John Green, a well-known American author, vlogger, actor, and editor, once said, “That’s always seemed so ridiculous to me, that people want to be around someone because they’re pretty. It’s like picking your breakfast cereals based on color instead of taste.” Everyone is born different, but there are always those people who just look better than others, or in other words, more popular, and most people just try to hang out with them. However, there are also people like John Green who do not care about being popular. He once stated that it is “ridiculous… that people want to be around someone because they’re pretty”, which really means that he has never been popular and thinks kissing up to popular kids is just obscured. However, being unpopular …show more content…
In the beginning of the story, Heather, a new girl at Merryweather high school, has no friends, just like the narrator of the story, Melinda. It is the first day of school, and Melinda, who is currently in the auditorium, explains: “I grab a seat. Another wounded zebra turns and smiles at me… ‘I’m Heather from Ohio’ ” (Anderson 5). When Melinda calls herself and Heather “wounded zebras”, she really means they are both isolated and feel a little nervous. Heather introduces herself to Melinda which shows her desire to make friends. At this point in the story, Heather is just starting to get familiar with the new environment. In other words, she is not popular at all right now and is desperate for friends. As the story progresses, Heather become close friends with Melinda, but she eventually meets the popular girl group, the Marthas. She tries to get rid of anything or anyone that will keep her from fitting in with them, including Melinda. This is clearly shown when Heather says to Melinda during lunch, “ Look, you can’t eat with me anymore” (Anderson 107). Heather does not seem sorry at all for ditching Melinda. “She neatly wraps her trash into a wax-paper ball and deposits it in the garbage can” (Anderson 107). When Heather “wraps her trash… and deposits it in the garbage can”, it seems as if she is also throwing Melinda away. This reveals the fact that Heather thinks Mel will only become an obstacle in her long journey towards popularity, so she “gets rid” of her. She clearly believes that popularity is valuable, thus she tries to perpetuate this social construct or fit into
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls takes the reader on an adventure through the Cherokee country. The setting takes place in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri or Oklahoma during the 1920’s. Most of the story is set in the wild outdoors and in the country home of Billy Coleman. The story has an inspiring but sad tone. Wilson Rawls tells a story of a boy, his hounds, and true love.
In the text “Seeing Red: American Indian Women Speaking about their Religious and Cultural Perspectives” by Inés Talamantez, the author discusses the role of ceremonies and ancestral spirituality in various Native American cultures, and elaborates on the injustices native women face because of their oppressors.
Little Girls in Pretty Boxes and The Scarlet Letter. Both authors persuade the reader to feel pain of the stories subject. In Little Girls in Pretty Boxes the author used pathos and interviewing to share the stories of these overly dedicated youth. Joan Ryan wrote to show how these young, talented, sophisticated women can hide the harsh reality of the sport. In her biography she listed the physical problems that these young girls go through. They have eating disorders, stunted growth, weakened bones, depression, low self esteem, debilitating and fatal injuries, and many sacrifice dropping out of school. Whereas the Scarlet Letter is a fictional drama that uses persuasion and storytelling to involve the reader. Nathaniel Hawthorne discusses
In the novel “Windflower” by Gabrielle Roy, we are introduced to Elsa Kumachuck, a young First Nations girl living in a small town characterized by its bare, inhospitable environment and a community divided between the Inuit people and the Caucasians. As the plot unveils we are given a graphic scene where our protagonist is raped by an American man. The pregnancy, which is the result of the sexual assault, produces a child who becomes the focal point of the novel as well a source of marvel for many of the inhabitants of the town. As Elsa tries to raise the child alone she finds it difficult to resist the influence of the community they are stuck in: from the boy’s ethnicity, to her own heritage but most significantly her setting. Whenever Elsa
‘An individual’s interaction with others and the world around them can enrich or limit their
The author Eugenia Collier of the story “Marigolds” uses diction, connotation, and imagery to touch the hearts, and create pictures in the minds of her audience. One example of when diction is used was when the author wrote “Old witch fell in a ditch picked up a penny and thought she was rich.” The story “Marigolds” is a true story based on actual events that occurred in the author Eugenia Collier’s life. When the author wrote this, she showed how rude and childish her young self once was. By doing this, the author Eugenia Collier is able to emphasize the big change of when she transitions from a childish 14 year old, into a more mature young adult. Also, one example of imagery used in this story “Marigolds” was when the author Eugenia Collier,
Heather was a new student at Merryweather High School, and she instantly made friends with Melinda through sitting in the same seat on the bus on the first day of school. Melinda excepted Heather, who will soon betray her later in the book. The lunchroom is where Heather tells Melinda that they can not be friends anymore. On page 105 in the book Heather says to Melinda, “‘When you get through this Life Sucks phase, I’m sure lots of people will want to be your friend. But you just can’t cut classes or not show up to school. What’s next—hanging out with the dopers?’” This is where Heather states her reasons towards leaving Melinda. The only thing Heather did not mention is that in order to be in the group the Marthas at school, she can not be friends with Melinda anymore. Heather would rather be popular than be a good friend to Melinda, who accepted her when she was new. Also, on page 107 Heather rejects Melinda and tells her she can not hang out with her anymore. Heather says this to Melinda: “‘Look, you can’t eat lunch with me anymore. I’m sorry. Oh, and don’t eat potato chips. They’ll make you break out.’” This quote is very important because it helps explain why Melinda was able to stick up for herself. Because Heather was so harsh on Melinda, the next time Heather needed something Melinda could say no. Finding her voice after so long that it had been missing was an important event that happened to her. To add on to Heather breaking her friendship with Melinda, she was left with no one to talk to. When Heather and Melinda became friends in the beginning of the year Melinda finally had someone to be around, speak to, and motivate her. Because Heather and Melinda are no longer friends Melinda is affected in a bad way. Melinda goes back to being the outcast of the school, being depressed, and closed off.
In this short story Marigolds by author Eugenia Collier the narrator, Lizabeth, has chosen to retell a story as an adult reflecting on a significant incident from her childhood. In this story the main character Lizabeth lives during the great depression and describes her experiences like when she says “the brilliant splash of sunny yellow against the dust” (paragraph 1). This describes the marigolds and there beauty against the brown, dry, and ugly ground that they had during this time. I also think they added this because they wanted to really make shore that the reader could really understand how much the marigolds stand out. During this time of age with Lizabeth her father was the leader in the home and I could tell that because
The short story “Greenleaf” by Flannery O’Connor tells of Mrs. May, an old, bitter, and selfish woman. She thinks badly of everyone around her, including her own two sons. It also compares her family to that of the Greenleaf family, who Mrs. May sees as inferior to her. O’Connor unveils the story of Mrs. May and her demise through the use of point of view, character, and symbolism. She uses the third person omniscient view to give the reader a sense of Mrs. May’s character, and the symbols of the bull, and the conflict between the bull and Mrs. May to show Mrs. May’s destruction as well as give the story a deeper meaning of God’s grace.
Alice Walker uses the narrative element of imagery to craft a powerful story in “The Flowers” by using very descriptive sentences and singular words. She uses these to clearly depict the setting, characters and many other aspects of her story. To begin, in the very first paragraph , Walker writes, “ The harvesting of the corn and cotton, peanuts and squash, made each day a golden surprize that caused excited little tremors up her jaws.” Here, the author is able to create a scene in the fall, that further helps the reader imagine the joyful scene the story starts off with. Walker uses words like, golden, surprize, and excited to how how Myops attitude reflects a sense of pure innocents. Next, the quote, “Myop watched the tiny white bubbles disrupt the thin black scale of soil and water that silently rose and slid down the stream.” shows how Myop is happy and has childish innocents. Words like, tiny, bubbles, disrupt and many more used in the quote, help to convey more images of the tone of this story. Finally, as the story’s mood and tone begins to change, there is one quote that stands out. “It was the rotted remains of a noose...now blending into the soil. Around an overhanging limb of a great spreading oak clung another piece.” Walker uses this quote to depict a new sad and gloomy mood change and to show that Myop found the body of a man who had been lynched. Here, the author has also conveyed that this new mood will continue as Myopic innocents degrades. Lastly, the final words in this short story, “And the summer was over.” creates a powerful, descriptive ending. These examples show how the author, Alice Walker used the narrative element of imagery to show how the story, “The Flowers” turns from a cheerful, happy mood at the beginning, to a gloomy, unpleasant mood at the end.
Although the spectacularly precipitation-filled winter did not erase the effects of many consecutive years of drought in California, still, the Dedecker Native Plant Garden had its own show of blooms this year. The pinks and purples of lupines and penstemons shown through in spring and became a flush of golden yellows of rabbit brush and goldenrod by autumn. More than 40 species, native to the Eastern Sierra, of flowering herbs, grasses and shrubs were planted in beds surrounded by a natural vegetative community of perennial shrubs including, big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) and four-wing saltbush (Atriplex canescens). The amount of water this past year likely revived many species
Innocence is as delicate as a flower petal. A strong wind, a curious animal, a cold
John Kusch’s “Red Lily” seamlessly weaves together the arts of poetry, music, and imagery to concisely convey their respective meanings to his audience. By composing together these three forms of media Kusch creates a more compelling commentary on his subject of love and death than a work which would utilize only one. Primarily, the pain of lost love and love’s fleeting innocence have a greater impact on the audience when paired with the atmosphere musical and visual supplements bring.
The short story “Marigolds” by E. Collier is a story about a girl who becomes a woman after she destroys Mrs. Lottie’s Marigolds. She is still ignorant about her situation in life until she hears her father crying because of the Great Depression. She and her family lives in a minuscule town in rural Maryland in 1930. She is still a girl that likes to play with the children in the town and all of the children despise Mrs. Lottie’s Marigolds because of its perfect beauty in the shanty town.
After odd exchanges, Charlie gets scared and act weird. The women call others to help her causing Charlie to run away.