The novel Ashes of Roses by Mary Jane Auch recounts the story of Rose and Maureen, two young immigrant girls from Ireland struggling to make a good life for themselves in New York City in 1911. They both had their fair share of hardships, but they both overcame them and looking back it made them better. For example, Maureen is a 12-year-old problematic child. Her new experiences in New York helped her change for the better. Throughout the story, Maureen evolves from, a rebellious and problematic child, to a comforting, responsible, and independent person. At the beginning of the story, Maureen exhibits multiple childish behaviors. After a few weeks of living in Uncle Patrick's apartment, Elsa, Trudy, and Hildegarde discover Rose and her family …show more content…
Hildegarde makes some rude remarks about what happened after and Maureen loses her temper. " She grabbed Hildegarde by her potholder braids and dragged her to the floor. Then she pulled on the braids, poppin' hairpins all over the floor, and tied them together right in Hildegarde's mouth like a gag. "(100) Maureen got very upset by Hildegarde's remarks and reacts to them by fighting with her. This is a very childish and immature reaction to her anger when there were many better and more mature things she could have done instead of lashing out. When Maureen and Rose stop for food while looking for a new apartment, and she exhibits more childish behaviors. " I'm tired and hungry, Rose. Can't we stop eating? Maureen ripped herself off a huge hunk,..." (121) Maureen was hungry and tired which caused her to be in a bad mood when they were searching for an apartment. She then began to whine about how hungry she was until she got her way. When they did end up getting some food, she took a very large piece, but Rose took some back. This shows her complaining and being greedy, which are also very …show more content…
After living in Mr. Garoff's apartment for a little while, Gussie gets Rose a job at the Triangle. Rose does not allow Maureen to work because of a promise she made to Ma. After multiple days of school, Maureen complains about how she has to go to school by saying, "Well, all I know is I'm not learnin' anything in school and I might as well be earnin' some money." "( 166) In this quote, Maureen complains about the way she is treated by Rose even though she knows that she needs to be in school. She is openly complaining about Rose and shows her displeasure toward her. Weeks later, Rose sees Maureen at The Triangle. After work, she asked her where she went when she was supposed to be at school. She responded by saying, "'Who said I was on the way to school? I haven't gone all week. "( 197 ) This is very clearly her acting rebellious toward Rose by doing the opposite of what Rose told her what she had to do. She was explicitly told she was not allowed to get a job, but she got one anyway. As the story moves forward, she continues to act disrespectful toward Rose by complaining about the way she is being treated and acting rebellious by getting a job when Rose tells her not
The Orphan Train is a compelling story about a young girl, Molly Ayer, and an older woman, Vivian Daly. These two live two completely different yet similar lives. This book goes back and forth between the point of views of Molly and Vivian. Molly is seventeen and lives with her foster parents, Ralph and Dina, in Spruce Harbor, Maine. Vivian is a ninety-one year old widow from Ireland who moved to the United States at a young age. Molly soon gets into trouble with the law and has to do community service. Molly’s boyfriend, Jack, gets his mom to get her some service to do. Jack’s mom allows her to help Vivian clean out her attic. While Molly is getting her hours completed, Vivian explains her past to her. Vivian tells her about all the good times and bad in her life. She tells her about how she had to take a train, the orphan train, all around the country after her family died in a fire. She told her about all the families she stayed with and all the friends she made along the way, especially about Dutchy. Dutchy is a boy she met on the orphan train and lost contact with for numerous years, but then found each other again and got married and pregnant. Sadly, Dutchy died when he was away in the army shortly after Vivian got pregnant. When Vivian had her child, she decided to give her up for adoption. Molly and Vivian grew very close throughout the time they spent together. Molly knows that Dina, her foster mother, is not very fond of her and tells her to leave. Having no place to go, Vivian let her stay at her house.
Rose Mary was able to get her family to live with her husband’s parents but the children’s security was now jeopardized. This is because Rose Mary fails to acknowledge the negative acts of sexual abuse committed against her daughter Jeanette by her husband’s brother Stanley. In the book it states, “Mom asked if I was okay. I shrugged and nodded. ‘Well, there you go,’ she said. She said that sexual assault was a crime of perception. ‘If you don’t think you’re hurt, then you aren’t,’ she said. ‘So many women make such a big deal out of these things. But your stronger than that.’ She went back to her crossword puzzle.”(Walls 184). In this unexpected share of dialogue, the collision between perspectives begins and tension builds between Jeanette and Rose Mary Walls. Not only does Rose Mary Walls disregards Jeanette’s feeling and trauma, she sets up her position on sexual abuse for any hypothetical future situations with her other children. The acts within these moments of the memoir demonstrate Rose Mary’s unreasonable and detrimental perception on sexual abuse and ultimately she provides no support for Jeanette and places a harmful neglect on Jeanette’s feelings.. As the narrative progresses, Rose Mary Walls decides to share more of what she believes and her perspective on
5. Roberts, Edgar V., and Henry E. Jacobs. "A Rose for Emily." Literature: an Introduction to Reading and Writing. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/ Prentice Hall, 2008. 76-81. Print.
...from one another and as a result, grew up with different values and senses for what was truly important in life and what was truly necessary to survive. Jane emerged from a strict, abusive upbringing, into a well-rounded, strong-minded, responsible, and dedicated adult who triumphed in the end. Lily suffered a fate that she almost seemed destined for. Lily shares her name with a common flower. This fact may contain an aspect of symbolism in that like a dying flower, Lily’s character gradually begins to “wilt” as
Another factor that clearly brings out the theme is the fact that she claims that orderliness of family roses is her pride. However she may not necessarily be that orderly as depicted in the development of that story. The author of the story Shirley Jackson uses the author and her ambiguous cha...
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
As I read the Glass Castle, the way Rose Mary behaves, thinks and feels vary greatly and differently throughout the memoir. The immediate question that pops up in my mind is to ask whether Rose Mary carries some sort of mental illness. Fortunately, given the hints and traits that are relevant to why Rose Mary lives like that in the memoir, we, the readers, are able to make some diagnosis and assumptions on the kind of mental illness she may carry. To illustrate, one distinctive example is when Rose Mary blames Jeannette for having the idea to accept welfare. “Once you go on welfare, it changes you. Even if you get off welfare, you never escape the stigma that you were a charity case.” (188). In my opinion, Rose Mary is being nonsense and contractive in her criticism, because of Rose Mary’s resistances to work and to accept welfare, it often causes a severe food shortage within the family that all four little children have to find food from trash cans or move on with hunger, which could lead to a state of insufficient diet. More importantly, having welfare as a way to solve food shortage, it can certainly improve those young Walls children’s poor nutrition and maintain their healthy diet, but Rose Mary turns it down because she thinks it is a shame to accept welfare despite their children are suffering from starvation. Another example will be when Rose Mary abandons all of her school work for no reason. “One morning toward the end of the school year, Mom had a complete meltdown. She was supposed to write up evaluations of her students’ progress, but she’d spent every free minute painting, and now the deadline was on her and the evaluations were unwritten” (207). This is one of the moments when Rose Mary shifts all of her attentio...
The “A Rose for Emily”. Literature: Prentice Hall Pocket Reader. Third Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2005. 1-9.
The thought of her brothers still being in her former home environment in Maine hurt her. She tried to think of a way to get at least one of her brothers, the sickly one, to come and be with her. She knew that her extended family was financially able to take in another child, and if she showed responsibility, there would be no problem (Wilson, 40). She found a vacant store, furnished it, and turned it into a school for children (Thinkquest, 5). At the age of seventeen, her grandmother sent her a correspondence, and requested her to come back to Boston with her brother (Thinkquest, 6).
Her parents meet at a social gathering in town and where married shortly thereafter. Marie’s name was chosen by her grandmother and mother, “because they loved to read the list was quite long with much debate over each name.” If she was a boy her name would have been Francis, so she is very happy to have born a girl. Marie’s great uncle was a physician and delivered her in the local hospital. Her mother, was a housewife, as was the norm in those days and her father ran his own business. Her mother was very close with her parents, two brothers, and two sisters. When her grandmother was diagnosed with asthma the family had to move. In those days a warm and dry climate was recommended, Arizona was the chosen state. Because her grandma could never quite leave home, KY, the family made many trips between the states. These trips back and forth dominated Marie’s childhood with her uncles and aunts being her childhood playmates.
---. "A Rose for Emily." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 5th ed. New York: Harper Collins, 1991.
Ashes of Roses by Mary Jane Auch tells the story of Rose Nolan, a sixteen-year-old girl who immigrated to America. All members of her family returned to their home in Ireland except her twelve-year-old sister Maureen. Rose and Maureen stay in America alone and support themselves with a job at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. The factory burns down and the two sisters survive and decide to stay in America. Maureen behaves like a child, but is forced to mature quickly and act like an adult.
She lies when people ask her about questions about the man who put the card under the table cloth. When the women who has been investigating the murder of Hale, Ida Arnold, shows up at the restaurant Rose is rude to her and gets fired (Greene 150). By
Her style of writing is more contemporary and can be relatable to other readers. Alice Munro’s “The Beggar Maid” is a noteworthy short story collection about Rose, who grew up less fortunate than others and had the opportunity to educate herself after winning a scholarship to a respected university. There she meets Patrick, who is from a wealthier family, and as their connection progressed, they unified their relationship with marriage and started a family. Throughout the short stories, their relationship fluctuates. The short stories mostly reflect Rose and her experiences with not just her husband but other men and dealing with her ideal relationship.
Kaylin Riley Mrs. Henderson Composition 2 February 19, 2017 How an individual is raised can increase unnecessary hardships upon a child. A child ultimately wants nothing more than to feel loved and to be the continent with their family and themselves. A child counts on their families character and actions. Because Miss Emily was brought up into a rather harsh environment, this has affected the way she has grown into an adult. Applying this knowledge to reading A Rose for Emily, one may quickly realize the family and social problems Miss Emily has experienced.