In 2010, Laura Hillenbrand released a brilliant tribute to a resilient national hero, Louis “Louie” Zamperini, whose story was not widely known at the time. Fast forward four years and this tribute, Unbroken, has been made into a major motion picture and the remarkable story of the Olympian-turned-soldier has reached the masses. In the book Unbroken, which I read shortly after it was released, Hillenbrand chronicles Zamperini’s epic and, at times, terrifying odyssey. Raised in California, he was the son of Italian immigrants.…
Becoming Naomi León, written by Pam Munoz Ryan, is about a young girl named Naomi Soledad León Outlaw, who deals with lots of struggles getting through her unexpected life. Naomi, the main character and narrator, grew up in a small town known as Lemon Tree, California for most of her life. She lives with her Gram and brother, Owen, in the Avocado Acres Trailer Rancho Park. Owen was born with some health problems, however; his Gram helped him conquer those problems by taking him to a therapist. One thing that Owen likes is tape on his chest because it helps him breathe.…
In the memoir The Glass Castle, the Walls family faces many discriminations from the outside world due to their life in poverty. The one who is most impacted by this is Jeanette. During this time, Jeanette is in the fifth grade, and is being treated differently from the other kids due to her life in poverty. After lunch time, the grade goes outside, and this is the perfect opportunity for kids to pick on others. Jeanette is targeted by a group of girls who don’t see eye to eye. After they completely surrounded Jeanette, after a disagreement and the first punch thrown, the girl had seen that Jeanette had no buttons on her coat. After the girl said, “This girl ain’t got no buttons on her coat!”(p.139), she felt obligated to persist in the one-sided…
Helpless, by Barbara Gowdy, was a well written novel which kept the reader interested right until the final page. Gowdy used descriptive language, suspense, and flashbacks to develop the theme that unrequited love lasts longer than love that is fulfilled. Gowdy used descriptive language well.…
The movie Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand depicts a clear description of the experiences and struggles that those who fought in it had to endured. Timely, it also shows the effect of WWII on the relationships between different ethnicities and races as people found something in common with those they once considered as outcast of their social network. However it also created the opposite effect in which it divided people and placed them to fight against each other for a cause they themselves did not hold; it teared down relationships and friendships . Unbroken shows the changes of WII on the attitudes we had towards those who surround us, whether it was to our countrymen, immigrants or international individuals. From the start of the movie, Louie…
By Year 20 in Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel, many of the characters have found their niche in the post-apocalyptic world. Kirsten has found her place in the Symphony. Clark continuosly expands his museum in the Severn City airport. The Prophet Tyler has established a religious cult with himself as the leader. The quote “Survival is insufficient” (119), represents that, in order to truly live, people must have meaning to their lives.…
Melinda’s parents took little notice to this often yelling at her for her failing grades and her attitude not thinking anything was wrong. When meeting with the principle Melinda’s mother says, “She just jerking us around to get attention.” (pg.144) as a response for her failing grades and not speaking. Meanwhile in Melinda’s mind she wonders, “Would you listen? Would you believe me? Fat chance.” (pg.144) Although Melinda’s father suspects something is wrong he does little to act on it.…
The secret to a man is through his stomach, that’s what many naive women think, that’s simply the information out there. Food is important but it’s not the only thing that will glue a man to you. In fact not very men really cares if a woman knows how to cook or not. It’s more than cooking. But have you ever asked yourself the reasons why a man will stay with one woman and be happy?…
#1 Island of the blue dolphins #2 Eleven #3 Dragonwings What were the circumstances of the decision? Karana had to choose to either kill the wounded dog in revenge for killing her brother or help him and gain trust and a friendship with him to survive Rachel had to choose from being honest and speaking up for herself or hide in silence and cry about how the ugly red sweater is not hers, even though everyone was convinced that it was.…
Bibliography: Cisneros S, Eleven, Health Communications Inc., Deerfield Beach, FL, January, 1, 1997. (anthology), pp. 150-161.…
Taylor, Cassie, the only daughter of the Logan family, and who would rather be running barefoot than going back to school, has shown courage by beating up Lillian Jean because she was not happy about what happened in the town of Strawberry with Lillian Jean and her dad. Outside of Mr. Barnett’s store, Cassie accidentally bumped into Lillian Jean while walking out of the store and was forced to call her Miz’ Lillian Jean. Soon, Lillian’s father came by and told Cassie to walk in the streets, and to watch where she was going. So Cassie decided to get revenge on her. She had been holding her school books on the way to school for a while and told Lillian she has a secret for her. Then she beat her up at a place hidden in the forest! In the story, the author tells us,” I flailed into her, tackling her with such force that we both fell. After the first shock of my actually laying hands on her, she fought as best as she could, but she was no match for me.”( Taylor 180) This evidence clearly shows Cassie’s courageous because she tackled Lillian Jean even though she knew she was not allowed to touch a white girl because of the law back then. She believed Lillian was no match for her. This showed her courage to go out and tackle her like that even though she had to call her Miss Lillian…
Rachel gets mad and mortified that Sylvia claimed that it was Rachel's hideous raggedy red sweater when it was not. Paragraph 6-9 Rachel is not speaking up and saying “no-not-my-I do not“ she just could not speak up and say it was not hers. Paragraph 15-17 Rachel puts the hideous raggedy sweater at the edge of her desk. Then Mrs.Price tells Rachel to put the sweater on and Rachel does so. At Rachel's age, 11 she takes orders from older people when they tell her to. All of this shows that Rachel is coming of age 11, and cannot speak up and that she takes orders from older people.…
At the beginning of the journey, Helen sees Rachel as uptight and restricted, for she is not yet comfortable in her womanliness and comfortable in her identity. When Helen first encounters Rachel, she notice her that “Her face was weak rather than decided,” (13). Rachel does what needs to be done and is unable to speak her mind at the proper time. Helen also notices “a hesitation in speaking, or rather tendency to use the wrong words, made her seem more than normally incompetent for her years.” (13). Rachel’s underdeveloped social intelligence is partially due to her mother dying when she was young. The world around Rachel is unexplained to her by her father. She takes in what is around her, but has no formal education or sense of what is…
At the start of the poem, the poet uses a list to show the boy’s wide range of skills. This is show in the quote ‘’make sculptures fabulous machines invent games’’. By using the dynamic verbs make and invent we can see that the poet clearly believes in the child impressive physical capability. Moreover the word ‘’fabulous’’ highlights the fact that the reader thinks that whatever the child has made and put together is worthy of praise. This shows that the speaker is very proud of the boy.…
“Rules of the Game” was written by Amy Tan. This short story takes place in Chinatown district of San Francisco during the 1950’s. Waverly was known as the child prodigy after she grew interest of chess while her brothers were playing it one day. Her brother, Vincent, had received a used chess set that were also missing some pieces from a Baptist Church Christmas Party that her family had attended. Waverly, being six years old, learns to play chess and becomes a national chess champion by her ninth birthday. She learns the complexity of the game from a man she met on the streets.…