Julia Child created the most influential cookbook in the history of America. In her book, My Life in France, one message she sends about the nature of goodness is that hard work, persistence, and integrity pays off. Julia displays this before, during, and after the process of creating her cookbook. Before, in her cooking classes, Julia did not back down from any challenge, even when no one believed in her. During, Julia worked harder than she had ever worked. And after, Julia and her co- authors Simone and Louisette, never gave up, even when their cookbook was rejected by their publisher. She was the definition of an underdog, but she prevailed, and came out on top. Without her persistence, she never would have had one of the best selling cookbooks of all time. During Julia’s classes at Le Cordon Bleu, she was faced with many challenges where persistence was key. She had no idea how to cook, and she was thrown into a year long class filled with former army soldiers who thought she was not good enough. Upon entering the classroom, “the GI’s made [her] feel as if [she] invaded their boys’ club” (Child, 63). Feeling left out is a feeling that nobody likes, and unlike most of the other people in her class, she did not have any career plans regarding cooking following her graduation. So, it would have been very easy for her to leave that class and never have to feel that way again. Even the owner of the school, Madame Brassart was against her. Julia believed that she “had placed [her] there as a form of hazing” (Child, 63). She clearly did not like Julia, which was just another reason for her to quit. But, she was persistent, and she became the best chef in her class. From the beginning, Julia had many factors against her, but she did... ... middle of paper ... ...er on this kind of book” (Child, 230). This chance could have costed her a published cookbook, but she took it because she would rather have no published cookbook than one that she was not fully behind. And staying true to herself proved to be a wise choice because her cookbook was eventually published, and she went on to have her own cooking show. In conclusion, Julia Child’s experiences display all that can be done when people do not give up. Although she was often excluded in her cooking classes, she did not quit. Creating a French cookbook for Americans was not an easy task either, but she did not back down. Trying to publish her cookbook and having to deny requests from their original publisher was definitely painful. But, her thick skin, endurance, and principle all payed off when the first edition of Mastering the Art of French Cooking finally hit the shelves.
My favorite line in the book is: “If you didn’t want to be known as the woman who rowed the boat, you shouldn’t have rowed that boat" (319). This statement is so true. We do thing so that we can be known for it. We humans do not just do tasks for nothing we all have ultimate goal. If you want to be known for something, go out and do it.
...is book expresses her ever-changing life and tough it was on the women of this time period.
...ause of her set out to do something she was passionate about. She gave her research a chance. Although it took more to authenticate her work, she did that in
In her novel The Daughter of Time Josephine Tey looks at how history can be misconstrued through the more convenient reinterpretation of the person in power, and as such, can become part of our common understanding, not being true knowledge at all, but simply hearsay. In The Daughter of Time Josephine claims that 40 million school books can’t be wrong but then goes on to argue that the traditional view of Richard III as a power obsessed, blood thirsty monster is fiction made credible by Thomas More and given authenticity by William Shakespeare. Inspector Alan Grant looks into the murder of the princes in the tower out of boredom. Tey uses Grant to critique the way history is delivered to the public and the ability of historians to shape facts to present the argument they believe.
Inside Toyland, written by Christine L. Williams, is a look into toy stores and the race, class, and gender issues. Williams worked about six weeks at two toy stores, Diamond Toys and Toy Warehouse, long enough to be able to detect patterns in store operations and the interactions between the workers and the costumers. She wanted to attempt to describe and analyze the rules that govern giant toy stores. Her main goal was to understand how shopping was socially organized and how it might be transformed to enhance the lives of workers. During the twentieth century, toy stores became bigger and helped suburbanization and deregulation. Specialty toy stores existed but sold mainly to adults, not to children. Men used to be the workers at toy stores until it changed and became feminized, racially mixed, part time, and temporary. As box stores came and conquered the land, toy stores started catering to children and offering larger selections at low prices. The box stores became powerful in the flip-flop of the power going from manufacturers to the retailers. Now, the retail giants determine what they will sell and at what price they will sell it.
I am passionate about this part of the memoir because it encourages me to listen to other’s opinions and include them in making important decisions. In similarity with the quote, I made many good choices with advice from one of the best teachers I ever had. In sixth grade, I had Mrs. O’Toole who changed my life. She taught her students to work hard with determination and passion. She dedicated herself to seeing her students work hard to their full potential and filling our days with learning and fully understanding her objectives and lessons. Mrs. O’Toole intrigued her pupils with a creative lesson by capturing her students’ attention and invoking class participation. For this reason, I learned many tips to write with powerful words and a lot of description. She opened a new world of imagination in literature by challenging my class to read forty books by the end for the school year. In math, she prepared the class to show all our work for each problem and equation. With Mrs. O’Toole’s techniques and advice, I made good decisions about reading, writing, math, and organization skills for future classes and choices out of school. One more connection I made with this part of the memoir was my dad helped me with my soccer skills. When my dad signed me up for soccer when I was seven years
George Sheehan once said, “Success means having the courage and determination and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be.” Catherine wants to be her own person and do what she wants in her life, not what her father or mother plan for her life. In the novel Catherine Called Birdy, by Karen Cushman, Catherine cannot have the life she wants, but she does use courage and determination to overcome her lady-tasks, arranged marriages, and fight for her freedom.
At the beginning of the story, the reader finds out that Julia has rejected her parents in fear of having to take risks. Julia favors going into the city and begging for money instead of being dependent on her parents because “their money came weighed down with rules and obligations that Julia… did not want or need” (296). This quotation shows how Julia is symbolic of modern relationships that are totally materialistic, and because of her need for money without the responsibilities, she ruins the chance of having a loving relationship with her parents. After her best friend, Serena, replaced Julia, she was hesitant to take the risk of being replaced again in order to be in a loving relationship. Because Julia had lost her best friend, her mother “threatened to send her away to camp. [But] Julia hated camp. She hated even the idea of camp” (296) which shows that Julia didn’t want to chance being hurt again like she did by Serena, so she doesn’t risk going to camp to meet new people. She ends up “so lonely [that] she wanted to die” (296) and with no loving, meaningful relationships. Another example of how Julia has no successful relationships because she doesn’t take risks is shown with her friendship with the homeless boy, Isaac. Although one may perceive her relationship with Isaac to be a good one, she cannot truly be in a deep relationship with him because she doesn’t risk learning anything about him; “[Julia] did not know exactly what happened to Isaac at night…but she knew it was bad.” The fact that Julia doesn’t want to ask what happened to Isaac at night shows how she doesn’t want to risk losing him like she did with Sabrina. Although she acknowledges Isaac’s hardship, she does not take the risk of actually inquiring about his situation, and thus their relationship is only surface-level deep.
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.
This became one of the boldest acts of defiance during this time. Yet, she didn't stop there. There is much more to her journey. This book illustrates her life like none other from the beginning to the end.
Janisse Ray wrote the book, "Ecology of a Cracker Childhood." In the story, the author describes how she grew up, the influences that her family history, culture, and nature had on her, and how she is an individual as well as part of a whole. The memory that I believe gives a very personal insight into the author's identity details her mother's down home, southern cooking and the imprints, that her cooking impressed on her. In this exert, Ray describes her mothers cooking.
Gwendolyn Brooks once said “I felt that I had to write. Even if I had never been published, I knew that I would go on writing, enjoying it, and experiencing the challenge”. For some, writing may not be enjoyable or easy, but for Brooks writing was her life. Gwendolyn Brooks not only won countless awards, but also influenced the lives of several African Americans.
Conclusion- Harper Lee has done much with her life and gotten farther than she could have ever dreamed when she was just a 7 year old girl, wistfully thinking of being a writer.
“When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself ‘I am going to produce a work of art.’ I write because there is some lie I want to expose and some fact I want to draw attention to…”