“Because only by confronting your demons can you ever hope to conquer them” (Hopkins, 525). In Ellen Hopkins’, Identical, the idea of finding oneself, and facing the underlying issues we hold is a struggle through the entire novel. Hopkins is an American author who, in almost all of her novels, focuses on the uncomfortable, yet very real, issues in today’s world. Specifically, in her book Identical, she discusses the issues that surround a pair of twins, Raeanne and Kaeleigh. Raeanne is seen as the “evil twin” or the negative one out of the two. She participated in activities such as smoking, drinking and having sex; she is a copy of her father. Kaeleigh, on the contrary, is portrayed as a the “innocent twin” or the successful twin. She achieves …show more content…
However, in the beginning of the novel the reader is notified of a car accident that occurred several years ago causing the girls’ mother to become emotionally detached and the family to disconnect. The reader observes the abuse the girls endure through their politician of a mother’s neglectful ways. Kay, the girls’ mother, will remove herself from their lives for months at a time which sends Raymond, the father, into a depression that can only be cured by sexual contact with Kaeleigh. Furthermore, the reader witness the rape incidents between Raymond and Kaeleigh from both girls perspectives. Toward the end of the novel we come to a point where one of the twins, Raeanne, is caught having sex with another boy by Ian, Kaeleigh's best friend and secret love. He become furious and begins to scream at the girl telling her that her sister is dead and has been since the car accident years prior. It is at this point in the novel that the reader realizes it was not a set of twins girls throughout the novel, it was one twin, Kaeleigh, who has split personality disorder and continues to play the life of her dead …show more content…
Themes involving rape, drug abuse, child abuse, alcoholism and neurological issues all flow throughout the novel. However, the most uncomfortable and main theme through Identical is the idea relating to the effects of mental illness on not only the lives of the diagnosed, but also the lives of everyone around them and how past events can encourage a person to become neurologically atypical. The book also takes this theme a step further by fulling address the causes of select mental illnesses and proving that not all are easily seen. The Blue Knot Foundation shows that child abuse and neglect leads to many different types of psychological issues beginning in childhood years and transferring into adult years (Abuse Related Conditions). For example, the abuse that Kaeleigh suffers from both her parent leads her to create this new identity to replace her dead sister which can be diagnosed as dissociative identity disorder. In addition, studies show that children who had an experience of rape or attempted rape in their adolescent years were 13.7 times more likely to experience rape or attempted rape later in their life (Child Sexual Abuse Statistics). The reader finds out through Raeanne that Raymond, her father, experiences sexual abuse from his neighbor as a child. This traumatizing experience is believed to be the cause of his sexual desires to
Giselle Boyer is a 16 year old girl with a twin sister who is also her best friend. The two sisters are Haitian and are both the same height, five feet and eleven inches, just like their father. Giselle loves to draw and wishes to be a future artist and likes to swim rather than playing an instrument. This is how she differs from Isabelle. Isabelle is a very musical person who appreciates music as well as playing the flute in her school’s orchestra.
Eric Wright’s Twins is unique and original story about a writer and his wife that leaves a lot to the mind while you are reading it. It is a story that makes you predict the outcome and keeps you interested on whether or not those outcomes will come true or not. It is a short story that has excellent characters that are in conflict against each other from the beginning but is not revealed until the climax. Any reader of this story will put this down feeling satisfied with the fantastic plot and great setting.
As she got older, Jeannette and her siblings made their own life, even as their parents became homeless. Jeannette and her older sister Lori decide to run away from their family in Virginia and go start a new life in New York City. However, after a few months, the rest of the family moves to New York and settles down. While in the City, Jeannette gets a job as a reporter, which was her life goal, and one day on her way to an event she sees her mother rummaging around in a dumpster. While the rest of the family gets along, Maureen, the youngest of the family goes insane and stabs their
In today 's society, how do we describe someone as "a good person". The judgment falls to other people and how they compare or contrast themselves to the person, who falls under questioning morality. Another problem can lie within the imperfections of the normal human and the few that see through and fix their problem can only improve. Here we will analyze and reflect the comparison between the author Wes Moore’s life pictured within his story of The Other Wes Moore, where Wes categorized his differences between his doppelganger, the Wes Moore in prison for a life sentence, and my life. Each step in the book concludes the beginning of early childhood to early adulthood stopping at the present of the book’s conclusion. Still, we are left questioning the perfection of “good” things in the author’s life, through his schooling, sports, neighborhood and household influences, and opportunities.
...e on her part. Throughout the story, the Mother is portrayed as the dominant figure, which resembled the amount of say that the father and children had on matters. Together, the Father, James, and David strived to maintain equality by helping with the chickens and taking care of Scott; however, despite the effort that they had put in, the Mother refused to be persuaded that Scott was of any value and therefore she felt that selling him would be most beneficial. The Mother’s persona is unsympathetic as she lacks respect and a heart towards her family members. Since the Mother never showed equality, her character had unraveled into the creation of a negative atmosphere in which her family is now cemented in. For the Father, David and James, it is only now the memories of Scott that will hold their bond together.
The story follows three girls- Jeanette, the oldest in the pack, Claudette, the narrator and middle child, and the youngest, Mirabella- as they go through the various stages of becoming civilized people. Each girl is an example of the different reactions to being placed in an unfamiliar environment and retrained. Jeanette adapts quickly, becoming the first in the pack to assimilate to the new way of life. She accepts her education and rejects her previous life with few relapses. Claudette understands the education being presented to her but resists adapting fully, her hatred turning into apathy as she quietly accepts her fate. Mirabella either does not comprehend her education, or fully ignores it, as she continually breaks the rules and boundaries set around her, eventually resulting in her removal from the school.
Lily’s idea of home is having loving parent/mother figures who can help guide her in life. Because of this desire, she leaves T. Ray and begins to search for her true identity. This quest for acceptance leads her to meet the Calendar Sisters. This “home” that she finds brightly displays the ideas of identity and feminine society. Though Lily could not find these attributes with T. Ray at the peach house, she eventually learns the truth behind her identity at the pink house, where she discovers the locus of identity that resides within herself and among the feminine community there. Just like in any coming-of-age story, Lily uncovers the true meaning of womanhood and her true self, allowing her to blossom among the feminine influence that surrounds her at the pink house. Lily finds acceptance among the Daughters of Mary, highlighting the larger meaning of acceptance and identity in the novel.
The childhood of Frances Piper consists of inadequate love, loss of innocence and lack of concern, ultimately leading to her disastrous life. As a six year old child, she encounters several traumatic events, explicitly the death of her loved ones and the loss of her innocence. Over the course of one week, there have been three deaths, two funerals and two burials in the Piper family. “Frances was crying so hard now that Mercedes got worried. ‘I want my Mumma to come ba-a-a-a-ack.’”( McDonald 174). As a young child, there is nothing more upsetting than losing a mother. A family is meant to comfort each other to fulfill the loss of a loved one; however, this is not the case in the Piper family. Mercedes, only a year older than Frances, tries to console her even though she herself is worried. The loss of motherly love and affection has a tremendous impact on her future since now her sole guardian, James, expresses no responsibility towards her. Instead, he molests Frances on the night of Kathleen’s funeral to lessen the grief of his lost daughter. As a result “These disturbing experiences plague Frances with overwhelming feelings of low self worth and guilt that haunt h...
Center stage in Kaye Gibbons’ inspiring bildungsroman, Ellen Foster, is the spunky heroine Ellen Foster. At the start of the novel, Ellen is a fiery nine-year old girl. Her whole life, especially the three years depicted in Ellen Foster, Ellen is exposed to death, neglect, hunger and emotional and physical abuse. Despite the atrocities surrounding her, Ellen asks for nothing more than to find a “new mama” to love her. She avoids facing the harsh reality of strangers and her own family’s cruelty towards her by using different forms of escapism. Thrice Ellen is exposed to death (Gibbons 27). Each time, Ellen has a conversation with a magician to cope with the trauma (Gibbons 22-145). Many times Ellen’s actions and words cause it to be difficult to tell that she is still a child. However, in order to distract herself, Ellen will play meaningful games (Gibbons 26). These games become a fulcrum for Ellen’s inner child to express itself. Frequently, Ellen will lapse into a daydream (Gibbons 67). Usually, these daydreams are meant to protect herself from the harsh reality around her. Ellen Foster’s unique use of escapism resounds as the theme of Kaye Gibbon’s Ellen Foster.
she is able to meet her twin sisters that have been missing from her life for over 30 years.
All of the siblings must face the changes that the absence of Simon and Klara cause, eventually leading them to be divided in their belief of fate or free
The film chronicles the histories of three fathers, and manages to relates and link their events and situations. First is Mitchell Stephens and his relationship with his drug-addict daughter. Second is Sam, and the secret affair he is having with his young daughter Nicole. He is somewhat of a narcissistic character because of his preoccupation with himself and pleasing himself, and his lack of empathy throughout the film for the others in the town. Third is Billy, who loves his two children so much that he follows behind the school bus every day waving at them. Billy is also having an affair with a married woman who owns the town’s only motel. On the exterior the town is an average place with good people just living their lives. But, beneath all the small town simplicity is a web of lies and secrets, some which must be dealt with in the face of this tragedy.
Kaye Gibbons, the author of the novel Ellen Foster, believes that a quote from the Emerson’s “Self Reliance” is connected with Ellen’s struggle to survive and find her way in the world. The first line of this quote says, “Cast the bantling on the rocks” is related to Ellen herself. A bantling is an abandoned child. Ellen is a bantling even though she was not abandoned, she was deprived of a normal childhood. Her life as a child was extremely hard, physically and emotionally. She never had a mother or father take care of her through her entire youth. You could say that her childhood was “cast on the rocks”. The last line reads, “Power and speed be hands and feet”. This reminds me of how Ellen ran from her problems at home and stayed away from her house as much as possible. The line also represents strength and Ellen was a strong person. She dealt with losing a mother, father and grandmother within one year. She never even had a good relationship with her father or grandmother. The short inscription to “Self Reliance” is almost a short summary of Ellen’s character. In it, a child without parents is raised by someone that is a lot different than she is. After Ellen’s mother died, she is unwillingly left with her alcoholic father who mistreats her. Ellen spent a lot of time at her friend, Starletta’s house and at the house of her grandmother. Life with her grandmother was no better than life with her father. She did not want to be in either situation. After living with her grandmother, Ellen’s struggle to find a suitable, comforting home comes to an end. For the second time in her life, a family member has died right next to her, basically in her arms. Ellen is able to overcome this, even as a
“The Waiting” and “My Cousin Clarette” both have two pairs of girls. In “The Waiting” the girls are Henrietta and Juliette. In “My Cousin Clarette,” the girls were Clarette and Victoria. There were defense mechanisms, character growth, and psychological make up within the two pairs which made them either different or the same. A way that made the two pairs similar is that they are all relatives, and Clarette and Juliette were two faced.
At the age of ten, most children are dependent on their parents for everything in their lives needing a great deal of attention and care. However, Ellen, the main character and protagonist of the novel Ellen Foster, exemplifies a substantial amount of independence and mature, rational thought as a ten-year-old girl. The recent death of her mother sends her on a quest for the ideal family, or anywhere her father, who had shown apathy to both she and her fragile mother, was not. Kaye Gibbons’ use of simple diction, unmarked dialogue, and a unique story structure in her first novel, Ellen Foster, allows the reader to explore the emotions and thoughts of this heroic, ten-year-old girl modeled after Gibbons’ own experiences as a young girl.