In the story My Favorite Chaperone, by Jean Davies Okimoto, I believe the theme is how working together makes life's struggles easier. The characters show this theme throughout the story. As children immigrants, the main characters struggle with combining a new culture with their family culture to find a new identity without bringing shame to their family. In the story, Maya, the main character, faces issues in how to fit in with a new world in America. In this new world there are different rules and expectations while she still has to respect and follow her family's traditions and rules. This conflict is shown when Maya wants to go to a school dance, but knows her parents would never let her go especially after she gets in trouble for
playing around with Daniel, a male friend. Okimoto shows throughout the story that Maya and her brother, Nurzhan, learn to work together to help with their challenges. For example, Maya helps Nurzhan deal with their father when he gets into a fight at his school and Nurzhan helps Maya by getting their parents to agree to let her go to the dance by Nurzhan being her chaperone. As brother and sister they are the only ones that understand each other's problems so they come together to solve their problems. At the end of the story Maya is in her bed in her family's apartment. She looks over at her brother and the necklace her mother gave her, and she feels happy thinking how her family is adjusting. She hopes her brother will be a chaperone again for her. This shows again how Nurzhan and Maya working together helped both of them and has made their struggles easier.
Julius Caesar is mentioned throughout the book, A Long Way Gone, many times. In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael would be reading Julius Caesar or a soldier would be reciting some of the speeches in the play. In Chapter 12 of A Long Way Gone, Ishmael is called over to talk with Lieutenant Jabati. Then, Lieutenant Jabati showed Ishmael the book he was reading, which was Julius Caesar, and asked Ishmael if he had ever heard of the book. Ishmael had read the book in school, and began to recite a speech from the book. After this happened, Lieutenant Jabati and Corporal Gadafi used emotional arguments to motivate the people in the village to stay there and support the military. Also, Lieutenant showed all the people in the village dead bodies to help
Christopher Johnson McCandless, the main character in the book “Into the Wild,” had made a lot of friends even though he did not like people. Wayne Westerberg was one of Chris’s friends who he met in a bar. Chris also befriended a girl named Jan Burre. Another person who befriended Chris was a guy named Ronald Franz,
The very beginning of the novel The Death Cure by James Dashner starts off with Thomas, the protagonist, trapped in a solid white room. He is trapped there for months. As he is in the room, he may have thought “ Oh, me, myself and I, solo ride until I die” (G-Eazy). This is a lyric from G-Eazy’s Me, Myself and I. The song is about being alone and not wanting to be with no one. Although Thomas does wish to see and to somebody, he goes perseveres through his problems just like the singer in the song.
It is culturally expected that as a human being’s age increases, so does the amount of control they have over their own lives. However, when adolescents are allowed to have too little or too little great amount during their formative years, it can adversely affect their decision making process. In The Walls Around Us, Nova Ren Suma crafted young adult characters who, due to either having not enough or too much control over their own lives, react violently when placed in stressful situations.
Throughout Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng the main character Lydia Lee faces change, change that will impact not only her life negatively, but also the lives of her family. Lydia has the most significant role throughout the book, she is the backbone of the Lee family. For Lydia’s parents, they view their daughter as a way they can live their unachieved dreams through, for Marilyn she believed she can live her dream of becoming a doctor through Lydia, while James wanted Lydia to be popular in her school. However, those dreams were lost after Lydia’s death. Lydia’s role as the backbone of the Lee family influences the idea of keeping secrets can destroy a family.
Anthony Doerr’s novel All the Light We Cannot See shows the reader how children would deal with war and how it shaped who they are today. Doerr’s purpose for writing this novel is to highlight how mentally taxing the war was and that there was no permanent escape from the war. Both Marie-Laure and Werner believed they could escape the war both physically and mentally, yet their involvement in it makes it more difficult. Marie-Laure’s fear of her father going to jail shows how she becomes involved in the war. Werner struggled with trying to escape the war through his fascination with radios when it just brought him further into the war. After understanding the effect on certain individuals; the story zooms out showing how the majority
This is how Capricorn Anderson is NOT a hero in Schooled by Gordon Korman. First, Capricorn goes to Claverage Middle School aka C Average. Cap first isn’t one is that because he knows how to drive that young, charging 30 dollars to Mr.Kasigi and also sending money for the halloween dance to a charity. Finally, Capricorn then leaves Rain’s house at the end without permission from her and plus she said no. This is how Capricorn Anderson is not a hero.
Being committed to something comes from an effort within. Being obligated is a sense of duty. Sometimes they may seem alike. In Ernest J. Gaines’s novel A Lesson Before Dying, we are introduced to a young man named Jefferson who is being put to death and a teacher named Grant Wilson. Their paths will intertwine when Grant is asked by Jefferson’s godmother to teach him to be a man. What starts off as an obligation becomes a commitment to teaching and learning what it means to be a man, a human being. With the help of strong women and a diligent reverend, a lesson truly taught. In this novel, Gaines wants the reader to understand that obligation and commitment is sometimes very difficult to define.
Character development is used to show what characters are like. This development allows the characters to feel 3-D and well rounded instead of a flat 2D character. Authors can make characters into anything they want by giving details on who they are and do not care what their past looks like. Don’t Think Twice, by Ruth Pennebaker, shows development in the protagonist by her becoming more adult-like.
Many Christians ask themselves why we are here on Earth today, and why christian character matters today in God’s Kingdom. N.T. Wright, author and also known as the Bishop of Durham, wrote After you Believe in order to help his readers reflect on why we are here which is to eventually become full human beings; full in the sense of being fully formed and, in other words, fully mature. The majority of Christians want to reflect God in their everyday lives, ultimately serving in His Kingdom and ending up in heaven as an eternal life. Reflecting God’s character involves those who worship and do mission, and this is done by allowing Jesus to lead us. In the beginning of the book Wright states, “The way this works out is that it produces, through
real reason he got blind. He knows that seeing the eclipse without protection wasn't the
The novel Lord of the Flies was written by William Golding. Golding wanted the story to be about a group of young boys whose plane crashed on an island, trying to escape war. The whole concept of this was so that he can show what a group of people can become given a set of inflicting conflicts that can change them for better or for worst. He gives great detail on how they go from sane to insane in a matter of time and turn into someone completely different all together. One of the boys on the island is named Simon. Simon’s personality and traits are similar to Jesus Christ because they both posse a form of insight, spirituality, and compassion.
There are certain moments every person goes through, whether one would describe them as joyful and sweet, or painful and bitter. I believe though, that some of the most life impacting ones are a combination of both, bitter and sweet. The memoir “A Long Way Home” depicts those moments in such a powerful way where we can all come together in unison and simply admire the beauty of bittersweet moments.
Noah is the one of the main characters of The Notebook. He is the hero of this novel. Noah represents true love and true loyalty. In a way, The Notebook is similar to every modern day romance movie, and Noah represents the “dream man” that all the girls always imagine of having. The characters in movies are used to symbolize ideas, and in this novel, Noah represents true, faithful, committed love. Noah remains loyal to Allie even in the situation where he is unsure whether they will ever meet again or not.
Job was a man who was perfect (not sinless) and upright, one that feared God and turned away from evil. Job is a perfect example of universal suffering, why those are good suffer along with the individuals who are called bad. Job was a man who God had allowed to obtain riches and fame. He had all of the finer things in life. Satan knew this, and wanted to bring sorrow and pain into Job’s life for the main purpose of showing God that these were the reasons Job was so faithful. Satan was wrong as always. Job understood that it is the Lord that gives and takes away, for Job said, “blessed be the Lord.” The book of Job was written to instruct us, to rebuke and correct us, and perhaps to prepare us to handle the hardships of life, the experiences of bereavement, loss, and grief at a level that man could never hope to achieve.