For many people our environment defines who we are as a person and what traits we have. In Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff this is no exception. Jolly and Lavaughn are affected by many things. However environment is the main thing that changes Jolly and Lavaughn. Jolly and Lavaughn are affected by multiple environments of school, Jolly's house, and living on the streets differently.
School affected Jolly in a positive and productive way. For example, when Jolly was a few weeks into school, “Jolly got a B one day and then three more B’s and then she did A work in typing and she had all her columns lined up on the what you call it the master list and that made another A.” (121) This means that Jolly is finally finishing school and is excelling.
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Jolly is working her hardest and it’s paying off. Jolly is doing her best to do good in school and it is working. We see Jolly again becoming better later on when she is at home with Lavaughn, “So she has me quiz her and pretty soon we both know what the carotid and brachial pulses are in a little kid...”(164) Not only is Jolly doing her homework but, now she is going above and beyond to quiz herself so she does good. Jolly is taking a step forward to be more productive so she can move forward in school. Lastly, Jolly comes home to Lavaughn watching the kids one day and tells her a story she learned at school from one of the teachers. Jollys tells a story about “This blind woman” who goes to get an orange “She’ll divide it for her kids” and she goes to to the market and buys the best orange she can find. “What happens on the way home is that these bad boys from before, they trip her and she falls and drops the orange” she’s lost on the ground until “...one of the boys says he’s sorry...but he’s handing her back her orange.” So she get’s home and realizes that the boy switched the orange with a lemon but the woman gets some sugar, “she mixes it with the juice of the lemon and clean water...and she makes lemonade.”(161) Jolly hasn’t just found help with her grades at school. She has also found relational help. After hearing this story Jolly has found that these people know what she is going through. The people at school can relate to her struggles. Jolly is finally happy that these people understand what she is going through and can help. Lavaughn has also been affected by the environment.
Jolly’s house has affected LaVaughn in a caring yet negative way. When LaVaughn got home from Jolly’s house one day she says “I ain’t got my social studies done yet...” LaVaughn’s mom suddenly gets angry, “Nobody says AIN’T in this house. Nobody ever said that word here before and nobody needs to say that word here now.” (144)LaVaughn is learning small things that Jolly that are slowly making her more like her. Which isn’t good, nobody wants LaVaughn to end up like Jolly and be where Jolly is. However, being at Jolly’s house is subtly turning LaVaughn into Jolly in a negative way. Another example of LaVaughn being negatively affected is after a long day at Jolly’s she goes to school the next day, “In social studies I got a whole country wrong...Zimbabwe took some points and I’ll mess up something else and lose some more points.” (26)Lavaughn is unfocused and doesn’t have her priorities straight. She prioritises the kids over school work and, now she is paying for it. LaVaughn school work is becoming worse because she is spending too much time at Jolly’s house. However, we also see that Jolly is caring for the kids. Which is positively affecting her. LaVaughn is caring for the kids, but she needs to make sure she balances time with kids with her school work. Lastly, when Jolly finally gets home from a long day LaVaughn is relieved. The next day she asks the teacher what she missed, “The social studies teacher said I could stay after if I wanted too, but I have to got Jollys then.”(28) We see once again that LaVaughn doesn’t have her priorities straight. Because she is pending so much time with Jolly and her house she is starting to prioritize her and her family. LaVaughn is becoming more like Jolly by spending so much time with her at her house. LaVaughn is negatively affected by her because Jolly is making LaVaughn’s priorities all mixed
up. Living in the streets affected Jolly, but LaVaughn never had that experience experience. Jolly used to live on the streets in poverty. Which changed her and dehumanized her in a way. “Box Guys and Box Girls. that was us. We lived in boxes back of the Big Deal Hardware, where the overpass is.”(52) This makes Jolly a more disconnected character and more cut off from society. So when LaVaughn tries to connect with Jolly it becomes more difficult than imagined. Later on, we learn that Jolly was taken in, “I had a Gram...a lady took care of me...put me back together all the time.” (158)Jolly being taken in is something that LaVaughn can relate too. Having someone be there for you is something that can be relatable. So when LaVaughn finds this out, she becomes closer with Jolly because it;s something they can share. Jolly revealing more of her identity makes her a closer friend with LaVaughn. Finally, LaVaughn finds it hard to connect with Jolly when they first meet because LaVaughn didn’t have the experiences that Jolly had/ LaVaughn lived in a safer house that “teaches self-defense classes” and has “The watchdog lady”(15-6) that helps keep the area safe. Since LaVaughn lived in a safer environment she can’t become closer with Jolly right away because they have lived with different experiences that affected them and turned them into who they are now. Jolly and Lavaughn are affected by multiple environments of school, Jolly's house, and living on the streets differently. Although Jolly and lavaughn are affected differently there ideals and emotions connect them and bring them together. Books like Make Lemonade can help people see that while we are all very different people because of our environment, our ideals and emotions can bring us together. Even though our environments change us all differently,` we can come together as one because of relating emotion and ideas.
Every day the safety and well-being of many children are threatened by neglect. Each child deserves the comfort of having parents whom provide for their children. Throughout the memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls explains the childhood from being born into the hands of parent who neglect their children. Many may argue that children need to grow with their parents; however, the removal of children is necessary if the parents disregard the kid’s needs and cannot provide a stable life for their children.
Jolly flourishes from the person who she was at the start of the book to the person she is now. Before, Jolly did not have her life in order and she couldn’t raise her family with her low-income. In page 7 of the novel, Jolly repetitively states,“I can’t do it all alone”, because she had nobody that supported her or at least gave her advice on parenting, life, etc. Jolly left school three years ago because she was pregnant with Jeremy. According to LaVaughn, she can barely spell and she depends on everyone to help her. For example, when she was filling out the Department of Human Resources application, Jolly states, “Nobody ever tells me. Do you know there ain’t a single person in the whole world I can count on?” (Pg 113). Her apartment is very disorderly and smells and she does not receive any medical benefits. However, things get worse for Jolly when she loses her job at a factory after she got sexually harassed by her bos...
Throughout the book The Glass Castle, Jeannette and her family are essentially homeless, which leaves them with dealing with the daily struggles that come along with it. Although there are only a few instances where the Walls did not have a home, the conditions they lived through were horrendous. Jeannette and her siblings cope with their situations in many ways. At the beginning, the children never complained. Their parents Rex and Rose Mary had significantly different coping mechanisms. While Rose Mary was painting or sleeping, Rex was heading to the local bars. Their ways of dealing with their living situations and overall economic and political status did not help the siblings lead a fulfilling childhood. Coping mechanisms
Two people with two completely different characteristics have something alike. Both Dally and Johnny are mentally tough because of their parents. Johnny and Dally’s parents both do not care for them and could care less about them. For example, during Dally’s childhood he went to jail, been in a gang, and has been in many fights and his dad still would not care for him even if he won the lottery. Dally also talks about his dad's disgrace towards him in the car with Johnny and Ponyboy, “‘ Shoot, my dad don’t give a hang whether I’m in jail or dead in a car wreck or drunk in a gutter...’”(88). Dally could easily live without his dad and he does for the most part. Dally just hangs around with his friends and stays at their place. Similarly, Johnny's parents use him like a rag doll to blow off steam, “his father always beating him up”(14). The gang knows what happenes in Johnny’s house. Once Ponyboy was witnessing, “Johnny take a whipping with a two-by-four from his old man”(33). Ponyboy talks about how loud and mean Johnny's mom is and,“you can...
When the year started, Melinda did poorly in school. She often used stolen late passes and rarely did homework. By the end of the year this was much different. In the third marking period, Melinda says how she showed up to class every day throughout the semester, did some homework, and didn’t cheat on any tests. I see this as a vast improvement.
Ever since she was a young girl. Jeannette had set high goals for herself. Since she was so advanced in school and genuinely enjoyed learning, it made sense that she would want to do big things with her life. Whether it was being a veterinarian or a geologist, her dreams extended far beyond her homes in little desert towns or Welch, West Virginia. However, because of her poverty-stricken home life, many people believed it didn’t seem likely that she would be so successful. One day, while living in Welch, Jeannette goes to the bar to drag her drunk father back home. A neighborhood man offers them a ride back to their house, and on the ride up he and Jeannette start a conversation about school. When Jeannette tells the man that she works so hard in school because of her dream careers, the man laughs saying, “for the daughter of the town drunk, you sure got big plans” (Walls 183). Immediately, Jeannette tells the man to stop the car and gets out, taking her father with her. This seems to be a defining moment in which Jeannette is first exposed to the idea that she is inferior to others. Although this man said what he did not mean to offend her, Jeannette is clearly very hurt by his comment. To the reader, it seems as if she had never thought that her family’s situation made her subordinate to those
It is commonly believed that the only way to overcome difficult situations is by taking initiative in making a positive change, although this is not always the case. The theme of the memoir the Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is that the changes made in children’s lives when living under desperate circumstances do not always yield positive results. In the book, Jeannette desperately tries to improve her life and her family’s life as a child, but she is unable to do so despite her best efforts. This theme is portrayed through three significant literary devices in the book: irony, symbolism and allusion.
She feels that caregivers don’t trust their children and that they rather than giving their child commands. I see some similarities of my life and experiences that I found in the text. When I was growing up, I pretty much had a childhood. Me and my sister will play outside and do things without being supervised by my parents. We were able to explore outside and make up games to play with other kids. When it rain and snow me and my sister will use our imagination and create games such as house or school. My parents didn 't control our childhood they didn 't create activities, nor tell me what to do with our free time. I was pretty much free. But as I got older, parents started to be involved in my life and started to plan my future. The concepts of the worldviews, biases, and assumptions that are used in the text is that parents make it difficult for their children to interact with their surroundings because it ends with the consequences. Ellen claims that a child should learn how to use their imagination instead of following the rules. The worldviews that are found in my personal and education life is that the author’s perspective about how she see the world relates to
The home in which a child lives in is suppose to be a place of warmth, love, and protection. A home also offers other important aspects into a child’s life, for instance, self-confidence, pride, and security. If a child does not reside in a home that offers warmth, love, and protection, that child will not feel good about herself or the home in which she lives in. A child wants a home that he or she can be proud of enough to bring home a friend or two. In addition, if a child does not feel safe and secure in his or her home, then she will not posses these qualities in the outside world. Moreover, their lack of security can cause major disruptions and distractions within their everyday routine, like with Sandra. For example, the homes that Lena and Sandra live in illustrate the exact opposite of each other.
Throughout Jeannette Walls' memoirThe Glass Castle there are numerous instances of self-sufficiency among the children of Rex and Rose Mary Walls. Lori, Jeannette, Brian, and Maurice Walls are unfortunately raised by a father who does not have his priorities straight. The kids are forced to become their own person and fend for themselves. With very little money, food, or guidance the Walls children must become self-sufficient in order to live day to day. Had their mother Rose Mary always been there for the kids, they would not be living the lives they live
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.
Every child searches for individuality; what makes everyone unique? As a child, surroundings will shape who a person becomes. So a child raised in secure suburbs might be more trusting than a child who lives in a large city. Different environments will without a doubt put people in uncomfortable and sometimes unfortunate circumstances. Environment as a whole is what affects how a child behaves, thinks, and reacts to certain situations. In the novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou exposes her own struggle to find identity as she endured racial hardships and sexual abuse.
...lopment is contextual and can change by big or small impacts just like people can be changed by good or bad influences. As humans we constantly change due to our changing environment. Because of these changes three major factors can have an impact on us: normative age-graded and normative history-graded influences and non-normative life events. These three factors can either have a biological or environmental influences on an individual’s development. A normative age-graded and normative history-graded influence that has occurred in my life was getting my driver’s license at the age of sixteen and experiencing the legalization of same-sex marriage. A non-normative life event that I experienced was getting adopted from Russia at the age of eight. All these influences have impacted my development and my character one way or another and have made me the person I am today
As to the relationship with their teachers, both students become more self-confident and their teachers become dependent on them, be it in a materialistic or personal way. Yet it is Eliza who complains about Higgins ignorance and carelessness whereas Frank reproaches Rita for her superficiality. At the end Eliza has regained her pride and improved her standard of living although Eliza remaining a social misfit.
My mother often told my sisters and me stories of her childhood move from Virginia to North Carolina. She’d describe the heartbreak of being ripped away from her home, family, and best friends. Although it was painful in the moment, in hindsight she can honestly say that the move was one of the best things that even happened to her. Here she met the love of her life and gave birth to her three girls. The change of environment impacted her life forever. In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens writes of a boy named Pip as he grows and changes as he transitions from his home in the marsh to the hustle and bustle of London. In his novel he proves that our surroundings have a life-changing impact upon us.