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The girl on the train character analysis
Literary essays mother daughter relationship
The girl on the train character analysis
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Christina Baker Kline is a very innovative author. She addresses many things in her books and most of them have a deeper meaning to them than what we might see at first. It takes a little more than just a once over for us to understand what is truly hidden in the story behind her words. In “Orphan Train”, this is exactly case. In this book, Kline goes through a detailed account of two different stories; one of a teenage girl in 2011 and the other of a young girl from Ireland in the 1900’s. Both of these stories are of hardship and tragedy, and Kline didn’t skip over a single detail. In the description of her motivation for writing the novel, Kline describes that she is interested in how people’s stories reveal who they are, intentionally or not. She definitely shows this in her novel. We can see, both with Molly and Vivian’s lives, how their stories have shaped them to be who they are. Kline begins showing …show more content…
This threw Molly into foster care and, much like Vivian, shaped her life into one of uncertainty. She went from home to home and never knew what was gonna come next. Nothing was ever guaranteed for her. This life of running and uncertainty occurred because Molly lost so much at a young age and had to live at the mercy of other people for most of her life. Kline wanted to tell a special story when she wrote “Orphan Train”. That is exactly what she did. She took a moment in history and someone’s life story, and turned it into an eye opening and revealing book. Through her book and her words, she was able to reveal so much about two very similar people. Some of it she revealed directly, other things we had to look past her words and discover the secrets woven into the pages. We learned so much about Molly and Vivian through Kline, and I definitely think she achieved her goal of telling the story of someone
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.
Growing up Mary Karr didn't have a “stable” childhood. Her parents Pete and Charlie had many obstacles they faced throughout their life. Pete, who worked at a graveyard at the oil refinery was an alcoholic. He would drink every day, whether it was at home or with the liars club, he always had a drink in his hand. Charlie, who dealt with many illnesses such as an anxiety disorder and being a hypochondriac was not the best role model in Mary and Lecia life. At only 2 years old, Charlie almost died of pneumonia. After surviving that, she wasn't a normal kid, she had many issues.
The story takes place in 1949 at a time where streetcar were starting to get replaced by Buses cars. This changing period and culture had influences on the book. Throughout the book, Calvin describes the grievances of his father about the streetcar disappearing. As a result Calvin’s father despises buses and cars to death. “They’re cutting eighty cars off the lines immediately and everyone's on probation. There’s going to be no more streetcars. No more streetcars”(108). This shows the reason he hates buses and cars is because the appearance of new transportation is taking away the job. At the time there are many people who complained because it was affecting them financially. Also St. Paul had the nicest street car at the time and it came as a shock to some when they realized it will soon not be used. On the other hand, the time was not a good period for a person like Gretchen. Child protection was not good as nowadays and as a result both Gretchen and her sister suffer immensely. While talking to a police officer Calvin says, “‘Her sister told the police once, but they didn’t believe her. Then he did something real bad to her, and she went crazy, ended up in an insane asylum”’(129). This shows that police department were not sensitive when it comes to child abuse at that time of period. Their non cooperativeness or neglect to help a child under parental abuse really affected people like Gretchen and her sister. Gretchen’s sister informed the police to help her but her father figured she contacted them and he did unspeakable things to her. Gretchen fears the same thing might happen to her because the police will not believe her. To certain extent, the setting does play major role in the book. One of the emerging theme in the book is doing good for others and the author shows there is no cultural, time or place restriction to do good for someone. No matter the situation, we
Frances Piper’s change in nature can be seen the day of Materia’s, her mother, funeral. She cannot control the laughter that escapes her while the funeral proceeding is happening. However she is amazed when James and Mercedes, her sister, think that she is crying. In that moment of her life, Frances learns something “. . . that will allow her to survive and function for the rest of her life. She finds out that one thing can look like another . . . Some would simply say Frances learned how to lie” (142)...
The starting point of this book shows how much she hates Ms.Leone and complaining about her current situations. For example, in one of her first entries, she talks about when she got in trouble for coming home late from school. Her foster parents think she is doing drugs, so they search her. After that they lock her in the laundry room. ...
...re the reader is not able to make any solid connection with any of these characters. It is arguably only through the stories foreshadowing where both authors prepare us with little details like the mileage of the car written down by the grandmother in O’Connor’s story likewise the boys preparation of the stones in Jackson’s Lottery that would inevitably help the reader to comprehend how both these author’s reached the horrifically shocking climatic endings in both short stories. I believe the authors similar use of these three variables help the reader to understand the message being delivered through these stories of the human condition and its effects on a society that only embraces its traditional moral beliefs and values.
The journey that Kat takes through the story, from a person defined by others to a person without definition, is somewhat of a birth in reverse. In the story the character of Kat is defined by the conflicts she faces and her inability to adequately deal with them. The more Kat attempts to find herself within the parameters of her society, work and relationships, the more she becomes lost. It is the conflicts that bring Kat to a moment of clarity as she is left broken and abandoned. It is in this state that Kat is able to lose her name and begin to reconstruct herself apart from the influences of others. Without a name Kat is now the blank canvass onto which she hopes to paint her final masterpiece.
The war time childhood events Penny and Primrose encounter result in psychological traumas such as parental abandonment. These two girls in particular endure psychological trauma of isolation, neglect, and displacement that begins when the two girls begin walking with the other children to climb aboard the train. The two young friends set off at the ...
Ms. King masterfully downplays the importance of the little convent girl by not giving her a name, even the steamboat captain and crew members refer to her as "the little convent girl". As a result, the reader is led to believe that the story is not really about the little convent girl. She is merely the instrument chosen by the author through which the reader will experience a steamboat adventure. King further misleads the reader by offering paragraphs of information about the complexities of navigating the river, the habits of the crew members, and the skill of the steamboat pilots. On those occasions that the reader is provided bits of information about the little convent girl, King immediately misdirects the reader back to the overt theme of a steamboat adventure.
influence all her life and struggles to accept her true identity. Through the story you can
The book is sectioned into three sections. The three sections were the stories of three kids, who were going through the same tragedy but in there view. I liked the way she did this because not only gave you a detailed look through one child, but you go to experience the knowledge of three different children and what they thought. It makes it possible for more people to be able to relate to this book.
The narrator, Twyla, begins by recalling the time she spent with her friend, Roberta, at the St. Bonaventure orphanage. From the beginning of the story, the only fact that is confirmed by the author is that Twyla and Roberta are of a different race, saying, “they looked like salt and pepper” (Morrison, 2254). They were eight-years old. In the beginning of the story, Twyla says, “My mother danced all night and Roberta’s was sick.” This line sets the tone of the story from the start. This quote begins to separate the two girls i...
We have all heard the African proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” The response given by Emma Donoghue’s novel Room, simply states, “If you’ve got a village. But if you don’t, then maybe it just takes two people” (Donoghue 234). For Jack, Room is where he was born and has been raised for the past five years; it is his home and his world. Jack’s “Ma” on the other hand knows that Room is not a home, in fact, it is a prison. Since Ma’s kidnapping, seven years prior, she has survived in the shed of her capturer’s backyard. This novel contains literary elements that are not only crucial to the story but give significance as well. The Point-of-view brings a powerful perspective for the audience, while the setting and atmosphere not only affect the characters but evokes emotion and gives the reader a mental picture of their lives, and the impacting theme along-side with conflict, both internal and external, are shown throughout the novel.
tragedies that befell her. She is an example of a melancholic character that is not able to let go of her loss and therefore lets it t...
... story as it shows the grandmother and her family’s lives have no importance until their encounter with the Misfit. Furthermore, O’Connor develops both her main characters, the grandmother and the Misfit, primarily through the structure of her disarrayed and segmented storyline with the intention of exposing her theme to her audience.