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More handpicked essays just for you.
The Impact of Poverty on a Child’s Academic Performance
The importance of african american literature
African American Literature Essays
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My book is about a thirteen year old girl name Raspberry Hill. She is a black African American girl that lives in the projects with her mom and they don’t won’t to live there. Her mom is a hard worker. Raspberry is afraid of being homeless again. Time back, her and her mom lived on the streets, lived in family houses and got kicked out. Raspberry doesn’t wants to be on the streets any more so this is why she has her mind stayed on money. She will do anything to get her hands on money. She will get down and dirty, skip lunch, skip school, clean houses and sell nasty rotten candy to the kids in school. When she goes to school she always has candy and pencils to sell to the kids in the school. She has 3 friend’s name Zora who has a single farther name Dr.Mitchell that’s in love with Raspberry’s mother, which upsets both of them, Mia who wants to be identified as black, but has African American and Korean parents, Ja'nae who stays with her grandparents but is urgently wanting to stay with her mom. …show more content…
Raspberry tries to find ways to earn extra cash in all of her friend’s pockets, but her friends are very picky.
Raspberry gets an idea to clean elderly houses. Her friends complain when they go in the people homes but they have no choice but to stay because they get a lot of money. One day the girls was working and they finished and got their money. When Raspberry came home their door was open and all their furniture was gone. Raspberry ran into the house and went straight in her room. She checked under her bed and in her drawers but all her money was gone. Raspberry mom came home and all they can do is just cry. Dr.Mitchell called and Raspberry mom told him the story he rushed to the house as fast as he can. Raspberry mom was just crying and crying. Dr.Mitchel got a warm rag and put over Raspberry mom head and rubbed her back until she fell asleep. Raspberry knew this was the time to ask Dr.Mitchell some questions. She asked him about him and her momma
relationship.
involved troubling situations. Look at how she grew up. The book starts off during a time of Jim
This book is about a girl name Ellen Foster who is ten years old. Her mother committed suicide by over dosing on her medication. When Ellen tried to go look for help for her mother her father stopped her. He told them that if she looked for helped he would kill them both. After her mother died she was left under her fathers custody. Her father was a drunk. He would physically and mentally abuse her. Ellen was forced to pay bills, go grocery shopping, cook for herself, and do everything else for herself. Ellen couldn't take it any more so she ran away her friends house. Starletta and her parents lived in a small cabin with one small bathroom. One day at school a teacher found a bruise on Ellen's arm. She sends Ellen to live with Julia the school's art teacher. Julia had a husband named Roy. They were both hippies. Julia and Roy cared a lot about Ellen. After Ellen turned 11 years old she was forced to go live with her grandmother. Ellen didn't want to leave Julia and Roy but her grandmother had won custody. Her grandmother was a cruel old lady. Ellen spends the summer with her grandmother. Living with her makes her very unhappy. Since her grandmother owns farmland she forces Ellen to work on the field with her black servants. Ellen meets a black woman named Mavis. Mavis and her become good friends. Mavis would talk about how she knew Ellen's mother and how much Ellen resembled her mother. Her grandmother didn't think the same. She thought that Ellen resembled her father. She also hated that man. Her grandmother would often compare her with her father. Her grandmother would torture her because she wanted revenge from her father. Her grandmother also blames her for the death of her mother. While Ellen was staying with her grandmother her father died. When her father died she didn't feel sad because she had always fantasized about killing her father. Ellen just felt a distant sadness. Ellen cried just a little bit. Her grandmother was furious because Ellen showed some emotions. She told her to never cry again. After that Ellen becomes scarred for a long time. One day her uncle Rudolph bought the flag that had been on Ellen's father's casket. Her grandmother turns him away. Later that day she burned the flag.
The Girl with the Brown Crayon tells a simple personal story of a teacher and a child, interweaving the themes of race, identity, gender, and the essential human needs to create, and to belong. With these characteristic charms, and wonder, Paley discovers how the unexplored territory unfolding before her and Reeny comes to mark the very essence of school, a common core of reference, something to ponder deeply and expand on extravagantly. The child, Reeny, meets a writer of books and story-teller, is introduced to his fictional characters, and debates, with other children, their virtues and weaknesses.
Holly Janquell is a runaway. Wendelin Van Draanan creates a twelve year old character in the story, Runaway, that is stubborn and naive enough to think she can live out in the streets alone, until she is eighteen.She has been in five foster homes for the past two years. She is in foster care because her mother dies of heroin overdose. In her current foster home, she is abused, locked in the laundry room for days without food, and gets in even more trouble if she tries to fight back. Ms.Leone, her schoolteacher, could never understand her, and in Holly’s opinion, probably does not care. No one knows what she is going through, because she never opens up to any one. Ms. Leone gives Holly a journal at school one day and tells her to write poetry and express her feelings. Holly is disgusted. But one day when she is sitting in the cold laundry room, and extremely bored, she pulls out the diary, and starts to write. When Holly can take no more of her current foster home, she runs, taking the journal with her. The journal entries in her journal, are all written as if she is talking to Ms.Leone, even though she will probably never see her again. Over the course of her journey, Holly learns to face her past through writing, and discovers a love for poetry. At some point in this book, Holly stops venting to Ms. Leone and starts talking to her, almost like an imaginary friend, and finally opens up to her.
The prologue starts with the description about a girl who likes swimming, SpongeBob, Mexican food, writing poetry and getting her nails painted. To a normal person this sounds like a normal description for a little girl but normal is not the adjective to describe this girl because this little girl has been trafficked (or prostituted) by her 29 year old pimp on Craiglist to adult men. When I read this I automatically felt like someone took a pin and pricked to my chest because I remember being eleven and enjoying getting my nails painted and Mexican food. I was a normal, happy little girl but that same could not said for the girl mentioned above.
"The Lesson" by Toni Cade Bambara is not just a spirited story about a poor girl out of place in an expensive toy store, it is a social commentary. "The Lesson" is a story about one African-American girl's struggle with her growing awareness of class inequality. The character Miss Moore introduces the facts of social inequality to a distracted group of city kids, of whom Sylvia, the main character, is the most cynical. Flyboy, Fat Butt, Junebug, Sugar, Rosie, Sylvia and the rest think of Miss Moore as an unsolicited educator, and Sylvia would rather be doing anything else than listening to her. The conflict between Sylvia and Miss Moore, "This nappy-head bitch and her goddamn college degree" (307), represents more than the everyday dislike of authority by a young adolescent. Sylvia has her own perception of the way things work, her own "world" that she does not like to have invaded by the prying questions of Miss Moore. Sylvia knows in the back of her mind that she is poor, but it never bothers her until she sees her disadvantages in blinding contrast with the luxuries of the wealthy. As Miss Moore introduces her to the world of the rich, Sylvia begins to attribute shame to poverty, and this sparks her to question the "lesson" of the story, how "money ain't divided up right in this country" (308).
One can learn responsibility through experience, whether the experience is great, or if it is tragic. In The Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes, twelve year old Lanesha demonstrates her growth by bringing her and others to safety during a deadly storm. Once nurtured and cared for by her non-biological grandmother, Lanesha learns to take care of herself and others. This significance shows her transitioning from a girl to a young woman.
Ann Petry’s The Street is more than a story of racism and poverty in America. This novel is about how the intersectionality of identities limit African-Americans from achieving equality in the dominant race’s society. The protagonist, Lutie Johnson has three barriers dragging her down. She is not only a woman, but a black woman that is also a lower class single mother. In the novel Lutie faces the realities of the American Dream, which for African- Americans is literally just a dream. Lutie also experiences the harsh effects of poverty and how it shapes one’s life.
Sometimes growing up we experience situations that can change our perspective on life. Especially, when these situations happen unexpectedly; we are in disbelief. In Toni Cade Bambara short story “The Lesson” written in first person; it delves into the struggle of a girl, Sylvia, who realizes the economic and social injustice surrounding her. However, with the help of Miss Moore Sylvia comes to grip with this issue, and opts to overcome it. In “The Lesson” Miss Moore wanted to impart on Sylvia and the other children is the value of a dollar, the importance of education, and to fathom the social and economic injustice that bounded them.
In the first section of the book it starts off with a little girl named Tasha. Tasha is in the Fifth grade, and doesn’t really have many friends. It describes her dilemma with trying to fit in with all the other girls, and being “popular”, and trying to deal with a “Kid Snatcher”. The summer before school started she practiced at all the games the kid’s play, so she could be good, and be able to get them to like her. The girls at school are not very nice to her at all. Her struggle with being popular meets her up with Jashante, a held back Fifth ...
The book , The Help by Kathryn Stockett, is about a women named Aibileen who is a black maid. She is taking care of her 17th white baby now. She works for a woman named Miss Leefolt. Aibileen has never disobeyed an order in her life and never intends to do so. Her friend Minny is the exact opposite. When she is around her boss, she has to hold herself back from sassing them all the time. Skeeter Phelan is different than the rest of the white ladies. She thinks that blacks aren’t all that bad. She decides to write a book about the lives of maids for white ladies. Otherwise known as the Help. She with the help of Aibileen and Minny hope to create a book that starts a revolution about what white people think about blacks.
Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, written in 1984, and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, first published in 1970, are both aimed at adolescent audiences but deal with deep, often disturbing themes about serious social conditions and their effects on children. Both books are told in the first person; both narrators are young girls, living in destitute neighborhoods, who witness the harsh realities of life for those who are poor, abused, and hopeless, although the narrators themselves manage to survive their tough environments with their wits and strength intact. The books are more than simple literary exercises written merely to amuse or delight their audiences.
The main character in this story is Gabby Torres, a regular girl who yearns to be noticed. Gabby is 12 and has a sick brother named Marco. She is a great singer and is very kind. She also is very understanding of her brother’s needs. Like on page 39 when Gabby’s mom was going to help Gabby get ready for her first day of school, but Marco needed her at the hospital so she couldn’t. Also, Gabby is a very talented singer and gets to perform a solo in her school voice recital on page 195. Gabby is very kind and always thinks of others first. For example, on page 76, she saves a cupcake for her brother. A small gesture, but to Marco, it means so much more.
My book, The acorn people, is about kids and teens with disabilities in the book the kids with disabilities go to a summer camp and people who have never taken care of kids with disabilities take care of them it goes through their everyday life and getting ready in the morning. This is different to my culture because I down have to do the extra task in the morning I shower get dressed pack my bag and go to school; on the other hand, then need someone else to help get dressed. It takes a lot longer to get ready in the morning and they might need help moving to their next class or need help learning. in my book, it tells how these kids will go about doing summer camp activities like swimming eating and climbing.
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.