Comparative Essay: Red Leaves and Graffiti Knight
Red Leaves by Sita Brahmachari is the story of a group of teenagers, each with family troubles, bonding and coming together, to make a family of their own. Graffiti Knight by Karen Bass, a story following a group of German teens, struggling under Soviet rule, working together to escape from the Soviet Union to America. The majority of Red Leaves was spent developing the characters, leaving less time to develop the plot or action of the story, in contrast, Graffiti Knight spent two-thirds of the story developing the plot up to the climax when the protagonists escape from the Soviets, leaving less time to develop the characters and their relationships. The character’s development and relationships
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At the begging of the novel Zak is a sheltered teenager that doesn’t understand the pain and suffering other people go through, he is unintentionally selfish and cares only about himself, and his family. By the end of the book, Zak has made a complete 180, talking to Aisha and Iona, hearing Aisha’s hardships from a young age and the abuse and isolation Iona received from her own family that caused her to live on the streets before she was even eight-teen. This forces Zak to acknowledge that everyone struggles and everyone feels the pain of being left alone, this makes him less selfish and conceited. Aisha struggles with being abandoned, as her mother died, her father was taken, both when she was a young child. This causes her to have abandonment issues, making it very hard for her to open up to people. When Aisha’s foster mother tells her that she found a family for Aisha to stay with, she feels abandoned and runs away into the woods. Aisha had opened up to Zak and Iona and she’s come to terms with the death of her parents, which helped solve her abandonment issues and help her open up, throughout the latter half of chapters of Red Leaves. Iona was a teen who was kicked out of her own house by her step-father. She had to survive on the streets by suppressing her emotions. Early in the book, Iona makes a racist comment against Aisha (before they’re
The book that I chose to do is Street Pharm by Allison van Diepen, the book has 297 pages, the reason I chose this book is personally I am tired novels taking place years before I am born. This novel pertains to urban problems and one kids' attempt to survive in the pressures of present day Brooklyn. Within the novel, there are several subplots, one being his love interest, Alyse, and Ty's fight to stay in school. As well as, his fight not to lose money or control of his territory. It is interesting to watch this young man, balance these things in his life and not let them interfere with each other.
In the high criminal neighborhood where the other Wes lived, people who live there need a positive role model or a mentor to lead them to a better future. Usually the older family members are the person they can look up to. The other Wes’s mother was not there when the other Wes felt perplexed about his future and needed her to support and give him advises. Even though the other Wes’s mother moved around and tried to keep the other Wes from bad influences in the neighborhood, still, the other Wes dropped out of school and ended up in the prison. While the author Wes went to the private school every day with his friend Justin; the other Wes tried to skip school with his friend Woody. Moore says, “Wes had no intention of going to school. He was supposed to meet Woody later – they were going to skip school with some friends, stay at Wes’s house, and have a cookout” (59). This example shows that at the time the other Wes was not interested in school. Because Mary was busy at work, trying to support her son’s education, she had no time and energy to look after the other Wes. For this reason, she did not know how the other Wes was doing at school and had no idea that he was escaping school. She missed the opportunities to intervene in her son’s life and put him on the right track. Moreover, when the author was in the military school, the other Wes was dealing drugs to people in the streets and was already the father of a child. The incident that made the other Wes drop out of school was when he had a conflict with a guy. The other Wes was dating with the girl without knowing that she had a boyfriend. One night, her boyfriend found out her relationship with the other Wes and had a fight with him. During the fight, the other Wes chased the guy and shot him. The guy was injured and the other Wes was arrested
Koren Zailcakas uses imagery to set a tone that solidifies the connections readers will make with her personal story regardless if they have ever had a sip of alcohol or are recovering addicts. If one has never taken a drink or known what it is felt like to be trapped by the liquid bars that alcohol may hold, one may not comprehend the true depths of Koren’s problem. Even in the end when Koren is breaking free of the shackles her dependence on alcohol has bestowed upon her she narrates with a technique that causes all readers to form an undeniable bond with her experiences. Through the trials and tribulations of Koren Zailckas readers are confronted with the story of a Drunken Girlhood and all she experienced under the influence of alcohol. Individuals are expected to have matured by the time they reach young adulthood so that can aspire to form genuine, stable relationships with their peers but Koren never constructed that desire because her first true relationship was based off alcohol. In turn, she could only ...
Aina is fourteen when Uwe leaves for Canada. She is devastated after his departure. She waits four years until he sends for her to come. Fourteen is a young age to fall in love. Aina is blinded by love and ignores the fact that she hardly knows Uwe anymore. In those four years, her imagination creates pictures of him and romantic scenarios that never actually occur. After recalling "memories" over and over during the time he is gone, she begins to believe they all transpired. ."..A whole new love began to assemble itself of out bits and pieces and snatches of memory. Some of these memories were of things that had actually happened- wildflowers that he had one day picked for her and given her by the stone wall near her father's well...Others were of events that she had wished had transpired, sentiments that she hoped he might one day express" (Hardy 99). Uwe writes her only twice during the four years allowing Aina to form her own ideas of what he is doing. With her spare time she invents a dream world that she visits to see Uwe. When Uwe sends the money order for her ticket Aina, she is overwhelmed. "However, the idea of leaving her family and her village and every...
Shostak, out of all the women in the tribe had made close connections with a fifty year old woman with the name of Nisa. The woman, Nisa, is what the book is about. The book is written in Nisa’s point of view of her life experiences while growing up in that type of society. Nisa’s willingness to speak in the interviews about her childhood and her life gave Shostak a solid basis on what to write her book on. Nisa’s life was filled with tragedies. She had gone through certain situations where Nisa loses two of her children as infants and two as adults. She had also lost her husband soon after the birth of one of their children. According to Shostak, “None of the women had experiences as much tragedy as Nisa…” (Shostak, 351).
Throughout the novel, crucial family members and friends of the girl that died are meticulously reshaped by her absence. Lindsey, the sister, outgrows her timidity and develops a brave, fearless demeanor, while at the same time she glows with independence. Abigail, the mother, frees herself from the barbed wire that protected her loved ones yet caused her great pain, as well as learns that withdrawing oneself from their role in society may be the most favorable choice. Ruth, the remote friend from school, determines her career that will last a lifetime. and escapes from the dark place that she was drowning in before. Thus, next time one is overcome with grief, they must remember that constructive change is guaranteed to
Zoe Webster, our protagonist, (in the stereotypical Young Adult trope) has parents that have just divorced which, in turn, forces her to move to a small, unknown town with her mother. As we all know from other novels which use this same formula, the main character ends up feeling depressed, bored, and extremely annoyed with whatever parent took her – in this case, her mother. Zoe has always been a lot closer to her high up there father, and she establishes that very quickly in the start of her narration. She believes that moving to a new, public high school will be the death of her chances of getting into the preppy private school of her dreams so she can then go to college – which, she believes, to be her one chance at escape. Yet another
She begins talking about her childhood and who raised her until she was three years old. The woman who raised her was Thrupkaew’s “auntie”, a distant relative of the family. The speaker remembers “the thick, straight hair, and how it would come around [her] like a curtain when she bent to pick [her] up” (Thrupkaew). She remembers her soft Thai accent, the way she would cling to her auntie even if she just needed to go to the bathroom. But she also remembers that her auntie would be “beaten and slapped by another member of my family. [She] remembers screaming hysterically and wanting it to stop, as [she] did every single time it happened, for things as minor as…being a little late” (Thrupkaew). She couldn’t bear to see her beloved family member in so much pain, so she fought with the only tool she had: her voice. Instead of ceasing, her auntie was just beaten behind closed doors. It’s so heart-breaking for experiencing this as a little girl, her innocence stolen at such a young age. For those who have close family, how would it make you feel if someone you loved was beaten right in front of you? By sharing her story, Thrupkaew uses emotion to convey her feelings about human
In “Calling Home”, by Jean Brandt and “An American Childhood” by Annie Dillard, both girls are confronted with their sense of conscience and of right and wrong. In the process, both girls experience memorable lessons as a consequence of the decisions they make. In “Calling Home”, thirteen year old Jean realizes that her actions not only affect her but more importantly, her loved ones, when she is caught shoplifting and arrested during a Christmas shopping trip with her siblings and grandmother. In “An American Childhood”, seven year old Annie realizes that adults and their feelings are valid and that they can be just as vulnerable and full of tenacity as a child after she and her friend find themselves being chased by a man who is none too amused at being a target of their snowball throwing antics. In both stories, Annie and Jean are smug in their sense of power and control. Both girls exhibit a general lack of respect for authority by justifying their actions and displaying a false sense of entitlement to pursue and attain whatever they wish, as if ordinary rules do not apply to them.
This story is based around the awful day of John F. Kennedy's death.The adults turn to religion in their time of sorrow over the death of the president. Neighbors console one another, and they meet at the church to pray together. Their problems are put to the side as they contemplate what this loss might mean to the president's family, to the nation, and to them. However, the humiliation that Elena has endured because of Eugene's mother's prejudice seems minor, at least in the minds of the people around Elena. Of course, Elena might disagree.
...ray color. Additionally, when Amir comes back in Afghanistan, he talks to Rahim Khan. They talk for a while and then Rahim Khan brings up how Hassan lives. In shock, Amir says Hassans’s name out loud for the first time in years. Amir thinks to himself as the regrets and memories that come with his name come flooding back, “Those thorny old barbs of guilt bore into me once more, as if speaking his name had broken a spell, set them free to torment me anew” (202). The guilt Amir feels from not helping Hassan when he gets raped, the lying so he would leave, thinking that would make his feeling better, still haunts him and still exists as an enormous part of Amir’s life. No matter how Amir tries to get over with Hassan, Amir always thinks about his best friend. To say Hassan’s name and to talk about him again, his hurtful pain and the guilt torment Amir worse than ever.
Migration Photograph by José Hernández-Claire and The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez both show the same subject. MP and RU both share the subject of family separation. Even though they both share some techniques to portray the story , they also use very different techniques to express their feelings.
Copper Sun, by Sharon Draper There is a girl named Amari an African girl that was free turned into a slave and then free again. On her journey she made many friends and some of them died. She was bought by a person named Mr. Derby. In this book there were many emotions there were two emotions that were the most major to the story and had the most impact on the story. Those emotions were sadness and anger. These two emotions are the most major emotions in this story.
By not taking that opportunity, Eveline probably missed a life of exploration with Frank. Eveline would have had the chance to know what independence feels like and she would have had the chance to experience individual freedom. Instead, her life afterwards is a life of regret and imprisonment with her family. Being an only child, she is bound by her family’s actions and their duties. Eveline has taken on an incredible part of the burden in keeping the family together. Her father is an overbearing and unfair man who takes his daughters earnings for himself; and rather than appreciating her sacrifices, he ridicules her. As she now lives with her dad and her two brothers, she feels tired and frustrated with her dad’s commands and her everyday life. Everyday, she sadly waits for frank to come back into her life once again and fill her life with happiness. Eveline may possibily in the future live her freedom when her controlling father passes away, but perhaps it will become too late for her to experience the freedom she wanted.
Furthermore, I respect people who acquire these traits because they’re pleasant to be around and they provide hysteria because they’re unpredictable and not discouraged easily. I believe Aisha would act in this manner if we were friends because she has these traits that I have just stated. Her traits aren’t the only example of why she’s my favorite character, the way she performed in the book I found intriguing as well. Even more, her actions showed how tenacious she is, especially the time she was prepared to debate with professionals to prevent her father from being detained by authorities. In all honesty, the point in the novel were Aisha cracked and started ignoring school, didn’t cause me to loathe her. I saw this as an example of how not all people are perfect. Throughout the beginning the book, the reader was introduced to Aisha as smart girl who was strong and unmoved by challenges. When she started breaking down due to the overwhelming chaos, it portrayed how everyone has a weak point it’s fine to make mistakes, which I believe is a true inspiration. Even more, after these threats, Aisha managed to pull together and help Nadira prevent Abba from being deported. This indicates courage and perseverance which made Aisha my most cherished character in this