Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Drug abuse among teenagers essay
Reflections on Adolescent Development
Drug abuse among teenagers essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Drug abuse among teenagers essay
Like other teens, fifteen year old Connie also had that youthful coquetry that she could just not control and had to let out to feel that mental pleasure of her actions she was trying to obtain. Unlike her older sister who was living the “in-home and innocent youth” life which was expected to be the “normal” American tradition for women to act, air-headed Connie had that flame inside her to rebel and the only way she could extinguish that flame was to give in to the stranger, Arnold Friend. Connie’s conflicts with her family and efforts to make herself sexually attractive are part of her search for independence and exploration. But her out of control desires and goals to “mature” only lead her into the wrong path. As a teenager Connie still somewhat needs the help of adults in her life mostly her family, for care and discipline as well as for establishing her social life because she has not yet fully developed in becoming independent but only rather attempts to act that way. For example, her friend’s father drives Connie and her friend to the movie theater. Even though Connie occa...
. her narrow silk suit with hamburgers and french fries printed on it will glisten in the brilliant air . . .” (13-15). The majestic image of the girl illustrates the mother’s pride in her daughter’s confidence during the predominantly male party. As a result of the girl’s poised demeanor, the mother is likely to be pleased with her daughter’s ability to uphold the expectations of an adult. Rather than feeling apprehensive and uneasy about a party favoring one gender, the girl overlooks this distinction and carries herself admiringly. In addition to developing an adult-like composure, the girl also experiences an awakening of her sexuality. Her seductive feelings and allurement toward the boys is becoming more conscious in her thoughts. Emerging from the pool, the water from the girl’s body is described to “sparkle and fall to the power of a thousand . . .” (22). The girl is beginning to understand sexual attraction and her appeal to the opposite sex. The mental image of prestige that is suggested by her newfound “power” heavily contradicts the representation of innocence and naivety of what was once the girl. The girl is no longer oblivious to sexual desires and hesitant of change. Instead, she carries around her femininity and allurement as a badge of
She would mostly be alone and sit by herself being buried in books or watching cartoons. In high school she attended a program for troubled adolescents and from there she received a wide range of support from helping her get braces to helping her get information to attend community college. (59) Even with this she was already too emotionally unstable due to her family issues and felt like she couldn’t go through with her dreams to travel and even go into the art of culinary. She suffers from psychological problems such as depression and worries constantly about almost every aspect in her life from work to family to her boyfriend and just hopes that her life won’t go downhill. (60) Overall Kayla’s family structure shows how different is it now from it was in the 1950’s as divorce rates have risen and while before Kayla’s type of family structure was rare now it is becoming more common. This story helps illustrate the contributions of stress that children possess growing up in difficult homes in which they can’t put their own futures first they must, in some cases, take care of their guardian’s futures first or others around them. Again, this adds into the inequality that many face when it comes to being able to climb up the ladder and become successful regardless of where one
Connie has the need to be viewed as older and as more mature than she really is, all the while still displaying childlike behavior. She shows this childlike behavior by “craning her neck to glance in mirrors [and] checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was all right” (Oates 323). This shows that Connie is very insecure and needs other people’s approval. Although on one side she is very childish, on the other side she has a strong desire to be treated like an adult. This longing for adulthood is part of her coming of age, and is demonstrated by her going out to “bright-lit, fly-infested restaurant[s]” and meeting boys, staying out with those boys for three hours at a time, and lying to her parents about where she has been and who she has been with (Oates 325, 326). “Everything about her ha[s] two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home” (Oates 324). Even her physical movements represent her two-sided nature: “her walk that could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make anyone think she was hearin...
However, as I continued to read the story I began to wonder if maybe Connie’s life was not in any way parallel to my own. I have a younger sister where she has an older sister, but that is where the similarities end. Her mother is always telling her that she should be more like June, her older sister. It seemed to me that June living with her parents at her age was unusual, but the fact that she seemed to enjoy this and was always doing things to h...
Connie plays with the idea of adulthood, but at fifteen, she is still too young for her
With a heart-full of advice and wisdom, Dinah maturates from a simple- minded young girl to a valiant independent individual. “For a moment I weighed the idea of keeping my secret and remaining a girl, the thought passes quickly. I could only be what I was. And that was a woman” (170). This act of puberty is not only her initiation into womanhood but the red tent as well. She is no longer just an observer of stories, she is one of them, part of their community now. On account of this event, Dinah’s sensuality begins to blossom and she is able to conceive the notion of true love.
The lives of men and women are portrayed definitively in this novel. The setting of the story is in southern Georgia in the 1960’s, a time when women were expected to fit a certain role in society. When she was younger she would rather be playing ...
When approached by Arnold Friend at first, she was skeptical but was still charmed by him. As she began to feel uneasy, Connie could have used her intuition to realize that he was trouble. Once she had been engaged by Arnold, her life was over. The influences on Connie and her lack of instilled reasoning led to her down fall. Her family’s fragmented nature was echoed in her actions; consequently, she was unable to communicate with her parents, and she was never was able to learn anything of significance. She felt abandoned and rejected, because no one took the initiative to teach her how to make good decisions. Connie was unable to mature until she was faced with death and self sacrifice. In the end, her situation made it difficult for her to think and reason beyond the position she was in. By not being able apply insight, she fell into Arnold Friends lure. Misguidance by the parents strongly contributed to Connie’s
In the beginning of her life, she is a bright teenager who is also troubled because of the breadth of experience of life. At the age of 18, Kaysen has abandoned school after half heatedly attempting to commit suicide and also after having an affair with her high school English teacher. The overriding emotion in Susanna’s life is typically exhaustion. She is sharp but disturbed juvenile with a astonishing range of life experience (Kaysen, 2013).
In addition, a teenager’s feelings of self worth are dependent upon the approval of others. Connie displays this as she practices “…checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was all right” (208). And of course there is also the explosion of hormones and corresponding sexual urges and fantasies. Oates makes all of these characteristics clear in her descriptions of Connie’s actions, thoughts and feelings.
In the second section, Daisy talks about her experiences with sexuality with power and jeopardy. In our adolescent years, we are faced with many impediments that enforce strict limitations on our gender, race, migration and sexuality. At the age of 16, Daisy already knew to stay away from Columbian men, “Columbian men get drunk, beat their women, cheat on their wives, and never earn enough money. They keep mistresses, have bastard children, and never come home on time. They steal, lie, sneak around, and come home to die, cradled in the arms of bitter wives” (Hernández
What is it about sex that makes everyone so uncomfortable? Upon reading Randa Jarrar’s A Map of Home, one of the major themes that the novel goes in depth about is Nidali’s sexual awakening. Many students would argue that this novel is littered with too much sexual activity, i.e. masturbation. However, A Map of Home is a novel about finding your place in this world; the search for your identity and purpose. Sexual identity plays a significant part of that continuum. You may question, “Well, could you have figure out a way to describe her story without all the sex stuff?” This statement would demolish the novel’s relatable and sheer honest tone, as well as disintegrate the genuineness behind the narrative if Jarrar would omit Nidali’s sexual experiences. The complete fact that young teenagers do think about sex so often makes one grasp the true relatability this novel showcases through the main character’s sexual experiences. In this essay, I plan to explore the importance of sexual awakening, Nidali’s own reasons for experimenting with her sexuality, and what we can ultimately learn from being open with what we want in that context.
due to her family leaving to attend a barbeque. Like Chet, Connie also has to rely on herself to overcome her obstacles, such as the threatening Arnold Friend. Stegner and Oates both use this plot point in order to establish that their characters cannot rely on their family for help or protection, which emphasizes their transition to adulthood. In Stegner’s depiction, the purpose seems to be the successful overcoming of obstacles that a child, specifically a boy, has to go through in order to become a man.
Oates begins by depicting a typical insurrections teenage girl. Connie is that young rebellious girl that Oates implies is beautiful, envied, and popular. Connie defies her parents wishes by hanging out where the older kids hang out, which is typically what the prey does in a story. Oates stated that Connie would lie to her parents and pretend to go shopping and “Sometimes they did go shopping or to a movie, but sometimes they went across the highway, ducking fast across the busy road, to a drive-in restaurant where older kids hung out” (774). Connie would and her friends would go to a place where they felt wanted. Many of the boys would call her and her friends over, like Eddie, a boy she met at the drive-in (Oates 774). Connie displays the typical character traits of prey, and Arnold Friend stalks his prey like the typical
Growing up comes with a lot of responsibility, people around expect more as they tend to believe that as one reaches the stage of adulthood they know better and this can have certain effects on one’s life as during this stage of adolescence they are still searching for their true identity, Within this assignment the life of Zoey will be assessed, a young cleaver girl who after her parents’ divorce began to experiment with different drugs perhaps maybe as a coping mechanism.