Don’t Look Back
What would it be like if you woke up and were an outsider in your own life? Left to piece together who you once were by fragments of memories and the people around you. That’s what protagonist Samantha Jo Franco had to endure in Don’t Look Back by Jennifer Armentrout. By remembering enough to know she hates her old self Sam realizes this is her second chance. Though she made mistakes in the past, she is worthy of forgiveness.
Granted that she was likely to be the last person to see Cassie Winchester alive, Sam’s brain holds vital information about the ongoing murder case. After the incident that leaves Sam with major amnesia and her best friend, Cassie, dead Sam is desperate to get to the answers hidden in her brain. The more she learns about her and Cassie’s friendship the more she questions why they were friends. Cassie seemed to bring out the worst in Sam. Before Cassie, she was a quiet, sweet girl and after she was inconsiderate and rude. Sam’s brother, Scott, even said, “You were a terror to everyone that knew you.”
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As a result of the incident, people immediately began to realize that Sam had changed.
Being at the top of the social ladder many noticed her when she came back, and many noticed she was very different, Everyone she knew before she met Cassie were very surprised and happy to see a girl that resembled a much younger Sam. Everyone she met every Cassie hoped that she would “just snap out of it”. Leaning more towards becoming the Sam before Cassie again she starts to reconnect with old friends that were learning to forgive her for her hateful actions towards them. Sam says, I didn’t want to remember the terrible things I’d said and
done.” Additionally, the influence of others is very persuasive. Sam completely changed when she met Cassie, but that wasn’t the only source of corruption.Sam’s old friend said, “ I think your mom had a lot to do with it (their friend breakup). She hated our friendship because I’m not in the country club.” Sam’s very own mother, Joanna, wanted Sam to be friends with girls that had parents that had a high status in town. Due to all of these bad influences, Sam ditches all her old friends and starts focusing on how everyone else saw her, she forgets all the morals and values she once had. After the incident Sam builds better morals and values, and now it didn’t matter what anyone thought about her. As it can be seen, throughout this book Sam is mending relationships she had once destroyed. Everyone who loved her realizes that she really means it when she apologizes because she is not only saying it but also showing it with all her actions. They see that no matter what she has done, she is willing to fix it and she is worth all of their forgiveness.
Sam says, “I was only thirteen that day, but I know my mother would never change” on page 98. Basically, Sam comes of age because he realized that his mother is a caring mom, but she is going through a lot with the divorce and going through a tough time trying to get her son to live with her, over her husband. Because of that she can’t have a nice office and she cannot have to many patients, that’s also why she can’t be a normal mother. It’s like she is fighting her own life but even if she’s going through a tough time she doesn’t want Sam to experience the same way she is living. This is a significant change because Sam earlier in the story didn’t like his mother and always looked down upon her. But when he grew up he knew who she really is, and he knew he couldn’t change her. In the end, he ends up living with his father. This story illustrates the importance of caring for your mother no matter what happens because in the end of the day that’s your mother who cares so much about you. But you just have to understand what kind of life she is going
But life is not a fairytale. Standing there lonely, having no job is our Sammy. This is when Sam realizes his path, the true way to become mature. The moment when “Lengel sighs and begins to look very patient:” Sammy, you don’t want to do this to your mom and dad” (Updike) hold him back a little bit, we can feel the regret in his heart. But he cannot go back anymore, decision has been made. He gives up his last chance; from now on, he’s on his own. Sammy finally understands that it is responsible behavior but not playing “adult-like” game that will make him a true
He leaves, with a clean consciousness, but the burden of not knowing what the future has in store. This story represents a coming-of-age for Sammy. Though it takes place over the period of a few minutes, it represents a much larger process of maturation. From the time the girls enter the grocery store, to the moment they leave, you can see changes in Sammy. At first, he sees only the physicality of the girls: how they look and what they wear, seem to be his only observations.
This lead to one of the biggest questions from the movie, how did he become that way? Hirschi’s Control Theory is a theory that states “that social control depends on people anticipating the consequences of their behavior”(Macionis 248). It was shown in the movie that Sam had a complicated relationship with his family, so his past is a big reason as to why he acts so deviant in the future. On of the four types of social control is attachment. Attachment is family, friends and school relationships. Sam was first introduced as one of Benny’s friends “crazy cousin”. It was clear that he did not enjoy having Sam around. This can reveal that Sam has a weak relationship with his family as a whole because he wasn’t even living with his parents. This would lead Sam to acting deviant without worrying about what they would think of him. It was also later revealed that Sam was kicked out of school based on his actions. Sam never had to worry about his family or school once that relationship broke off. Another type of social control is involvement. Involvement can mean many things, but it’s basically about holding a job, going to school, or participating in a sport. The character of Sam, as stated before, was kicked out of school. So, he didn’t have school keeping him away from deviant behaviors. And then there 's the reveal that Sam can’t write or read well. Sam had made an attempt to get a job at a movie store, but he would 've had to do an application, which required him to write. He was shown to be scared and nervous after he attempted at write on the form. Sam had little involvement in anything because he was a poor writer and reader, which lead him to act more deviant. A final reason as to why Sam acted so deviant, was because had little opportunity in life. He was self conscious about that fact that he couldn 't write, so he never made attempts to move up in the world. He
The immense pressure caused by always trying to prove to the world that she was enough resulted in a lacking of social awareness and identity. Andrea doesn’t appear to know how to act herself when she is around matty for example the text says “She was always bringing up sex around Matty so she could demonstrate how cool she was with it.”( 2) It doesn’t appear that Andrea has had a lot of practice with boys because she's been so focused on school and being accepted in society; so that now she’s trying to catch up awkwardly trying to feel her way through. This also shows that now she’s also trying to juggle being accepted by her peers and the difficulty she’s having with both. Andrea constantly tries to conform to what she thinks her peers views are before she knows them. For example, when she sees Parker for the first time in college and attempts to make conversation by ridiculing students who played in the mud only to find out Parker thought it seemed fun; the narrator says “Feeling drab to her core, Andrea searched for something else to say, but came up with nothing”.(9) Andrea is overcompensating for what she lacks by trying to act like someone she isn’t, but who she thinks Parker is. Andrea’s views on how things are or ought to be is a constant recurring flaw that prevents her from making the relationships she wants so desperately to
The film opens with Sam on the phone with her best girlfriend Randy. She is examining herself in her full length mirror and is totally horrified to find that her body didn’t’ magically transform overnight. She was hoping to wake up with a body just like Caroline’s. Caroline is the head cheerleader, prom queen, and girlfriend of the most popular boy in school, Jake Ryan. Sam is hopelessly “in love” with Jake and is convinced that he won’t know she exists until she is more developed, more mature, more like Caroline. Little does she know, Jake does notice her. He is intrigued by a certain mispassed note containing some very personal information about Sam’s sex life (or lack of
Have you ever been so focused on achieving your dreams that you become unaware of your current situation? When we focus on the goals ahead of us, we fail to see the obstacles and dangers that are in front of us. In order to achieve our goals we involuntarily put ourselves in an unwanted situation. Connie, herself, struggles to achieve her goal of being a desirable girl that turns heads when she walks into the room. She becomes so set on being this girl that she doesn’t realize the danger of the situation. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Oates utilizes metaphors, diction, and imagery to show how Connie is in a constant tug between her reality and her dreams, and how this confines her freedoms in a world that is surrounded with malevolence.
The short story "Where are you going, where have you been?" by Joyce Carol Oates is full of symbolism that represents elements such as evil and loss of innocence. The symbolism is a crucial part of the story because it helps the reader to read between the lines and see beyond the obvious meanings of things. Some of the important symbols present in this story are Arnold's car, Arnold himself, and the doorway of Connie's family's house.
Her daughter, Cassie, struggles with mental health issues and her daughter, Sala, struggles with siding with her mom and her grandparents, for example, when her mom destroyed her grandmother's backyard.
When Cassie was shot, Evan Walker was the first on scene. He nursed her back to health and changed her life. He made Cassie feel like she had someone to support her, but she was very skeptical. She learned that she should never judge a book by it’s cover when Evan told her that he was actually an alien. However, she also learned that not everybody in a group of bad people is evil. If Evan Walker didn’t stay with Cassie, she wouldn’t have saved Sam. Evan Walker was the most important character in the development of Cassie.
I Am Sam is the compelling story of Sam Dawson (Sean Penn), a mentally-challenged father raising his daughter Lucy (Dakota Fanning) with the help of an extraordinary group of friends. As Lucy turns seven and begins to intellectually surpass her father, their close bond is threatened when their situation comes under the scrutiny of a social worker who wants Lucy placed in foster care.
I would say that for most of my decisions, I make them as if it were a movie. By this I mean I view every outcome of my decision and how it will affect other decisions in the future. This even applies to simple decisions. For instance, when deciding what to do for dinner on a particularly long day. If I eat out then that cost money that I could use to do something fun like go to a movie. However, if I go home and cook, that's more time till I go to bed and then I might be exhausted and sluggish the next day.
Right off the bat, we see Lia hiding her feelings. Her stepmother Jennifer nonchalantly told Lia that her best friend passed away; or rather was found dead in a motel room. Lia pretends she does not care and pretends she does not feel a thing. In reality, she is just cold. Cassie and Lia had not been friends in a long time, and the night before this, Cassie had called her 33 times, each time Lia sending them straight to voicemail.
Short filmmakers use a multitude of different techniques to force their viewing audience to look closer at what the film is portraying. Nicholas Clifford’s film ‘We’ve All Been There’ and Matt Bird’s film ‘A Desperate Deed’ make the viewing audience reflect on and review their views on the lower class of people. In both films the main focus is on a small couple or family living in rural Australia that are under terrible financial stress and judgements, by the climax of the short the reality of their lives are brought to the audience’s attention by cinematic techniques carefully chosen by the director.