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“Raymond’s Run” Theme Essay In the world many people struggle with, keeping themselves open up enough to make friends. In the story, “Raymond’s Run” by, Toni Cade Bambara, the protagonist, Squeaky, has a handicapable brother. She protects him the most and may even be to overprotective. She learns that by becoming just a little bit vulnerable and open to others, helps you make a huge impact on your life, and make the world seem a whole lot better. At the beginning of “Raymond’s Run”, We see how protective Squeaky is. For example, Squeaky states, “If you have anything to say to my brother, you have to say it to me…” This shows that she is protective because she is saying that you have to come by her first. In my opinion, that is totally …show more content…
Squeaky show this by saying, “ I can always retire as a runner and begin a whole new career as a coach for Raymond…” Even though, Squeaky was already, loving and protective of Raymond, she still would rather give up her “career as a runner, (which she loves) to coach Raymond. This means a lot for a character like Squeaky becauses since she is tough, she wouldn’t give anything up that easy. Also, at the very end, she also says, “...Maybe she would like to help coach Raymond…” In this case, she is referring to, Gretchen. Throughout the story, Squeaky, disliked her. In my opinion, I think that Squeaky was afraid because, Gretchen is really a good runner. Almost as good as Squeaky is. So, Squeaky might have thought that Gretchen could win. Also, Squeaky seemed to just really never like her but, at the end, Squeaky shows us that she vulnerable. Even though, she opened up just a little bit, she was still vulnerable. As we can see, that the story teaches us how Squeaky the protagonist in, “Raymond’s Run”, starts off as a tough, protective and, a bragger. Like Squeaky, I wasn’t vulnerable at all. Then, once I did become vulnerable, I now have a lot more friends. Squeaky learns throughout the story, that being a little vulnerable and, open up to others makes your life a whole lot
While the novel Of mice and men and the film What’s eating Gilbert Grape have different plots and settings, the themes of the two stories are very comparable. The stories depict how taking care of people with disabilities is very challenging and the problems they encounter in their day to day activities. Gilbert (What’s eating Gilbert Grape) has the task of taking care of Arnie his brother and George (Of mice and men) takes care of his childhood friend Lennie. Both of this characters Arnie and Lennie have mental disabilities and rely on their caregivers in life. The responsibility of taking care of Arnie and Lennie is frustrating but George and Gilbert still love them. This paper aims to compare and contrast the novel Of Mice
In the beginning of the novel, Alyss is characterized as dependent, loving, and imaginative. Throughout the story these traits mature and Alyss becomes more adult like but still is a little childish in certain scenes. One can say that the maturity that Alyss goes through affects herself later on in the story. During the story the
In “Raymond’s Run”, Squeaky is very offensive. She “[doesn’t] feature a whole lot of chit-chat, [she’d] much prefer to just knock you down right from the jump and save everybody a lotta precious time.”. She is too offensive to make friends, as shown in a scene where she meets some other girls in her class. She immediately
He emphasizes what he believes goes largely unnoticed, like Sissy’s unique ability to succeed in life, given her handicap. Yet, does not deny that living outside social rules is extremely difficult and
In conclusion, Brother shows his self-interest in how he treats his younger brother. He treats his younger brother, Doodle, as something to ‘fix’ and he cannot accept his brother as he is. When Doodle finally learns to walk, Brother’s selfish need for a more ‘ideal’ little brother is not satisfied for long. Soon he demands a little brother who can run, jump, climb, swim, swing on vines, and row a boat. When he gives Doodle lessons for these activities, he does not do so for concern about Doodle wanting to be able to do them, but because he wants Doodle to be able to be a ‘normal’ brother.
In the book, The Short Bus, Jonathan Mooney’s thesis is that there is more to people than their disabilities, it is not restricting nor is it shameful but infact it is beautiful in its own way. With a plan to travel the United States, Mooney decides to travel in a Short bus with intentions of collecting experiences from people who have overcome--or not overcome--being labeled disabled or abnormal. In this Mooney reinvents this concept that normal people suck; that a simple small message of “you’re not normal” could have a destructive and deteriorating effect. With an idea of what disabilities are, Mooney’s trip gives light to disabilities even he was not prepared to face, that he feared.
In order to live a full, "wholehearted" life, we need to gain a better understanding of the true nature of vulnerability. Millions of children have been introduced to vulnerability by author J. D. Salinger. Salinger was vulnerable to rejection, criticism, failing. His novel, I’m sure you know it, “The Catcher in the Rye” was rejected 15 times. One editor tossed it aside as juvenile. Perhaps you remember the book’s last lines: “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you’ll start missing everybody.” Sure Holden Caulfield put up a tough front but the character created by Salinger is endearing and enduring even to this day – in large part because of his vulnerability. So if we want joy, love, and empathy in our lives, we need to let vulnerability into our hea...
Lennie is not so much stereotyped, but rather trapped because of his size. Because Lennie is so big, Curley thinks he has to prove something by beating up Lennie. Lennie gets on Curley’s bad side when he didn’t do anything wrong. Lennie is then forced to fight. " ‘I don’t want no trouble,’ he said plaintively.
Being left out is never a pleasant experience for anyone, especially when society is shaped to exclude people who do not fit the standards of being “normal.” A sense of belonging is a fundamental human need. Human contract is essential for surviving; therefore, being left out hurts on a physical and psychological level, often times resulting in severe depression and anxiety. One part in the book that stood out to me was when the taxi driver refused to take her to her hotel by saying “this is not an ambulance.” These kinds of situations are hurtful and result in a sense of loneliness; however, Simi does a good job by moving forward. She becomes accepting of her disability by forcing herself to realize that she does have an important role in the world regardless of her impairment. As a society we need to correct our negative views on disability so that we can progress and focus our behavior on improving society’s overall atmosphere to avoid having unfavorable interactions between
Squeaky from “Raymond's Run” is a character who wouldn’t be considered normal by most means.She starts the story off with a rather large ego and a disdain for authority all evident by how she talked and acted. There were many things that defined her throughout the story, but they weren’t written, and for the most part had to be inferred to truly know the basis behind her. Raymond, was her one exception to her stone-cold persona. The stories unique writing style made Squeaky someone who really loved her brother over everything, even running, even if it was never stated.
As Ralph, “the boy with fair hair” matured to the boy with “matted hair”, his perspective matured from haughty to compassionate. Early on, Ralph believes that “Piggy was an outsider, not only by accent, which did not matter, by fat, and ass-mar, and specs, and certain disinclination for manual labor”. He rejected Piggy’s “proffer of acquaintance”. He believed “this was [the children’s] island, [that] it was a good island”, that, “until the grown-ups come to fetch [them], [they] will have fun". However, by the end of the novel, Ralph understood that deep down the children fear the island, “the littluns, even some of the others, [talk and scream] as if it wasn’t a good island”. Empathy develops through experience and understanding of truth. Scout thought “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch”. At the beginning of the novels, Ralph nor Scout understood the true nature of Piggy or Boo. However, their respective experiences mean “the end of innocence”. Scout and Ralph begin to differentiate between empathy and authority, good and evil. Scout realizes “[Boo] was real nice, and most people are, when you finally see them”. Ralph recognizes the importance of his “true, wise friend called Piggy”. Yet concurrently, they see “the darkness of man’s heart”. Man discriminates even when doing so harms
Worrying about how to handle this meeting, Ralph “[loses] himself in a maze of thoughts that [are] rendered vague by his lack of words to express them,” even though his mind is not a maze, this analogy works effectively, because Ralph usually loses his train of thought which is from of the stress he is under, his poor amount of nutrition and sleep; the weight of leadership has its toll on Ralph as the story progresses. He is dutiful and dedicated, but his attempts to instill order and calm among the boys are decreasingly successful and contrast with Ralph growing knowledge of leadership which is evident when Golding says, “the assembly shredded away and [become] a discursive and random scatter”; Golding suggests that their civilized society is slipping away and it is becoming primitive. Golding develops Ralph's particular concerns and insecurities in this chapter; by showing him brooding over his perceived failures, Golding highlights Ralph’s responsible, adult nature. Although Ralph exemplifies a more than sufficient intellect, he begins to realize that he lacks Piggy's knowledge when he says, “I can’t think [...] not like Piggy”.
For Quoyle he feels he has to avoid car wrecks. Ironically when Quoyle gets his job at the Gammy Bird in Newfoundland he receives the assignment to report car wrecks. This is an undertaking for Quoyle because car wrecks are a reminder of what happened to Petal. “I can’t cover car wrecks. You know why. I think of what happened.” (Proulx 72). Quoyle attempts to keep her out of his conscious when reporting but she always seems to seep into his mind. In the end he resolves this avoidance by doing the reports and finding another woman who actually loves him and ends up marrying him. Bunny on the other hand is unknowingly avoiding her ancestors past by becoming the good instead of bad. The Quoyle’s are known as bad people and the people of Newfoundland didn’t like them much. Her instinct to push the teacher on behalf of Herry shows her ability to stand up for what is good and right. The story comes from Beety later in the day after it happened “Herry tries to tell her his problem she mimics him, pushes him back. Herry’s blubbering away and finely wets his pants and is humiliated. And here comes the avenging angel, Miss Bunny Quoyle, full speed ahead, and rams mean Mrs. Lumbull behind the knees.” (Proulx 301). In the end Bunny resolves her avoidance by no longer fearing the haunting of the white dog
Avey is described as indifferent, tender, and lazy, and appeals slightly more to the submissive and nurturing element of traditional gender roles. She is very disconnected in the story, never fully there. At one point the narrator remarks, “But though I held her in my arms, she was way away.” She is expected, as a woman, to allow for men to be sexual with her, but is denied having sexuality of her own. Femininity, at the time the novel was written, was often associated with submissiveness, and women were often encouraged to tolerate the abuses of men. This was no exception in “Avey”. This submissiveness is common knowledge among all of the male characters in the story, and they often take advantage of it. The narrator at one points states, “if I really wanted to, I could do with her just what I pleased. Like one can strip a tree” (Toomer 46). She was also expected to be (at the same time as being sexually pleasing) nurturing and loving. This is displayed many times in the short story. For example, the narrator says “She laid me in her lap as if I were a child. Helpless… She started to hum a lullaby” (Toomer 45). However, unlike Karintha, Avey almost has a lack of emotion: a reclusion from love, passion, and feeling. This is a direct cause of her submissiveness, which can have so many negative effects on women. They will start to view themselves as less of a person, and more of an object of sexual
At an early age, Cholly learns that his life would be extremely difficult. When he was four years old his parents abandoned him. The two people that were supposed to love him unconditionally and teach him life lessons had turned their back on him and created emotional damage. This marks the beginning of Cholly’s problematic life. Aunt Jimmy created a glimmer of hope for the future when she took on the role of his guardian. Unfortunately for Cholly, she passed away before he even hit his teenage years. Losing one parent could damage someone enough, but he lost three people that were intended to care for him. The feeling of neglect and loneliness has become all too familiar. The emotional affects are shaping Cholly into an introverted person with many internal conflicts. The...