Holly Janquell is a runaway. Wendelin Van Draanan creates a twelve year old character in the story, Runaway, that is stubborn and naive enough to think she can live out in the streets alone, until she is eighteen.She has been in five foster homes for the past two years. She is in foster care because her mother dies of heroin overdose. In her current foster home, she is abused, locked in the laundry room for days without food, and gets in even more trouble if she tries to fight back. Ms.Leone, her schoolteacher, could never understand her, and in Holly’s opinion, probably does not care. No one knows what she is going through, because she never opens up to any one. Ms. Leone gives Holly a journal at school one day and tells her to write poetry and express her feelings. Holly is disgusted. But one day when she is sitting in the cold laundry room, and extremely bored, she pulls out the diary, and starts to write. When Holly can take no more of her current foster home, she runs, taking the journal with her. The journal entries in her journal, are all written as if she is talking to Ms.Leone, even though she will probably never see her again. Over the course of her journey, Holly learns to face her past through writing, and discovers a love for poetry. At some point in this book, Holly stops venting to Ms. Leone and starts talking to her, almost like an imaginary friend, and finally opens up to her. The starting point of this book shows how much she hates Ms.Leone and complaining about her current situations. For example, in one of her first entries, she talks about when she got in trouble for coming home late from school. Her foster parents think she is doing drugs, so they search her. After that they lock her in the laundry room. ... ... middle of paper ... ...ing to KFC every year was better than roasting an actual turkey. Although, her mother still always opens a can of spiced peaches and a small can of cranberry sauce. In the end, Holly eventually opens up completely to her imaginary Ms.Leone. In the end of this novel. Holly eventually ends up with a family and lives a happy life. Her new mother had a journal of her own, and she lets Holly read it. After while Holly decides to give her own journal to her now mother, Meg, to read. She is nervous because she thinks that Meg will laugh at all of the poems she has written in there. All Meg says to her is “I am so proud to know you.” Meg gives Holly some advice. She says to send a copy of her journal to Ms. Leone, and thank her for giving the journal to her. In a way, she cannot help but think that the journal, and “talking” to Ms.Leone helped her through some tough times.
The Orphan Train is a compelling story about a young girl, Molly Ayer, and an older woman, Vivian Daly. These two live two completely different yet similar lives. This book goes back and forth between the point of views of Molly and Vivian. Molly is seventeen and lives with her foster parents, Ralph and Dina, in Spruce Harbor, Maine. Vivian is a ninety-one year old widow from Ireland who moved to the United States at a young age. Molly soon gets into trouble with the law and has to do community service. Molly’s boyfriend, Jack, gets his mom to get her some service to do. Jack’s mom allows her to help Vivian clean out her attic. While Molly is getting her hours completed, Vivian explains her past to her. Vivian tells her about all the good times and bad in her life. She tells her about how she had to take a train, the orphan train, all around the country after her family died in a fire. She told her about all the families she stayed with and all the friends she made along the way, especially about Dutchy. Dutchy is a boy she met on the orphan train and lost contact with for numerous years, but then found each other again and got married and pregnant. Sadly, Dutchy died when he was away in the army shortly after Vivian got pregnant. When Vivian had her child, she decided to give her up for adoption. Molly and Vivian grew very close throughout the time they spent together. Molly knows that Dina, her foster mother, is not very fond of her and tells her to leave. Having no place to go, Vivian let her stay at her house.
The director of the FBI is head of the investigation, but it begins very slowly. The next morning, Holly and Reacher are once again transported in the white panel truck. Holly didn’t understand why Reacher did not attempt to escape the night before, but Holly felt responsible for his safety. That night they are held in a barn, however, it is clearly shown that Reacher and Holly are watching after each other when all the sudden one of the kidnappers tries to rape Holly ruthlessly. Reacher breaks free from his restraints and kills the kidnapper and then hides his body so that none of the other kidnapers would know about what went
She sees her father old and suffering, his wife sent him out to get money through begging; and he rants on about how his daughters left him to basically rot and how they have not honored him nor do they show gratitude towards him for all that he has done for them (Chapter 21). She gives into her feelings of shame at leaving him to become the withered old man that he is and she takes him in believing that she must take care of him because no one else would; because it is his spirit and willpower burning inside of her. But soon she understands her mistake in letting her father back into he life. "[She] suddenly realized that [she] had come back to where [she] had started twenty years ago when [she] began [her] fight for freedom. But in [her] rebellious youth, [she] thought [she] could escape by running away. And now [she] realized that the shadow of the burden was always following [her], and [there she] stood face to face with it again (Chapter 21)." Though the many years apart had changed her, made her better, her father was still the same man. He still had the same thoughts and ways and that was not going to change even on his death bed; she had let herself back into contact with the tyrant that had ruled over her as a child, her life had made a complete
Hollybrass, and blames it on charlotte. On page 188 it said, “ Mr. Hollybrass had to die. No one could possibly believe I would do such a thing. So yes since you are unnatural proclaimed so I hasten to remind you, by all you shall be held responsible.” Captain kills Hollybrass so he could blame it on Charlotte and the crew would not like her. All the crew members respect captain and know him well, so no one would think that he killed him but Charlotte is new and the crew bight think she killed him. These are some ways that this book has violence
Laurence Hill’s novel, The Book of Negroes, uses first-person narrator to depict the whole life ofAminata Diallo, beginning with Bayo, a small village in West Africa, abducting from her family at eleven years old. She witnessed the death of her parents with her own eyes when she was stolen. She was then sent to America and began her slave life. She went through a lot: she lost her children and was informed that her husband was dead. At last she gained freedom again and became an abolitionist against the slave trade. This book uses slave narrative as its genre to present a powerful woman’s life.She was a slave, yes, but she was also an abolitionist. She always held hope in the heart, she resist her dehumanization.
Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a story written in the first person about a young girl named Melinda Sordino. The title of the book, Speak, is ironically based on the fact that Melinda chooses not to speak. The book is written in the form of a monologue in the mind of Melinda, a teenage introvert. This story depicts the story of a very miserable freshman year of high school. Although there are several people in her high school, Melinda secludes herself from them all. There are several people in her school that used to be her friend in middle school, but not anymore. Not after what she did over the summer. What she did was call the cops on an end of summer party on of her friends was throwing. Although all her classmates think there was no reason to call, only Melinda knows the real reason. Even if they cared to know the real reason, there is no way she could tell them. A personal rape story is not something that flows freely off the tongue. Throughout the story Melinda describes the pain she is going through every day as a result of her rape. The rape of a teenage girl often leads to depression. Melinda is convinced that nobody understands her, nor would they even if they knew what happened that summer. Once a happy girl, Melinda is now depressed and withdrawn from the world. She hardly ever speaks, nor does she do well in school. She bites her lips and her nails until they bleed. Her parents seem to think she is just going through a faze, but little do they know, their daughter has undergone a life changing trauma that will affect her life forever.
The story of Anne's childhood must be appreciated in order to understand where her drive, inspiration, and motivation were born. As Anne watches her parents go through the tough times in the South, Anne doesn't understand the reasons as to why their life must this way. In the 1940's, at the time of her youth, Mississippi built on the foundations of segregation. Her mother and father would work out in the fields leaving Anne and her siblings home to raise themselves. Their home consisted of one room and was in no comparison to their white neighbors, bosses. At a very young age Anne began to notice the differences in the ways that they were treated versus ...
...he story with the various characters. Melinda’s acquaintance, Heather works hard at finding friends and becoming popular, but in the end she turns away from Melinda. The story is about the high school years. Many times when we are growing up we can’t wait to get there because we will be treated as adults, but the truth is the problems that come along when we are older can be difficult. The various clans of students help present the theme by showing us that there are many different types of people. The popular cheerleaders, the jocks, the geeks and those who are just trying to fit in. Melinda transforming the janitor’s closet symbolizes her hiding her feelings and Melinda’s inability to speak and tell people what happened to her. High school can be fun but unfortunately through the eyes of Melinda it was a very hard time.
Runaway is a very interesting book to read because it is told in the form of journal entries. Holly writes daily in her journal, describing the events that have happened to her. Being only 12, she isn’t allowed in homeless shelters by herself, so she meets a woman who agrees to be her street mom. Holly stays in shelters as much as she can, but most of the time it’s just her and the streets. There are sometimes over the course of the book, where Holly would not journal for days or even weeks at a time. This makes you want to keep reading to find out what has happened to
Verna La Vaughn was the main character and narrator. She narrated the story as though it were her diary, which she wrote in daily. Verna La Vaughn’s personal appearance was never discussed in the story; however the reader was informed about her family life. She lived with her mother in a small apartment where they had lived for her entire life. L Vaughn’s father had died when she was a small child and had always been heavily missed by La Vaughn and her mother. La Vaughn had much respect for her single mother for putting a roof over her head and for always showing her love even when it was not easy. La Vaughn also enjoyed taking care of children. Often, she would babysit for a single mother she knew named Jolly who had two teen pregnancies as well as working at the local children’s hospital folding sheets. Her desire to help children in need was quite commendable.
The book is not very long and is organized in chapters, which makes the process of reading more comfortable. Despite being a historical piece of literature, the language is not formally harsh and the readers are given an opportunity to delve into the feelings and emotions that the main character, young slave Celia, has to go through in her daily life in slavery. In the introductory part of the book, McLaurin puts forward the purpose of
She fears imprisonment because she was involved in a communist group. She writes a diary that tells the story of her hidden half and past. The protagonist is so scared to tell the truth to her husband that she expresses herself through words; her dairy is her way to fill the pages with herself and avoid the feeling of emptiness. The diary is written to affirm her ’ I ‘ and her true self, something that she could not do in real life and imagine a better reality that can create possibility and hope. Through writing, she is able to form her own self and writes herself into existence. In her diary, she can reclaim her intellectual space; she can express herself freely and can confess her thoughts away from the pressure of her
Holly Golightly is one of the most interesting and complicating characters that can ever be written about. She doesn't even know her own self. Holly thinks that she is independent and self reliant. "I've taken care of myself for a long time."(p.27) Even OJ Berman (her agent) knew that she was full of her self. "She isn't a phony, she's a real phony. She believes all this crap she believes." (p.30) Holly also used to steal things, which she thought was a way of being independent and survival.
We have all heard the African proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” The response given by Emma Donoghue’s novel Room, simply states, “If you’ve got a village. But if you don’t, then maybe it just takes two people” (Donoghue 234). For Jack, Room is where he was born and has been raised for the past five years; it is his home and his world. Jack’s “Ma” on the other hand knows that Room is not a home, in fact, it is a prison. Since Ma’s kidnapping, seven years prior, she has survived in the shed of her capturer’s backyard. This novel contains literary elements that are not only crucial to the story but give significance as well. The Point-of-view brings a powerful perspective for the audience, while the setting and atmosphere not only affect the characters but evokes emotion and gives the reader a mental picture of their lives, and the impacting theme along-side with conflict, both internal and external, are shown throughout the novel.
The book starts off painting the image an Howard's mother Mariquita. She is depicted as somewhat a diamond in the rough, beautiful and one of a kind, even pointing out that she worked as a stenographer, an uncommon position to be held by women in this time period. The book goes on describing her daily life including spending much time with her friends, competing amongst each other in the latest fashions and watching the movies.