In 1947, widow Lora Meredith (Lana Turner) dreams of becoming a famous Broadway actress. Losing track of her young daughter Susie at the beach (portrayed as a child by Terry Burnham), she asks a stranger named Steve Archer (John Gavin) to help her find the girl. Susie is found and looked after by Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore), a black single mother who also has a daughter, Sarah Jane (portrayed as a child by Karin Dicker), who is about Susie's age. Sarah Jane inherited her father's fair skin and can pass for white. She does this with fierce zeal and fervor, taking advantage of her European heritage and features. In return for Annie's kindness, Lora temporarily takes in Annie and her daughter. Annie persuades Lora to let her stay and look after …show more content…
the household, so that the widow can pursue an acting career. With struggles along the way, Lora becomes a star of stage comedies, with Alan Loomis (Robert Alda) as her agent and David Edwards (Dan O'Herlihy) as her chief playwright. Although Lora had begun a relationship with Steve Archer, the stranger she met at the beach, their courtship falls apart because he does not want her to be a star. Lora's concentration on her career prevents her from spending time with her daughter, who sees more of Annie. Annie and Sarah Jane have their own problems, as Sarah Jane is struggling with her African-American identity and wants to pass for white because of its privileges in American society. Eleven years later, in 1958, Lora is a highly regarded Broadway star living in a luxurious home in New York.
Annie continues to live with her, serving as nanny, housekeeper, confidante and best friend. After rejecting David's latest script (and his marriage proposal), Lora takes a role in a dramatic play. At the show's after-party, she meets Steve, whom she has not seen in a decade. The two slowly begin rekindling their relationship, and Steve is reintroduced to Annie and the now-teenaged Susie (Sandra Dee) and Sarah Jane (Susan Kohner). When Lora is signed to star in an Italian motion picture, she leaves Steve to watch after Susie. The teenager develops an unrequited crush on her mother's …show more content…
boyfriend. Juanita Moore (right) Sarah Jane continues to pass as white and begins dating a white boy (Troy Donahue). He beats her in an alleyway after learning she is half black. Some time later, she again passes for white to get a job performing at a seedy nightclub, but tells her mother she is working at the library. When Annie learns the truth, she goes to the club to claim her daughter; Sarah Jane is fired. Her rejection of her mother begins taking a physical and mental toll on Annie. When Lora returns from Italy, Sarah Jane has run away from home. She asks Steve to hire a detective to find her. The detective locates Sarah Jane in California, living as a white woman under an assumed name and working as a chorus girl. Annie, becoming weaker and more depressed by the day, flies out to California to see her daughter one last time and say goodbye. Annie is bedridden upon her return to New York, and Lora and Susie look after her.
The issue of Susie's crush on Steve becomes serious when Susie learns that Steve and Lora are to be married. Annie tells Lora of the girl's crush. After a confrontation with her mother, Susie decides to go away to school in Denver, Colorado, to forget about Steve. Not long after Susie leaves, Annie passes away. As she wished, Annie is given a lavish funeral in a large church, complete with a gospel choir, followed by an elaborate traditional funeral procession with brass band and horse-drawn hearse. Just before the procession sets off, Sarah Jane pushes through the crowd of mourners to throw herself upon her mother's casket, begging forgiveness. Lora takes Sarah Jane to their limousine to join her, Susie, and Steve as the procession slowly travels through the
city
In the Lilies of the Field by William E. Barrett, Homer and Mother Maria both display straightforward, hardworking, and stubborn character traits. Firstly, Homer and Mother Maria both display a straightforward personality by being brutally honest about their opinions. For example, when Mother Maria asks Homer to build a chapel, Homer speaks his mind by telling her he does not want to build it. Mother Maria shows her straightforward behavior during Homer’s stay at the convent. One morning, when Homer sleeps in late, Mother to becomes extremely upset and is not afraid to show how she feels about him. Secondly, both Homer and Mother Maria display a hardworking spirit. Homer is a hardworking man because after finally agreeing to build the chapel,
In Elvia Alvarado’s memoir Don’t Be Afraid, Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks from the Heart, she expresses the struggles that people such as herself, and numerous other Honduran citizens face every day. Elvia Alvarado was a Honduran woman, who was considered a peasant. She was born into a poor family in the countryside of Honduras. The book retails stories from Alvarado’s life and the obstacles she is forced to overcome in hopes of achieving a better life for herself and the people around her. She faces oppression due to her social class, ideals, and especially her gender. At the same time though, she is able to find support through these communities. While the odds are stacked against Elvia Alvarado, she is able to continuously preserve,
The book, Heat written by Mike Lupica, is a novel about a young boy named Michael Arroyo who faces many difficulties throughout the book, all for his right to play his beloved game of baseball. Michael lives with his dad, Papi, and his brother, Carlos. They are all Cubans who came to the United States for a better chance to follow their dreams. Papi always encourages Michael to play baseball and he always has high hopes for Michael’s career in baseball. It is right to believe in Michael so much because later he fulfills his father's dream for him. After Papi dies of heart failure, Michael still continues Papi dream for him, to be the Little League Champion. Throughout the book Michael meets two characters who have significant impacts on him,
Dee Goong An, more popularly known as Judge Dee, was a well known magistrate of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). His popularity comes from his just perspective, which makes him a great magistrate. He addresses new cases with open ears and is determined to be fair at all times. He treats all people equally and relies only on hard proof to solve cases. With some help, he uncovers guilty criminals, using several techniques to find the truth. Going undercover and using torture to get people to confess, Judge Dee uses his persist approaches to make things right. He risks his job for the truth, and relies on his gut and experience to capture felons. Judge Dee's experience and righteous judgment to find the true criminals by proving them guilty, makes him an ideal magistrate of the time.
Lena Younger, Walter and Beneatha's mother, was a widow in her early sixties who devoted her life to her children after her husband's death. Retired from working for the Holiday's family, she was waiting for her husband's insurance money to arrive. With the ten tho...
The film reflects the class difference from beginning through the end, especially between Annie and Helen. Annie is a single woman in her late 30s without saving or boyfriend. She had a terrible failure in her bakery shop, which leads her to work as a sale clerk in a jewelry store. When Annie arrived Lillian’s engagement party,
...in her character during her stay at the hospital. Susie realizes that her patient is afraid of dying and thus she comforts her as she weeps and makes her feel loved.
...her father’s intense racism and discrimination so she hid the relationship at all costs. Connie realized that she could never marry an African American man because of her father’s racial intolerance. If she were to have a mixed child, that child would be greatly discriminated against because of hypodecent. One day, Connie’s dad heard rumors about her relationship so he drove her car to the middle of nowhere, and tore it apart. Then, he took his shotgun and went to look for Connie and her boyfriend. Connie was warned before her father found her, and she was forced to leave town for over six months. Connie’s father burned her clothes, so she had to leave town with no car, no clothes and no money at sixteen years old. Connie had lived in poverty her entire life, but when she got kicked out she learned to live with no shelter and sometimes no food at all.
real reason he got blind. He knows that seeing the eclipse without protection wasn't the
Not long after, Susie’s parents; Abigail and Jack Salmon get a call from Len Fenerman, the detective in charge of Susie’s case. He explains to them that they had found one of Susie’s elbow bones. The next morning Jack tells Susie’s younger 13 year old sister, Lindsey, what was found. Lindsey’s reaction was to just throw up. Later that day, even though the crime scene had practically been ruined, the police and detectives go out and start digging up the cornfield. Susie’s school books, class notes, and other personal belongings were found. Including a love letter from the first, and only boy she ever loved, Ray Signh. Ray had slipped the note into her books the day before she died, but Susie never got the chance to read it. The rumors at school, of course, were flying around like crazy. Continuing watching from heaven, Susie becomes more and more frustrated as her murderer, Mr. Harvey, goes on with his life like nothing had ever happened. Several days later, Len Fenerman tells that Salmon family that Susie is more tha...
For Dottie, she portrayed as beautiful and smart character, and she has talent on playing baseball. At the beginning of the movie, she got an offer from a scout that to try out for the upcoming baseball league, but she originally declines that. Dottie is married, her husband went to fighting overseas, and she wanted to stay home and wait for her husband comes back. She demonstrated as an ideal feminine role, and can play baseball very well.
Jack Salmon, Susie’s father, is most vocal about his sorrow for losing his daughter. However, his initial reaction was much different. Upon hearing that Susie’s ski hat had been found, he immediately retreats upstairs because “he [is] too devastated to reach out to [Abigail] sitting on the carpet…he could not let [her] see him” (Sebold 32). Jack retreats initially because he did not know what to do or say to console his family and he did not want them to see him upset. This first reaction, although it is small, is the first indicator of the marital problems to come. After recovering from the initial shock, Jack decides that he must bring justice for his daughter’s sake and allows this goal to completely engulf his life. He is both an intuitive and instrumental griever, experiencing outbursts of uncontrolled emotions then channeling that emotion into capturing the killer. He focuses his efforts in such an e...
Over the course of the last century, a young orphan by the name of Annie has been plastered amongst a media-driven world. Crawling into the minds and hearts of many, the iconic tale of Annie and her exposure to the world of the social elite has made way for a magnitude of adaptations. Deriving from a 1885 poem, Little Orphant Annie by James Whitcomb Riley, Annie and her adventures has been illustrated as comic strips (Little Orphan Annie by Harold Gray), books (Annie by Thomas Meehan), and musicals (Annie and Annie 2: Miss Hannigan’s Revenge by Thomas Meehan) (“Little Orphant Annie”)(Cronin)(“Annie {Musical} Plot & Characters”). The latest takes on an Annie adaptation has been met with the big screens. Within the last thirty years, directors John Huston and Will Gluck have released two different versions of the life and journey of a young girl (“Annie” {1982})(“Annie” {2014}) .
A young policeman is called to Annie's house carrying out a search because of Paul's absence. Paul calls for him to save him, but Annie sees this and savagely and brutally murders him. Two other policemen are called to Annie's house about the first missing policeman, and when they leave Paul kills Annie and he is rescued by the police when they return the next day.
Two weeks after her father’s funeral, our protagonist Annie sees his ghost in her bathroom. Knowing he is dead, they small talk about her boyfriend, their farm, their deceased family etc. until he suddenly vanishes. Her father makes occasional appearances after that. They keep talking about everyday life until one night at the Opera House, where she not only sees her father, but her brother and mother as well. Knowing where to find them, she takes her goodbye with her dead family.