People change everyday, whether it is from good to bad or for the better. People often say to themselves, maybe, if I didn't do “blank” this wouldn't have happened. However, the reality is, it happened, and there is no way to change that. Why go around throwing maybe’s around if you cannot change it? Authors purposefully make readers ask those questions. Authors love to create complex characters, characters that go through change. In Ellen Hopkins’ book, Crank, is the perfect example. Ellen Hopkins writes from her own daughter's perspective, Kristina, on how “the monster” changed her own life and her family's life. Ellen Hopkin’s daughter, Kristina, starts off as a sweet and innocent girl with great academic achievement. She gets a court sentence to go see her father for a few weeks. When she finally sees her father after not seeing him for years. He smells like alcohol and tobacco and looks like he hasn’t slept in days. She asks him on the way home if he has anything planned for the two of them but he seemed to not care. Upon arriving she steps outside for a minute where she notices a boy making out with a girl. He notices her and begins to flirt. They introduced …show more content…
themselves, his name is Adam. However, at that moment Kristina changed,she wasn't Kristina anymore, she was Bree. Puzzled, Kristina asked herself, “who is Bree? Why would I ever to talk to a guy who has a girlfriend?” Little did she know, Bree was about to change her life forever. In my opinion I believe Ellen wrote this book as a way to cope what has happened to her daughter's life.
She dedicates this book to her “..family, and all the families whose lives have been touched by the monster.” Kristina talks about what a horrible person her mother is; a wannabe writer who never spends enough time with her daughter. A step dad who always has a stick up his butt. A brother who is spoiled and is too caught up in sports and video games to notice any change. Her sister is wonderful, but recently came out as a lesbian and caused distance between them so she moved away. Kristina was alone, until she met “the monster”. “The monster” is just a metaphor Ellen uses to describe the drug Methamphetamine, better known a Crystal Meth. Crystal meth can be eaten, snorted up the nose, or
smoked. Kristina would never even think about doing drugs. However, Bree enjoys the thrill of doing something she is not supposed to. Kristina had suppressed Bree for so long that it was her time to shine. Adam invites her and her dad out to go bowling. That is where Adam invites her into the backroom and she takes her very first hit at the monster. Immediately Bree fell in love, while kristina knew it was not good. A few days go by and Kristina disappears, it is all Bree. When it is time to go back home Bree is frustrated, she wants to stay have more fun. Kristina is glad to leave, she knows it’s for the better. Kristina catches up with old friends, she doesn’t tell them of anything that happened, of course. A few weeks go by and Bree begins getting anxious and grows tired of hearing Kristina's goody friends talk. She starts to look for people who could have connections. Just then, she meets a lifeguard at a summer park. Kristina would never dare talk to him, but Bree doesn’t think twice. She walks straight forward and gets his number and name Brandon. Brandon was the perfect guy; gorgeous smile, good grades, great body; her mother would love him. There was one thing no one knew, he was her connection. One day Brandon picked Kristina up from her house, walked inside, and greeted her parents; it was perfect. He told them they were going to see a movie and go out to eat after. That was not at all what happened. Instead, he took her to the park in the middle of nowhere to smoke. He rapes her, makes her pay for her toke, and drives her home. Kristina is left devastated, at her lowest point. She turns to Chad who helps her through everything and they end up being in a relationship. A few weeks go by and she's smoking and partying forgetting everything about Brandon. However, she realizes she hasn't had her period in a while. Chad takes her to the doctor only to discover she’s pregnant. But not by Chad, but by Brandon. She contemplates killing it, but decides to keep the baby. She becomes sober and is Kristina all over again. This book is really dark and emotional, many people will have to put down the book many times before continuing on. Ellen hopkins did a great job describing all the effects drugs can take and how it can change someone so drastically. She also did a great job showing the world what drugs and addiction can lead to and all the damaging effects it has.
To conclude, in the poem “Changes” by D. Ginette Clarke, the use of repetition, word choice, and punctuation revealed the persona in a well-thought out and respectable manner. Clarke was very clever in the way that she had used these elements to not only reveal the persona, but also to make the poem as amazing as it is. The persona started off as a curious man, then came off as serious, only to turn out to be a demanding and vehement person; but in the end, the persona’s special characteristics were clear. Therefore, the use of repetition, word choice, and punctuation revealed and represented the persona and his curious, eager, and desperate personality.
2. Explain how a character in the book changed or is starting to change in the part you are reading?
Everyday people are put into several situations in which they have to conduct themselves accordingly. This may mean that they need to reinvent themselves. In many pieces of literature, characters are thrown into circumstances that require them to change who they are and how they act. In the novel The Art Of Racing In The Rain the author Garth Stein illustrates many situations where one or more characters are forced to change who they are and how they live. Yann Martel wrote, “It is circumstance that enables is to reinvent ourselves and the world around us.” Denny is put in certain circumstances in which he is forced to change his life. Buying Enzo, Eve dying and his court battle with the Twins made him reinvent himself constantly.
Several Years after their marriage, cousin Mattie Silver is asked to relieve Zeena, who is constantly ill, of her house hold duties. Ethan finds himself falling in love with Mattie, drawn to her youthful energy, as, “ The pure air, and the long summer hours in the open, gave life and elasticity to Mattie.” Ethan is attracted to Mattie because she is the opposite of Zeena, while Mattie is young, happy, healthy, and beautiful like the summer, Zeena is seven years older than Ethan, bitter, ugly and sickly cold like the winter. Zeena’s strong dominating personality undermines Ethan, while Mattie’s feminine, lively youth makes Ethan fell like a “real man.” Ethan and Mattie finally express their feeling for each other while Zeena is visiting the doctor, and are forced to face the painful reality that their dreams of being together can not come true.
Literature is very interesting when there is a change in the protagonist. They can start out bad but turn out good in the end. Being the protagonist of a novel and changing your ways can affect the story and give it a great plot twist. There is a story in literature that contains a person that made a bad decision. A victim of sin, Hester Prynne, emerges as a determined, loving, and strong heroine, living her own life in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Through beautiful depictions of their characters' metamorphoses, the authors present the feeling that embracing struggle to define individuality and become independent is something everyone needs to do. The authors essentially disclose through their writing that without opinions, ideas, and liberations of their own, people have nothing else to look forward to in life. Huck, Celie, and Holden, who are each representatives of the diverse American culture, must each to look ahead to uncover their full potential as human beings rather than participate in social order.
A character can change many times throughout a novel, or film, whether it’s good or bad. It can be a character’s willingness to change or it can be a life changing journey he or she went on that made it happen. The novel, A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest J. Gaines, talks about characters such as Grant, Jefferson, and Paul along with the life changing journey they went through in their life in Bayonne, Louisiana. In the novel, Grant said, “we are […] all of us on this earth, a piece of drifting wood, until we […] decide to become something else” (Gaines 193). Grant’s change of mind set, Jefferson’s ability to stand up for himself, and Paul wanting to be a part of the change, shows how they went from a drifting piece of wood to something
People change when things become difficult or they are faced with an unfamiliar situation. This is made very apparent in the novella The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. Throughout the story Grete seems to go through her own metamorphosis. She changes from a nice warm hearted person to a uncaring and cold hearted sister towards Gregor. This is displayed in each part of the story through Kafka's use of diction and symbolism.
Changes occur dramatically throughout the book, “A Thousand Splendid Suns” written by Khaled Hosseini. Mariam, the protagonist of the story, experienced many traumatic, horrifying, life changing events that shaped her into who she is today. Growing up with a father figure who was ashamed to take her out in public, mother committing suicide, father sending her off with a man she did not know, having multiple miscarriages, being verbally and physically abused by her husband, along with having to share her husband, it was hard for her to maintain a positive mindset. A plot twist occurs over halfway throughout the book that lifts Mariam’s spirits and transforms her into a loving and selfless character that many strive to
Within the novel, Ellen Foster, the story of a young girl is told by none other than herself. The story tells of how young Ellen endures life with an ill mother who eventually passes away and a drunken father, whom she is left with and basically takes care of herself, amongst paying bills, cooking, cleaning, and everything else one would normally see a parent doing for a child. After Ellen’s teacher notices a bruise on her arm, Ellen is sent to live with the school’s art teacher, Julia, and her husband, Roy. Ellen enjoys life with these people seeing as to how it is much better than the life she once lived, but her grandmother whom she does not like who has never before shown interest in her or love, fights for her in court and wins. Ellen
Going through life we will meet people who make us change.Some changes are for the better of the individual, others not so much. These changes can be caused by money, a new groups of friends, or just trying to change for yourself. For example, in the novels Great Expectations and To Kill A Mockingbird, both Pip and Jem experience life changes that affect the perspective on our world. Pip and Jem are similar as they both look up to their dad and neither have a mother figure. Throughout the novels, both boys experience hard times but still manage to pull through.
Both Christian and Beth died from drug overdose which fuelled Faye's angst for revenge even more. Faye describes when she sees Beth immensely "The child in front of me is curled up in a small ball. In her hands is a small empty vial that once contained strawberry flavored poison." Finding Beth like that put a huge burden on Faye and after that, she wanted revenge for both Christian and Beth. The scars on Faye's chest classifies her as a drug addict which she is certainly not. While having lunch with Faye's classmate Paige she says "that guy with all Heam scars on his chest. I'd rather die than be scarred like that. Just disgusting." Faye thinks that she will not go anywhere in life because of her scars and what others will think of her scars. So this is another motivation for revenge. When one takes Heam or any other drug one commonly becomes addicted and it leads to other crimes or other drugs. There are certain components in drugs that makes one addicted like in cigarettes its nicotine. With Heam, it's seeing heaven and being in a peaceful place. Rather than seeing heaven, Faye saw hell and it affected her in many bad ways. She thought life was not worth it because she would go to hell anyways. Jane Roberts life-altering novel made great use of the theme dangers of drug
physical or mental, these changes are evident in literature. A prime example of a character in literature who changes both physically and mentally is Roger Chillingworth. In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Chillingworth transitions from being a frail looking, soft spoken and reserved old man, to an evil minded, deformed old man fueled by revenge.
In novels, characters usually change benefiting who they are. They show character development. Character development shows how a character changes in a significant way. They begin to express who they really are instead of hiding behind who everyone else thinks they are. In the scarlet letter, there are people who showed character development. Not only was it the protagonist and the antagonist but also the other characters. One character that developed in the Scarlet Letter is Arthur Dimmesdale.
Force and conflict cause change within characters. Change can be helpful or harmful to the character or characters. Wendy, from Peter Pan, witnesses these changes. Wendy experiences one in a life time experiences, tragic and heroic, which could alter her reality and change her future.