Everyone has dealt with a conflict in his or her lifetime. Most people have multiple conflicts in a single day. How one handles a conflict makes that particular person who they are. In the short story “Raymond’s Run,” the main character, Squeaky, faces many conflicts, including her struggles with her mother, and facing her biggest opponent in a race. In “Raymond’s Run,” Squeaky struggles with her mother understanding her personality. Squeaky’s mom would rather Squeaky dance around the maypole instead of pursuing her dreams with running races. This shows that Squeaky’s mother does not understand that racing is Squeaky’s true passion. Instead of Squeaky being herself, Squeaky’s mother would rather her be a girly-girl. Squeaky is a definite tomboy, and she does not enjoy participating in activities that make her seem foolish. When Squeaky trains for a race in public, her mom pretends to not know her. …show more content…
This shows that her mother does not support her running, as much as she wants Squeaky to be a girly-girl. Her mother should respect the way Squeaky is, and not try to change her. Squeaky would rather be herself than to accommodate to others standards. Though Squeaky and her mother have many differences , they are family, and truly love each other. In the story, Squeaky and her biggest adversary, Gretchen, race against each other in the fifty yard dash.
Both Squeaky and Gretchen think that they are going to win the race. This shows that the girls are confident in their abilities in running because of their assurance of victory. Also, the girls may be underestimating each other due to the fact that Squeaky and Gretchen are gifted with exceptional speed. Also, the girls practice a tremendous amount and care about running because it is their passion. Squeaky and Gretchen race against each other in the fifty yard dash, but the results of the race were unclear. Though Squeaky wants to win, she thinks of her brother instead of the race’s winner. Gretchen, who worked hard on this race, will undoubtedly seem bitter about losing, but will help Squeaky coach Raymond because she does not hate Squeaky. Though Gretchen did not win, she was very kind to Squeaky because they exchanged warm smiles after the results came in. Though their hearts were set on winning the race, Squeaky and Gretchen accept their outcome
gracefully. Though Squeaky dealt with many conflicts throughout the story, she pulled through and made herself a better person. She thought of her brother instead of herself, and may even retire her lifelong dream of running to coach him. Her conflict with Gretchen was solved with a smile, and that shows much about Squeaky’s personality. Being kind and putting others first is more important than races or competitions. In the end, winning is not as important as helping others.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic novel written by Harper Lee. The novel is set in the depths of the Great Depression. A lawyer named Atticus Finch is called to defend a black man named Tom Robinson. The story is told from one of Atticus’s children, the mature Scout’s point of view. Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, the Finch Family faces many struggles and difficulties. In To Kill a Mockingbird, theme plays an important role during the course of the novel. Theme is a central idea in a work of literature that contains more than one word. It is usually based off an author’s opinion about a subject. The theme innocence should be protected is found in conflicts, characters, and symbols.
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
Throughout life people encounter a numerous amount of obstacles, some of these obstacles can be tougher than others. These obstacles don’t define who you are, how the situation is handled does. In the book The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen, Jessica encounters a tremendous obstacle that life could throw at her. Jessica has had to learn to adjust her life from the way that she used to live. Her life is changing and she has to decide if this accident defines who she is going to be while being surrounded by the love and comfort of her family.
Alice Walker’s love of Zora Neale Hurston is well known. She was the only one who went looking for Hurston’s grave. She describes her journey to get to the unmarked grave in her book, In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens. During that journey, Walker started to feel as if Hurston is family to her, an aunt. “By this time, I am, of course, completely into being Zora’s niece… Besides, as far as I’m concerned, she is my aunt – and that of all black people as well” (Ong). Walker’s book, The Color Purple, was influenced by Hurston and her works. Walker was greatly influenced by Hurston and her book The Color Purple has similarities to Hurston’s book Their Eyes Were Watching God.
In a country like the United States of America, with a history of every individual having an equal opportunity to reach their dreams, it becomes harder and harder to grasp the reality that equal opportunity is diminishing as the years go on. The book Our Kids by Robert Putnam illustrates this reality and compares life during the 1950’s and today’s society and how it has gradually gotten to a point of inequality. In particular, he goes into two touching stories, one that shows the changes in the communities we live in and another that illustrates the change of family structure. In the end he shows how both stories contribute to the American dream slipping away from our hands.
Many people think that reading more can help them to think and develop before writing something. Others might think that they don’t need to read and or write that it can really help them to brainstorm things a lot quicker and to develop their own ideas immediately (right away). The author’s purpose of Stephen King’s essay, Reading to Write, is to understand the concepts, strategies and understandings of how to always read first and then start something. The importance of this essay is to understand and comprehend our reading and writing skills by brainstorming our ideas and thoughts a lot quicker. In other words, we must always try to read first before we can brainstorm some ideas and to think before we write something. There are many reasons why I chose Stephen King’s essay, Reading to Write, by many ways that reading can help you to comprehend, writing, can help you to evaluate and summarize things after reading a passage, if you read, it can help you to write things better and as you read, it can help you to think and evaluate of what to write about.
Poverty and homelessness are often, intertwined with the idea of gross mentality. illness and innate evil. In urban areas all across the United States, just like that of Seattle. in Sherman Alexie’s New Yorker piece, What You Pawn I Will Redeem, the downtrodden. are stereotyped as vicious addicts who would rob a child of its last penny if it meant a bottle of whiskey.
In The Way to Rainy Mountain, the author Scott Momaday uses the theme of a journey to drive this story. He begins his journey after the passing of his grandmother, the journey to reconnect and rediscover his own culture. He shares this moment on page 10, “I remember her most often in prayer. She made long, rambling prayers out of suffering and hope, having seen many things…the last time I saw her she prayed standing by the side of her bed at night, naked to the waist, the light of a kerosene lamp moving upon her dark skin…I do not speak Kiowa, and I never understood her prayers, but there was something inherently sad in the sound, some merest hesitation upon the syllables of sorrow”. The passing brought a realization upon him to have to keep the culture going. He can barely speak Kiowa, while his grandmother was one of the few members who were completely fluent. I believe this book is a call out to his tribe to take the same journey Momaday took.
In “A Worn Path” colors are used to emphasize the depth and breadth of the story, and to reinforce the parallel images of the mythical phoenix and the protagonist Phoenix Jackson. Eudora Welty’s story is rich with references to colors that are both illustrative and perceptive, drawing us in to investigate an additional historical facet of the story.
With her mentally-challenged brother to her quick speed the main character of “Raymond's Run’’ by Toni Cade Bambara faces many difficulties throughout her interesting life. Although Squeaky is a show-off , she is very competitive and caring .
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.
There are numerous works of literature that recount a story- a story from which inspiration flourishes, providing a source of liberating motivation to its audience, or a story that simply aspires to touch the hearts and souls of all of those who read it. One of the most prevalent themes in historical types of these kinds of literature is racism. In America specifically, African Americans endured racism heavily, especially in the South, and did not gain equal rights until the 1960s. In her renowned book The Color Purple, Alice Walker narrates the journey of an African American woman, Celie Johnson (Harris), who experiences racism, sexism, and enduring hardships throughout the course of her life; nonetheless, through the help of friends and family, she is able to overcome her obstacles and grow into a stronger, more self-assured individual. While there are numerous themes transpiring throughout the course of the novel, the symbolism is one of the strongest prospects for instigating the plot. In The Color Purple by Alice Walker, numerous symbols influence and drive the plot of the novel.
Once again to protect herself from the negative energy she acts like she doesn’t care what others think of her; even though she wishes society accepted for who she is and didn’t have to have the bad girl reputation.At this point in time Squeaky is still telling us about her homelife and community, however now instead of narrating she is more of thinking to herself. She tells how her mother does not understand her passion for running and thinks that it makes her seem uncivilized--or unlady like. She feels that she can show everybody her value through being the best at running, unfortunately her mother feels that she should be doing girly activities and showing she can be classy and gentle-- which is how society saw girls in history. She must feel tired of having to consider herself different and acting like she does not care what others think-- and wishes that her mother would accept her. She also must feel disappointed considering that if her mother feels this way about Squeaky she must feel this way about herself as well; their for she wishes her mother believe that she ( her mother ) can run and do “boyish” things.This is shown in the text on page 28 and lines 69 to 76 she shows how she
“I don’t care what you think about me. I don’t think about you at all.¨ This quote by American singer, Jonathan Davis, shows that, the most important thing in life is to be yourself, to be who you really are. This is how the main character in a short story called ¨Raymond’s Run¨ feels. The protagonist Hazel, known as Squeaky, has a talent for running. But the time period that she lives in does not encourage girls to be runners. Still, she pursues her dream to be a runner. She believes that you should be yourself:, instead of being “a fairy or flower, when you should be trying to be yourself¨ (p. 39, lines 393-395). Squeaky finds people who are not being themselves a “burden¨--like in the song Believer by the Imagine Dragons, Squeaky wants
Squeaky's high self esteem makes her confident and not afraid to speak her mind. Squeaky being confident makes her feel comfortable with who she is and she is not afraid to express the things she enjoys. I think it is amazing how she is not ashamed to take care of her brother Raymond and how she is also not ashamed to do her breathing exercise down Broadway because she is not afraid to let people see what she enjoys to do. Squeaky has the confidence to explain herself to others as well. She understands and is not afraid to tell people that she is not made out to participate in the Maypole dance but to run the race instead. Her being realistic about that shows that she will not let people influence her but instead she will be true to herself.