Macy Queen is the main character and protagonist in this novel. She is short for her age, with a round face, brown eyes, blond hair, and a sprinkling of freckles across her nose. Macy is afraid to speak out, thanks to the grief of her father dying, and Macy’s mother, Deborah, is also not over the grief. Deborah forces Macy to aim for perfection and appear calm and collected; “But part of my new perfect act was my appearance… I was still in front of the mirror, parting and reparting my hair… it still didn’t look right” (17). While still working at the library for her boyfriend at camp, Macy starts working for a small catering business, and finally feels like she belongs somewhere, “...I was stepping out of the careful box I’d drawn around myself all those months ago… I belonged here…” (220). With a planned summer that has some unexpected events, Macy improves relationships with new friends from the catering business, such as Kristy, Wes, Delia, Bert. and Monica, while she grows apart from Jason, her brainiac boyfriend.
The two causes of the novel’s conflict are Macy’s mother and Jason. As stated before, Deborah forces perfection and work into Macy due to the untouched grief of Mr. Queen’s death. Jason does not understand and appreciate the affection that Macy gives him, resulting in their “break” for the summer. Macy now has a more open mind about her summer, and starts working for Wish Catering unexpectedly, “Those four letters {Wish} like the ones I’d written to Jason, had many meanings and no guarantees… I put myself in gear and followed them” (59). While Macy’s summer is helping her become happy again, her mother does not approve of what she is spending her time doing (catering), thanks to her all work and no play avoidance...
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... with an uptight boyfriend, a mother who wants her to be perfect, and a job at the library that she despises. “In their minds {library co-workers}, I didn’t belong there” (44). “{Jason’s email} ‘I’m concerned that you’re not putting your full attention into the job’” (47). As the book goes on, Macy opens up, and starts working at Wish Catering all of the sudden. Also, her new friendship with Wes deepens gradually, and the process is expressed with adventures and stories that make you want to read on. At the very end of the novel, during the falling action, Macy gets over her grief and has a new perspective on what truly being happy and living your life is, shown here: “Forever was just so many different things. It was always changing, it was what everything was really all about” (374). The author, Sarah Dessen, provides closure and ties the novel into real life.
...inds love along the way. She makes rash decisions in bad situations, faces the truth that she has been avoiding, and finds her place in the world. While her journey takes some unexpected twists, Lily learns to make the best of what she has, and go for what she wants. She learns to move on from the past, and make a brighter future. But most importantly, Lily learns to accept that life is unpredictable and that by doing her best Lily is living life the way she wants to.
When Tally starts to talk more with Shay she starts to reconsider what normal really is. In the first part of the book she want to become a pretty and have a normal life like everyone else. But after a while she starts to change her mind and she is trying to avoid have plastic surgery. She is a really adventurous person and like to have a lot of fun. She falls in love with David and they save the smokes together.
...he story with the various characters. Melinda’s acquaintance, Heather works hard at finding friends and becoming popular, but in the end she turns away from Melinda. The story is about the high school years. Many times when we are growing up we can’t wait to get there because we will be treated as adults, but the truth is the problems that come along when we are older can be difficult. The various clans of students help present the theme by showing us that there are many different types of people. The popular cheerleaders, the jocks, the geeks and those who are just trying to fit in. Melinda transforming the janitor’s closet symbolizes her hiding her feelings and Melinda’s inability to speak and tell people what happened to her. High school can be fun but unfortunately through the eyes of Melinda it was a very hard time.
In "Our Secret" by Susan Griffin, the essay uses fragments throughout the essay to symbolize all the topics and people that are involved. The fragments in the essay tie together insides and outsides, human nature, everything affected by past, secrets, cause and effect, and development with the content. These subjects and the fragments are also similar with her life stories and her interviewees that all go together. The author also uses her own memories mixed in with what she heard from the interviewees. Her recollection of her memory is not fully told, but with missing parts and added feelings. Her interviewee's words are told to her and brought to the paper with added information. She tells throughout the book about these recollections.
In the first section of the book it starts off with a little girl named Tasha. Tasha is in the Fifth grade, and doesn’t really have many friends. It describes her dilemma with trying to fit in with all the other girls, and being “popular”, and trying to deal with a “Kid Snatcher”. The summer before school started she practiced at all the games the kid’s play, so she could be good, and be able to get them to like her. The girls at school are not very nice to her at all. Her struggle with being popular meets her up with Jashante, a held back Fifth ...
Perhaps no other event in modern history has left us so perplexed and dumbfounded than the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany, an entire population was simply robbed of their existence. In “Our Secret,” Susan Griffin tries to explain what could possibly lead an individual to execute such inhumane acts to a large group of people. She delves into Heinrich Himmler’s life and investigates all the events leading up to him joining the Nazi party. In“Panopticism,” Michel Foucault argues that modern society has been shaped by disciplinary mechanisms deriving from the plague as well as Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, a structure with a tower in the middle meant for surveillance. Susan Griffin tries to explain what happened in Germany through Himmler’s childhood while Foucault better explains these events by describing how society as a whole operates.
Sexuality is very diverse, in some instances normality is based on the cultural context of the individual 's society. In "The other side of desire" by Daniel Bergner, the author goes in depth into the lives of four individual 's whose lust and longing have led them far down the realms of desire. The current paper addresses the four individual 's Jacob, the Baroness, Roy, and Ron each exhibits a paraphilia that may or may not meet the full criteria in the DSM-5. Furthermore, each person’s specific paraphilia is conceptualized and explained in depth. Countertransferential issues anticipated before working with these individuals is analyzed and clarified. Also, the apprehension of sexual arousal and sexual behaviors is conceptualized into normality
In the short story, "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan, a Chinese mother and daughter are at odds with each other. The mother pushes her daughter to become a prodigy, while the daughter (like most children with immigrant parents) seeks to find herself in a world that demands her Americanization. This is the theme of the story, conflicting values. In a society that values individuality, the daughter sought to be an individual, while her mother demanded she do what was suggested. This is a conflict within itself. The daughter must deal with an internal and external conflict. Internally, she struggles to find herself. Externally, she struggles with the burden of failing to meet her mother’s expectations. Being a first-generation Asian American, I have faced the same issues that the daughter has been through in the story.
Victoria’s early childhood was a very sheltered and reserved one, her best friends growing up was her nanny’s a...
There are many policy issues that affect families in today’s society. Hunger is a hidden epidemic and one major issue that American’s still face. It is hard to believe that in this vast, ever growing country, families are still starving. As stated in the book Growing Up Empty, hunger is running wild through urban, rural, and even suburban communities. This paper will explore the differing perspectives of the concerned camp, sanguine camp, and impatient camp. In addition, each camps view, policy agenda, and values that underlie their argument on hunger will be discussed.
Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings” is an Author’s telling of societal beliefs that encompass the stereotypical gender roles and the pursuit of love in the middle class with dreams of romance and marriage. Atwood writes about the predictable ways in which many life stories are concluded for the middle class; talking about the typical everyday existence of the average, ordinary person and how they live their lives. Atwood provides the framework for several possibilities regarding her characters’ lives and how each character eventually completes their life with their respective “happy ending”.
Alexander Stowe is a twin, his brother is Aaron Stowe. Alex is an Unwanted, Aaron is a Wanted, and their parents are Necessaries. Alex is creative in a world where you can’t even see the entire sky, and military is the dream job for everyone and anyone. He should have been eliminated, just like all the unwanteds should have been. He instead comes upon Artimè, where he trains as a magical warrior- after a while. When he was still in basic training, and his friends were not, he got upset, he wants to be the leader, the one everyone looks up to.
Rose Mary is a selfish woman and decides not to go to school some mornings because she does not feel up to it. Jeannette takes the initiative in making sure that her mother is prepared for school each morning because she knows how much her family needs money. Even though Rose Mary starts to go to school every day, she does not do her job properly and thus the family suffers financially again. When Maureen’s birthday approaches, Jeannette takes it upon herself to find a gift for her because she does not think their parents will be able to provide her with one. Jeannette says, “at times I felt like I was failing Maureen, like I wasn’t keeping my promise that I’d protect her - the promise I’d made to her when I held her on the way home from the hospital after she’d been born. I couldn’t get her what she needed most- hot
In the essay “Everything Now” Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers, author Steve McKevitt blames our unhappiness on having everything we need and want, given to us now. While his writing is compelling, he changes his main point as his conclusion doesn’t match his introduction. He uses “want versus need” (145) as a main point, but doesn’t agree what needs or wants are, and uses a psychological theory that is criticized for being simplistic and incomplete. McKevitt’s use of humor later in the essay doesn’t fit with the subject of the article and comes across almost satirical. Ultimately, this essay is ineffective because the author’s main point is inconsistent and poorly conveyed.
“There’s a place for all we feel and it’s closer than it seems. Come and find your land of dreams” . The piece from Land of Dreams by Rosanne Cash truly depicts the deep, beautiful and everlasting idea of the country called the United States of America. Cash continues signing “a thousand shades of something new”, which thoroughly illustrates how each state differs from terrain to climate to even the various cultures and races. The country of America consists of 50 states with a total population of approximately 315 million, making it the third largest country in terms of population. The United States has the largest military in the world by money spent on it per capita. Their economy ranges from car manufacturing to internet technology, agriculture, and countless more in-between. Even though the development is astonishing and still rapidly growing there was once a point where everything started from nothing. One of the first Pilgrim Settlements of America landed in Plymouth. In July of 1620 a group of about 135 pilgrims left for the new world and a new start in their ship, the Mayflower. Although half of the colonists died in the winter, they slowly made progress and eventually allowed for the development to current day. Their civilization expanded from coast to coast across North America as due to the belief of Manifest Destiny. The area of California was settled mostly by Natives and Mexicans living in California called “Californios”, but the pilgrims were soon to arrive. Following the Americans winning the Mexican-American War, California was now acquired by the United States.