Literary Essay In the story “Clean Sweep” written by Joan Bauer, Katie, a girl whose mother works for a cleaning company, is a dynamic character whose traits change throughout the story. At the start of the story, Katie seems to be judgemental and close-minded. She is reluctant to help Mrs. Leonardo, her neighbor with an unfortunate past, with cleaning out her attic. The two of them go through Mrs. Leonardo’s old belongings while she talks about her relationships with her family and eventually reveals that she hasn’t been in touch with any of her relatives. Katie begins to think about her sadness and loneliness, and this is where change is visible. By the end of this story, Katie becomes more understanding and open-minded. The story starts off with Katie being both upset and annoyed that she will be forced to clean out her neighbor, Mrs, Leonardo’s attic. But, she is very judgemental towards her. Her mother owns a cleaning business, therefore she must get rid of some of Mrs. Leonardo’s old belongings. She argues with her for a bit about getting …show more content…
rid of a few of her things. However, she judges Mrs. Leonardo way before she gets to know her as a person. “Mrs. Leonardo wants people there on time and working like ants. I’m not in the mood to sit with her in her dingy attic and lug tons of garbage down the stairs and listen to her stories of how her family deserted her. I know it sounds mean, but Mrs, Leonardo is a mean person.” Katie doesn’t realize she could be having a good time but she puts herself in a bad mood before she gets the chance to enjoy her time bonding with her neighbor. Once the story progresses a bit, Katie’s character is clearly beginning to change. She is becoming more understanding of Mrs. Leonardo and her feelings. At this point, she is learning more about her neighbor’s personality and notices that her emotions are reasonable. This is shown when Mrs. Leonardo pulls out a strange tablecloth that Katie questions. She thinks Mrs. Leonardo must be crazy to keep something like that so long, but, once Katie gives her the chance to speak, her perspective changes. “I’m smiling a little now because I know the tablecloths history.” After this, she understands Mrs. Leonardo’s thoughts behind all of the frustration and sadness. So, she tries to help by giving her the advice of getting back in touch with her sister. “’I think you should call her, Mrs. Leonardo’” This is a sign of her getting to know Mrs. Leonardo a bit better. By doing this, she proves she cares. By the end of the story, Katie has completely transformed into a new person.
She has finally become more understanding and open-minded towards other people’s’ feelings, emotions, and actions. She shows this by reuniting Mrs. Leonardo with her sister that she barely gets to speak with. “’ My sister, you see…’ she pauses emotionally. ’Well, she’s… coming to dinner’” Katie realizes that family is put above all. She’s no longer someone who judges people before she gets to know them. Now, the day is over and as Katie is walking home, she thinks about her father who unfortunately passed away and realizes the importance of being close to family. And I remember the book my dad would read to us when we were little about the baby animals and their parents and how each mother and father kissed their babies goodnight. …but I wouldn’t give it up for anything.“ She acknowledges the fact that family always comes before anything
else. After reading the short story, ”Clean Sweep,“ several times, I couldn’t help but notice Katie’s extreme change in character. Throughout the story, she has proved that people can change and learn from their mistakes. In addition to this, it is also clear that people can change in just a matter of time. No one can be too quick to judge, and I hope everyone can understand the lessons learned.
Tom is a very ambitious person when it comes to his work. He is caught up in getting a promotion from work by doing a project. Tom just focuses on the “big picture,” which is his future, rather than the “small picture,” which is what his wife is doing. This trait changes at the end when he decides to go to the movies with his wife. When the paper flew out the window for the second time, he realized that he can do the paper over again but he can never take back that one specific night he could have spent with his wife.
She tried to do many things to be “better” than she had been. Showering everyday to be the cleanest version herself made her feel that it enhanced her quality of life. She was doing this day in day out and even sometimes twice a day as part of her “cleanliness”. While she did not have much money, she spent her extra cash on what she felt was its place to be spent in. Herself. Her appearance. Edith had bought the nicest and most soothing scent of perfume along with a flashy wristwatch and admirable dresses in an attempt to boost her self-esteem and self-image. Amidst the scent of roses and nice clothes Edith tried to change her attitude. She refused to gossip anytime Mrs.Henderson would endeavour at gossip. Edith read beauty magazines and books about proper etiquette one of many customs she had adopted. She did this daily and accustomed to it believing that she needed to it to be the more proper version of herself as the way she wanted to execute her plan of a changed woman. Edith altered herself and the way she did many things. Although she still knew who she really was and where she came from, she refused to accept it. Along with many things were done Edith’s decisions were overthrown by her self-image on her role of a daughter
Katie’s teacher, Mr. Dubey, puts a very high emphasis on the students at Katie’s school about how important school is. Because Katie starts to feel bad for using David to get into Harvard, his attitude toward the topic changes and he tells that she should be self-serving and not really care what people say and to not "ruin the rest of your life just because you feel a little guilty right now"(74). All of these conflicting messages on what Katie should be like, how she should treat others an...
She also used a comparison, “Like a little girl, she smooths back her dirty hair and proudly puts it on” (5). She used the comparison to make the reader realize that although she is homeless, she is not any different than anyone
The theme that has been attached to this story is directly relevant to it as depicted by the anonymous letters which the main character is busy writing secretly based on gossip and distributing them to the different houses. Considering that people have an impression of her being a good woman who is quiet and peaceful, it becomes completely unbecoming that she instead engages in very abnormal behavior. What makes it even more terrible is the fact that she uses gossip as the premise for her to propagate her hate messages not only in a single household but across the many different households in the estate where she stays.
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
For so long she has been around what she saw as the destination for her life, which was success and happiness, in the lifelong family friends the Lowells. She assumed they were just given this life without ever thinking they had to work as hard as she did to get there, consequently envy and resentment ensued. The resentment started with the whole family and then got more intense and personal when it came to the daughter of the Lowells, Parker, someone Andrea could identify with on a personal level. This story illustrated for us the unseen factors and repercussions that too much ambition to be accepted by anyone can have one's long lasting development into their own person. This journey to prove who you are to others can lead to intense emotions and motives that aren’t normal yours and can cause you to lose sight of the very person you’re trying to prove that you
From the beginning of Kat’s life, she was at odds with her environment. When she was a child, she was Katherine, a doll like representation of what her mother wanted her to be. As a teenager she was Kathy, a representation of what she believed others wanted, “a bouncy, round-faced [girl] with gleaming freshly washed hair and enviable teeth, eager to please and no more int...
At the beginning of the story, the author gives us the feeling that a child is narrating this story. She also shows that the child, Sylvia, is at that age where she feels that adults are silly and she knows everything. “Back in the days when everyone was old and stupid or young and foolish and me and Sugar were the only ones just right, this lady moved on our block with nappy hair and proper speech and no makeup.” (Bambara 470) Sylvia also tells us about her environment while referencing Miss Moore. “And we kidna hated her too, hated the way we did the winos who cluttered up our parks and pissed on our handball walls and stank up our hallways and stairs so you couldn’t halfway play hide-and-seek without a damn gas mask. Miss Moore was her name. The only woman on the block without a first name.” (Bambara 470) This is our introduction to Miss Moore. She is an educated, well groomed person and the children resent her because she is different and their parents force them to spend time with her in the interest of education.
Sociology relates to this novel in so many different ways. The family in the story, Flowers in the Attic, written by V.C. Andrews, starts off as a family of procreation, a family established through marriage, which includes the mother (Mrs. Dollanger), the father (Mr. Dollanger), and the four children: Cathy (the oldest daughter), Chris (the second oldest son), Carrie and Corey (the young twins). A conflict begins when the father dies in a car wreck, so the mother and her four children must move in her rich parents estate because they have no money and nowhere to stay. After the father's death, the norms of the children changed. The norms of the children were to stay hidden in the basement by them selves because Mrs. Dollanger may only earn back the right to inherit her father's estate by falsifying that she has no children by her husband who was also her half-uncle. The original agreement was that they can leave the basement when their grandfather dies. The rules of the house were given by the dying grandfather that stated if Mrs. Dollanger was found to have children that she would be disinherited again.
...ion. Also, it was expected that if she was to move in together with Kevin, it was her who had to give up her books. She clung to her job at the agency so as not to lose her independence to Kevin who offered to get her a better job and take care of her in the meantime.
how quickly women succumb to their "roles", and how easily people can. be shaped to consider a different and all too meaningless set of morals. The sexy of the sexy. Edna is strategically alienated in the novella so as to be the
Eventually, David and Carolyn are able to relinquish the triadic relationship with their daughter, Claudia. This restructuring in the family essentially alleviates many of the problems that were the cause for the family to seek therapy in the first place. Claudia is able to break free from the well worn routines of arguing with her mother and her unwanted behaviors diminish. After removing the pressure placed on Claudia to be their source of intense emotion, David and Carolyn are left to face the daunting task of exploring and eventually reorganizing their relationship with one
Amanda, like Laura, wants Tom to strive for is full potential and be all that he can be. Their relationship is strained because Tom reminds Amanda of her husband. He just does not quite fit in with the rest of his family. He aspires to travel and see the world. He does not want to just get by; he wants to live and experience life. Amanda sees this in his and acknowledges that he has the same flighty attitude as his father. Mrs Wingfield snaps at her son and exclaims, “Oh, I can see the handwriting on the wall as plain as I see the nose in front of my face! It’s terrifying! More and more you remind me of your father! He was out all hours without explanation—Then left! Goodbye! And me with the bag to hold. He is the major breadwinner in the family. He brings in all the income and if he leaves Amanda and Laura will not be able to make it. Amanda takes it upon herself to mold Tom into the man that she wished her husband was. Of course, he takes it upon himself to be anything but. He spends every night at the movies. Tom uses the movies as a form of escape form his home life and satisfy his urge to leave and explore. He says, “People go to the movies instead of moving.” Tom is more of a realist compared to Amanda’s hopeful view on life. He knows life will never measure up to his mother’s expectations. The world has changed and he feels his mother needs to wake up. His personality is a direct contrast
...ave me a bright pink gift bag stuffed with shiny silver tissue paper to open. Inside was a shirt that read “I’M A BIG SISTER!” I put the sister shirt on and saw everything differently. “Today marks an important day and you’re going to hold your brother even though you’re nervous, you’re going take responsibility and be the best caring, loving sister you can be”, I said silently to myself.