“I stare at my name. Carley Connors. Thirteen letters. How unlucky can one person be?” (1). Lynda Hunt’s fiction book, One for the Murphys, provides a story of a young girl named Carley Connors. Carley is now a foster child who needs a place to stay until her mother recovers in the hospital. A social worker decides that she has to live with the Murphys. While she is staying with them, she judges the family from the moment she steps into their house. “Mrs. Murphy steps to the side. Behind her stands three boys… I’m probably here to be a live-in babysitter or modern-day Cinderella” (4). This shows how Carley thinks about the Murphys at the start of the book. Although one can learn from the book that, “Family looks out for family” (12), the main …show more content…
topic that Hunt truly represents is that a person shouldn’t judge somebody before getting to know them first. Carley Connors is known to be very judgemental. When she steps into the Murphys home, the first person she judges is Mrs. Murphy, yet Carley doesn't realize how similar she is to her. “Still though, this perky Murphy is as fragile as they come. She wouldn’t last a second in my world” (20). This is the first thought of Carley. As the story progresses, Carley finds herself opening up and liking Mrs. Murphy. “Do you know what a mother is? I blurt out. A mother is Julie Murphy” (186). This evidence shows that some people's emotions can be changed after getting to know another person. When Carley starts at her new school, she automatically judges her peers based on looks. “Unfortunately the seat is right next to the girl I met at the lockers. Talk about unlucky” (53). This information shows how Carley feels about the locker girl when she met her that morning. While doing a project with the locker girl, Toni, their friendship increases. Carley soon realizes that her first impressions of Toni were wrong. “‘... You’re my best friend’” (122). This shows how much has changed once Carley got to understand Toni more. As soon as Carley Connors met Daniel Murphy, she starts to judge him.
“I hardly know Daniel, but I hate him anyway” (16). Due to her judgement, her and Daniel never get along. But how can one come to mends if they don’t even know each other? One day, Carley approaches Daniel. Eventually, toward the end of the book, Carley and Daniel become like notes on a music scale, they blend in perfect harmony. “Daniel is more like me than I would have ever imagined” (206). Truly, this example shows how much one can learn while getting to know each other.
Nevertheless it could be said that the central message in the story is that “Family looks out for family” (12). Throughout the book, One for the Murphys, Carley adapts to the Murphys home and starts to treat everyone as family. “I… am a Murphy” (206). Although, in the beginning, Carley never agrees to being associated to the Murphy family. She only realizes this after getting to know the family, rather than judging them.
With all the judgement in the beginning of the book, which then changes to love in the end. It is finally time for Carley to go, yet she finds herself unable to pull herself away from the Murphys. “Me too… I mean, I’ll miss all of you …” (222). Carley Connors realizes that she was wrong about the Murphys by judging them in the start. Whether it is adapting to a new family or a new friend, it can be seen that all examples relate to the book's theme, some people can turn out differently after getting to know
them.
After a long day of hard labor, Emily would gather her three children from Pete’s tent, and would march them to the boxcar outside of the carnival gates, which served as their home. Seldomly, after a long day of work, Emily would sometimes come and stand beside the piano Josh played, and listen to Josh’s music. Most of the times, Emily would smile and say nothing, but one particular night, Emily leaned forward and whispered to Josh, “You have a gift. Don’t let these hard times make you lose sight of it.” These encouraging words reassured Josh, a reassurance he desperately needed.The first couple of weeks working at the carnival, Josh slept restlessly. After Lonnie
Working as a teacher serving at-risk four-year-old children, approximately six of her eighteen students lived in foster care. The environment introduced Kathy to the impact of domestic violence, drugs, and family instability on a developing child. Her family lineage had a history of social service and she found herself concerned with the wellbeing of one little girl. Angelica, a foster child in Kathy’s class soon to be displaced again was born the daughter of a drug addict. She had been labeled a troublemaker, yet the Harrisons took the thirty-hour training for foster and adoptive care and brought her home to adopt. Within six months, the family would also adopted Angie’s sister Neddy. This is when the Harrison family dynamic drastically changes and Kathy begins a journey with over a hundred foster children passing through her home seeking refuge.
After a whole book of building up, from Danny having to visit the library secretly to him having to hide his college plans, the writer reveals that the person Danny has always tried to keep secrets against knew and acquiesced all of his actions since the very beginning. Unlike how they portrayed him as, Reb Saunders does his best to raise Danny with freedom and spirituality at the same time instead of controlling Danny and trying to limit his freedom. Finally, though unwillingly, he lets Danny go, “Today is the-the Festival of Freedom.” There was a soft hint of bitterness in his voice. “Today my Daniel is free….”(288). At last, Danny is allowed to pursuit his dreams free from the burden of his family heritage. This final event raps up the book in a truly ironic way by alternating the readers’ views on Reb Saunders and his way of raising Danny that seemed cruel and
Each person, whether they realize it or not, has been shaped by their relationships with others. The effects that piers or family members can have on someone are limitless and often times profound. In many instances, people do not even know that they are being influenced by others. Even if it is in the most subtle manner, all characters in novels are directly influenced by other figures. Authors use rhetorical strategies to demonstrate the different ways in which relationships affect and shape character’s identities.
Janie's outlook on life stems from the system of beliefs that her grandmother, Nanny instills in her during life. These beliefs include how women should act in a society and in a marriage. Nanny and her daughter, Janie's mother, were both raped and left with bastard children, this experience is the catalyst for Nanny’s desire to see Janie be married of to a well-to-do gentleman. She desires to see Janie married off to a well to do gentleman because she wants to see that Janie is well cared for throughout her life.
Corwin highlights the corrupted foster care system through detailed progression of the central character, Olivia. She is one of the most brilliant students in the novel and views school as a positive distraction from the daily physical abuse she encounters at home. In a sense, intelligence saves her. She manages to disconnect her emotions and use her intellect to excel in and out of school. With a molested mother and lack of father figure, Olivia becomes a ward of the county. Children who enter foster care often have been exposed to condition...
Theme: Situations and surroundings can shatter the innocence of friendship, but more the identity of the individuals.
Janie who continually finds her being defined by other people rather than by herself never feels loved, either by her parents or by anybody else. Her mother abandoned her shortly after giving birth to her. All she had was her grandmother, Nanny, who protected and looked after her when she was a child. But that was it. She was even unaware that she is black until, at age six, she saw a photograph of herself. Her Nanny who was enslaved most of her lifetime only told her that a woman can only be happy when she marries someone who can provide wealth, property, and security to his wife. Nanny knew nothing about love since she never experienced it. She regarded that matter as unnecessary for her as well as for Janie. And for that reason, when Janie was about to enter her womanhood in searching for that love, Nanny forced her to marry Mr. Logan Killicks, a much older man that can offer Janie the protection and security, plus a sixty-acre potato farm. Although Janie in her heart never approves what her Nanny forced her to do, she did it anyway. She convinced herself that by the time she became Mrs. Killick, she would get that love, which turned out to be wrong.
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...
”(3) Marie, Jeannette’s mother, completely refuses to take care of her own children. She doesn’t care for her children as any mother should. Any child, even at the age of three, should not be making hotdogs in a hot oven. This act shows how much independence her father has instilled in her.
As the narrator begins his description of Miss Giles, he says, “Lillian always had a knack with babies and could put even the most difficult ones down for a nap within minutes” (118). When the narrator shares that Miss Giles’ favorite child is the “ugliest, fussiest baby ever born” (119), the narrator shows the readers Miss Giles’ goodwill and kindly feelings toward the baby, Julian Cash, that everyone else rejects or scorns, and thus displays her resilience to conform to societal norms or be weathered by the judgment of others. Miss Giles, years later, agrees to care for two unknown children, even though Social Services has deemed her too old to be on their official registry of foster families. The willingness of Miss Giles to take on care for the two children, Keith and the baby, exemplifies her unwavering altruism in childcare. Upon the arrival of Keith and the baby, Miss Giles refrains from complaint or doubt, and “goes to make up a crib and a cot with clean sheets” (119). Miss Giles never asks questions or hesitates when faced with taking care of children, she simply performs the job. Miss Giles is tough, and able to overcome the problems of the difficultly of childcare in her age and her hearing problem that she faces. As the narrator continues to introduce Miss Giles to the readers, the narrator observes that, “a long time ago, Lillian was in love with Charles Verity’s great-grandson, but he went to New York and married a rich girl, and Lillian stayed put” (119). Miss Giles does not dwell on the departure of the love of her life across the United States, but instead, channels her loss of love for a spouse into love for taking care of orphaned or foster children. Finally, Miss Giles is resilient in her response to the urgent situation with which she faces when left with the infant, nearly dead body of Julian Cash. When Miss Giles
Her parents meet at a social gathering in town and where married shortly thereafter. Marie’s name was chosen by her grandmother and mother, “because they loved to read the list was quite long with much debate over each name.” If she was a boy her name would have been Francis, so she is very happy to have born a girl. Marie’s great uncle was a physician and delivered her in the local hospital. Her mother, was a housewife, as was the norm in those days and her father ran his own business. Her mother was very close with her parents, two brothers, and two sisters. When her grandmother was diagnosed with asthma the family had to move. In those days a warm and dry climate was recommended, Arizona was the chosen state. Because her grandma could never quite leave home, KY, the family made many trips between the states. These trips back and forth dominated Marie’s childhood with her uncles and aunts being her childhood playmates.
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. Kaye Gibbons’ experiences as a child are the foundations for this.
Eva was the single mother of three kids. She was the matriarchal figure in her household, which did not only consist of her children, Pear, Plum, and Hannah and Hannah’s daughter Sula, but also many others who boarded in her house. There were three young boys, all named Dewey by Eva, who had arrived to the house at the same time. Eva knew that if she named them all the same name it would make them feel as though they were equally loved and cared about. Such name-calling created a positive camaraderie between them. Also in the boarding house resided a drunk, Tar Baby, and various newlyweds. Eva kept the whole house under control.
Marie, who is a product of an abusive family, is influenced by her past, as she perceives the relationship between Callie and her son, Bo. Saunders writes, describing Marie’s childhood experiences, “At least she’d [Marie] never locked on of them [her children] in a closet while entertaining a literal gravedigger in the parlor” (174). Marie’s mother did not embody the traditional traits of a maternal fig...