can plan his roots and be accepted for who is. Gary also had many family conflicts but the biggest one was with his step dad. Gary’s lack of education and being mistreated in school made him think that his future was going to be living in Fresno the rest of his life like his parents did. Gary wants to break away from poverty and keep the next generation out of working in the fields or factories.
The problem with Bone is that he is scared of his stepdad. Bone’s stepdad threatens him by saying some nasty words to him like, as he says “all the time he said he’d cut off my d*** if I told” (pg. 196). I think what makes bone leaves his family is that he doesn’t want anyone to know about the times when his stepdad abuses him. He is afraid of what the society would think of him just like when he says “no one’d believe me” (page 296).
Adam has finally has his father and son moment with one of his children that he is grateful to express himself to his son Cal. By saying he trusts Cal he has gain even more love and forgiveness for not being with his children for many years. Plus, Adam is able to not be like his father but instead be the opposite with just one of his children. Cal – “He though sardonically of telling him about his mother, to see how he would handle I, but he withdrew the though quickly. He didn’t think Aron could handle it at all,” (Steinbeck 586).
He named himself a “scholarship boy”; a student with poor resource coming from an uneducated family who live in a foreign country but who has an enormous desire to improve himself. Unfortunately, to achieve his goal he forces himself to get apart from his own culture and his family. The miss of education of his parents was not helpful for him until the point that he felt dissatisfied and embarrassed of them. Even thought, they were always behind him; to make his success possible, “they evened the path” he said (627). His parents’ goals were really admirable.
In both stories, the father figures are the people who lead the families to solve their problems. In Guest’s novel, Calvin Jarrett, Conrad Jarrett’s father, plays a big role in healing his family. He really wants Con to heal and become himself again after the accident. With Con’s attempted suicide, Cal is sparked to rethink his life. He questions
These adversities caused Pelzer to feel alone as a teen. He was placed into foster care and moved around to different families until he settled down with one family in a place Duinsmoore Way. There he met the Brazell family which he spent most of his time with them and met his two best friends David Howard and Paul Brazell. Life was better for Pelzer but still very stressful as he reached the dreaded age of 18. When he turned 18, Pelzer was cut loose from foster care and was to go alone in the world.
Darkness soon arises though as Dick Gregory meets his teacher. To him, she thought that he was a stupid child. She didn’t think he was kind, helpful, or special. Of course, this may not be the case at all. In Greg’s story, his teacher skips him in turn for the community chest.