Chip Martin In Looking For Alaska

190 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Writing about poverty

Chip Martin, in my opinion, is the character with the most to lose in Looking For Alaska. Chip is attending Culver Creek on a scholarship as are most of his friends. Though, he comes from a very poor family. In fact, his father left him with his mother at a young age. Chip’s mother was forced to raise him by herself in a trailer park. In the novel, Chip talks about giving his mother the life that she deserves on multiple occasions. He desires to thank her for raising him by herself to the best of her ability. I chose Cayo Espanto, Belize as Chip’s dream vacation location. If Chip were a real person, I have no doubt that he would take his mother along with him to this luxurious private island. Cayo Espanto, Belize is a four-acre island

Show More
Related

  • Gary Soto Gift Of The Magi

    563 Words  | 2 Pages

    He is then posed with the dilemma of having to pay for the chocolate she has picked with a nickel and a orange that he was saving for later, “I fingered A nickel in my pocket, And when she lifted a chocolate That cost a dime(Gary Soto lines 30-33)”. The author uses imagery in this line to show that the boy is distressed and worried by saying he was

    Read More

  • The Boat, by Alistair Macleod

    843 Words  | 2 Pages

    The mother is a selfish and stubborn woman. Raised a certain way and never falters from it. She neglects help, oppresses education and persuades people to be what she wants or she will cut them out of her life completely. Her own morals out-weight every other family member’s wants and choices. Her influence and discipline brought every member of the family’s future to serious-danger to care to her wants. She is everything a good mother isn’t and is blind with her own morals. Her stubbornness towards change and education caused the families state of desperation. The realization shown through the story is the family would be better off without a mother to anchor them down.

    Read More

  • Another Holiday for the Prince

    1168 Words  | 3 Pages

    Jolley uses characterization to individualize each character in a poverty stricken family. The son is referred to as a prince by his mother several times throughout the story even though he is a high school dropout. “Mother always called him Prince; she worried about him all the time. I couldn’t think why. He was only my brother and a drop out at that” (117). The author portrays the son to be someone with low self-esteem because he is poor and a drop out he lives a miserable life. His mother tries to provide him with as much, but is unable to do this because of her social status is society. “‘Sleeps the best thing he can have. I wish he’d eat!’ She watched me as I took bread and spread the butter thick, she was never mean about butter, when we didn’t have other things we always had plenty of butter” (117). Through this passage the author convincingly demonstrates that they are poor and cannot afford an assortment of thing...

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of The Glass Castle

    1168 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • On Being Young-a Woman-and Colored

    357 Words  | 1 Pages

    At this point of the story it is reflective of a teenager. A teenager is at a time in life where boundaries and knowledge is merely a challenging thing to test and in some instances hurdled. Where even though you may realize the responsibilities and resources you have, there is still a longing for the more sunny feelings of youth.

    Read More

  • Hunger

    529 Words  | 2 Pages

    The mother plays a very important part in this story. The mother from the beginning of the story is dealt with a difficult decision of how to feed her 2 boys after her husband leaves her. Since the husband worked, he brought food into the house, but when he left, there was no one who worked. The mother had to get a job, which made her tired. When the mother came home from work tired, she would send the boy to the store. When the mother found out that the neighborhood boys were beating up her son, she repeatedly sent him to the store, so he faces the boys and learns to stand up for himself.

    Read More

  • meow meow

    1073 Words  | 3 Pages

    Connie was born into a very poor family. She described herself as living in poverty for the first eighteen years of her life. She often went without food, shelter or financial support. Connie’s mother worked extremely hard to support the household; she worked shampooing hair for only $50 a week. Connie’s father did not work at all, he was in charge and demanding yet put no effort into any aspect of the family. Connie was the first in her family to graduate from high school. It was more common for women to become pregnant, and marry young than finish high school. College was not even an option for Connie because of a lack of means. Subsequently, she followed in her mother’s footsteps; and the cycle of poverty and worked low paying, unfulfilling jobs for many years. "All Americans do not have an equal opportunity to succeed, and class mobility in the United States is lower than that of the rest of the industrialized world " (Mantsios 200). It is very difficult to get out of the cycle of oppression, when the system is created to keep the poor in the same socioeconomic status. Connie stayed very poor until she was about eighteen years old.

    Read More

  • Social Classism In William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

    1136 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout the book, Anse is constantly complaining about not having teeth. He wants them so he can look nicer and hopefully find another wife. To get the money, Anse argues with Dewey Dell because she has money that he can use. The argument ends with Dewey Dell narrating, “He took the money and went out” (Faulkner, page 257). Anse took the money so he look fancier with teeth and impress a woman from the city. Dewey Dell also struggles with herself internally for the duration of the novel. She has sex with a man from town, Lafe, and becomes pregnant. The only support he offers her is giving her ten dollars to get an abortion, which Anse eventually takes from her. Dewey Dell is forced to try and hide her pregnancy without any help from Lafe. Vardaman too struggles with the fact of being underprivileged. He wants to purchase a toy train set from a store in town, but the family can’t afford it. He is constantly nagging about it; the train set represents wealth and prosperity, but Vardaman can’t understand why the family can’t purchase it. All of these points show the internal conflicts that the characters face throughout the novel and how their needs and wants exemplify their want to escape this lower class feeling and become more alike the

    Read More

  • Pacific Crest Trail Analysis

    1315 Words  | 3 Pages

    She is faced with dangers never seen when she was safely tucked away in civilization. She witnesses, possibly for the first time, how trivial tasks like drinking clean water, staying warm, eating enough food, and not getting lost are in the wild. In society, grocery stores, filtration systems, heaters, and GPS easily solve human needs. Cheryl believes that through removing herself from society and its luxury she will begin to solve her inner conflicts. For the three years after her mother’s death, Cheryl stayed within society, and the open wound she carried did not heal. Over that time, Cheryl digressed into drug addiction and divorce. Cheryl, realizing the problem, then removes herself from society, and alone struggles on the PCT. In the extended amount of time Cheryl spends alone in the wilderness, she is able to truly think. She becomes tougher and gains confidence, needing to focus on her many physical ailments such as the many “bruises that ranged in color from yellow to black lined [her] arms and legs” (129), she comes to terms with her mother’s death and vanquishes the problems she created within herself. While Cheryl did walk through the wilderness, she never truly left society. She followed a man-made trail through nature, which meandered through towns where she was able to restock on supplies. If she had left society completely, her survival would have

    Read More

  • Obstacles In Looking For Alaska

    242 Words  | 1 Pages

    Throughout life, you are obligated to endure many obstacles and obstructions. I had a vast number of hardships and found not all to be triumphant. Life is all about perseverance, motivation, how you handle tough times, and what you do to get passed them. Such hardships can include failure in a task in which great effort was given, the passing of a loved one, even fighting with a very close friend can all have devastating effects on ourselves.

    Read More

  • Importance Of Having A Positive Attitude In Robert Newton's Runner

    577 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Robert Newton’s novel, Runner, Charlie Feehan shows to the reader the importance of having a positive attitude and even through the hard times. Charlie is growing up in the working class slums of Richmond in 1919. Charlie’s father died when Charlie was fifteen and now in Charlie’s family there is his Mother and younger brother. Charlie feels he has the need to look out for his family, as his family is poor, cold and live in the slums of Richmond. Not only does Charlie look out for his family, his friends and family mean a lot to him. It is evident that Charlie cares about his family, as he starts working for Squizzy and as for his friends, he helps Alice’s father out with money as the money was needed for Squizzy.

    Read More

  • Christopher Boone Journey

    1283 Words  | 3 Pages

    At first, Christopher is unable to express himself in the best way possible, as he is not sure how people understand different feelings “Screaming when I am angry or confused. … Smashing things when I am angry or confused. … Not smiling” (46). However, while Christopher continues with his journey, he learns to express himself in a better way, that others can interpret, which assists him to mend relations with the people around him. “And then I heard Mother’s voice and she was shouting. ‘Christopher….? Christopher...?’ and she was running down the road so I cam out from between the skip and the Ford Transit van and she ran up to me… She made me promise never to leave the flat on my own because it was dangerous and because you couldn’t trust people in London because they were strangers… When she came back she brought some food pellets for Toby…” (204). Christopher-now-can express how he is feeling in a better way, in comparison to the beginning of the novel. Christopher adapting the way he emotes himself and his personal input has allowed him to mend the relationship that he was lacking with his Mother for many years. In addition, Mrs. Boone has become Chris’ family; he trusts her and believes in her to help him fulfil his goals and she is doing so in as many ways as possible. This relationship, between Christopher and his mother, helps Chris to achieve his goals, therefore if Christopher had not been able to mend the alliance with his mother, he may have not been able to attain success. Thus, Christopher’s willingness to adapt his ability to emote has allowed for him to become closer to accomplishing his main goal in his journey. All in all, Christopher plays a crucial role in his own development, and without his own contribution, the path to attain what he desires would be influenced in a negative

    Read More

  • Emily

    559 Words  | 2 Pages

    Growing up as an orphan, Jane longs for someone to love her and care for her. Her benefactress, Mrs. Reed, and her children neglected her. On one occasion, John Reed told Jane, “You have no business to take our books; you are a dependant, mama says; you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not to live here with gentlemen's children like us”(10). Jane endured that kind of treatment for ten years, then she moved to a boarding school where she found a friend. A kind teacher, Miss Temple took Jane under her wing and became like a mother to J...

    Read More

  • What Is The Theme Of The Curious Incident Of A Dog In The Night-Time

    709 Words  | 2 Pages

    After finding out about his father’s secrets, Christopher Boone was stuck in a state of confusion. Finding out his mother was alive after thinking for so long that she had died and finally learning that his very own father killed the lovable neighbor’s dog Wellington is a shocking event. Once over his state of shock, Christopher was able to decide to go on a life-changing trip to find his mom and break away from the regularities in his life. An example of Christopher breaking away is when he goes past his school and the corner store. This represents a threshold that he had never past before and was very unfamiliar with. Besides, Christopher says, “But I was frightened in two different ways. And one way was being frightened of being far away from a place I was used to, and the other was being frightened of being near

    Read More

  • Sister Carrie

    885 Words  | 2 Pages

    On the train to Chicago, Carrie had met a traveling salesman, Charlie H. Drouet. She is impressed by the way he talks and dresses. When they meet again, Drouet is aware of her beauty and innocence and he hopes to charm and seduce her. He "lends" Carrie money to buy nice winter clothes, treats her to fine meals, takes her to the theater, and shows her the sights of Chicago. Because Carrie is young and inexperienced in the world of men, she is not wise enough to understand where all Drouet's attention is leading toward. Although she senses that the money should be given back, her desire and longing for the good things in life are so powerful that she ignores her beliefs in what is right and wrong.

    Read More

More about Chip Martin In Looking For Alaska

Open Document