I spent the afternoon revisiting the movie Stepmom starring Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts. When the movie first was released, it was Christmas 1998. I was the stepmother to 2 stepdaughters and one stepson. In addition, I had added to our brood by becoming a biological mom to a daughter (3 years) and a baby boy (4 months). I had the crazy notion that maybe this would be a perfect movie for me to see with my two stepdaughters, Danielle and Nicole over the Christmas break from school. Both resisted, and I recall that I never did see the movie in the theaters. I ended up renting it and watching it alone on VHS several months later. Stepmom is the story about the rocky relationship between Jackie (biological mom) and Isabel (soon-to-be stepmother). In the opening scene, Jackie, …show more content…
I was very defensive of the character of Isabel, becoming, at times irate with Jackie for insulting Isabel constantly. This was so commonplace that at one point her son, Ben (played by Liam Aiken), tells her that if she really wants him to hate Isabel, he will. At this point in the movie, I really expected the mother to realize the position she was putting her children in and try to mend her ways. But, alas, this does not happen and mom continues to insult poor Isabel to no avail, causing the daughter, Anne (played by Jena Malone)to begin to despise Isabel and is sure to make a point of making Isabel’s life miserable. This continues throughout the movie, even after Jackie is diagnosed with cancer, and realizes that Isabel some day will be the only mother figure her children will have. I remember loathing Jackie at the time, relating to my own rocky relationship with my stepchildren’s mother. She, too, would take digs at me on a regular basis and took all conversations with the kids as a chance to try and turn them against me. So, Jackie was the evil villain of the story in my 1998
Jacqueline Schectman is a therapist who has focused on the psychological pattern finding archetypes brought out by stories that resonate with the readers own experiences. She attempts to bridge the connection between the reader 's imagination and real life. In “Cinderella” and a Loss of Father-Love, Schectman takes what her clients take from Cinderella, and uses it to understand their case better. Their interpretation of the story Cinderella reveals what they tend to relate with in their personal lives. While in The Truth about Cinderella, Martin Daly and Margo Wilson explain the statistics of stepparent domestic abuse towards children, sexual and domestic violence. While both authors use Cinderella and her wicked stepmother as the analogy between children and their stepparents, Jacqueline Schectman focuses more on emotional abuse, while Martin Daly and Margo Wilson emphasize physical abuse.
Step Mother (second wife of fathers and mother to the youngest children) was only a young girl when her parents were killed. After a series of unfortunate events she was bought from a village clan and sold to become someone’s “companion”. None of this was her choice. “She was taken to a mission house, then taken away again, reclaimed by the village clan, and eventually sold into fathers canton merchant family” (13). Objectified and forced to be what someone else wants, stepmother is told to be exactly how the father wants her. She is forced to be submissive, and acts as a mother to the children, a wife to the husband, and a servant to the grandmother, or Poh-Poh. Throughout the novel her life is not hers to live, and her children are taught to treat her differently because of it. She is father’s second wife and not his first and because of this the children-even those who are biological- are expected to call her stepmother: “Poh-oh insisted we simplify our kinship terms in Canada, so my mother became “step mother.”… What the sons called my mother, my mother became… Father did not protest. Nor did the slim, pretty woman that was my mother seem to protest, though she must have cast a glance at the old one and decided to buy her time” (15). Stepmother is forced to be a third party in the raising of her children. She is only able to step out of
The movie Night John was incredible with its expression of such realistic telling of slave lives and the passion they had to be free. The movie which centers on the young Sarnay from birth through an amazing journey of learning to read. John is the Harriet Tubman of the movie standing as more of mythical figure rather than just a man. He was bent on freeing other slaves so much he returned from the North to help others see the light. In my opinion the light, or freedom, that John was trying to bring and instill was that of knowledge and the power that could arise from this knowledge without fear of the consequences. He uses a pupil to instill power, but also confidence to stand up and want more freedom. After being showed how to read there
Freshman Father is Hallmark original movie, that seems to attract many viewers. It is based on a true story of John Wand. He was an eighteen-year-old from Iowa and was about to enter into Harvard Law school on a full ride, but then got the news that his high school girlfriend was pregnant with his son. John, the father, and Kathy, the mother were crowned king and queen of their senior prom. Their parents do not really have a huge income but themselves have such a bright future ahead of them. Once Kathy announced that she was pregnant, they immediately got married and Kathy into Harvard with John where they are shunted into student housing. Once they are all moved in, John is a full time student and working at a book store,
Nurse Jackie is a television series that is set in a hospital environment. Within the hospital there is an interdisciplinary approach which focuses more on the work the nurses perform. Jackie is the main character who we follow and is an emergency department (ED) nurse. Jackie is a hard working nurse who is experiencing severe back pack pain thus causing her to use narcotics to control the pain. That said, this paper will explore how nursing and Jackie’s character is portrayed in the show as well as how Jackie can be seen as a leader (Austin, 2009).
At the beginning of the short story Maggie's family is introduced, from her scrappy little brother Jimmie, to her short lived brother Tommie, her alcoholic mentally-abusive mother Mary, and her brutish father. Jimmie's friend Pete is introduced and becomes a mirror image of Jimmie later on in the book. They both are portrayed as Don Juans, the seducers of young women who treat women as objects rather than people. Maggie's father is as short-lived as her brother Tommie. However, he becomes a negative social factor in Maggie's life. Maggie’s mother was an essential symbol of hypocrisy and pessimism throughout the book, from her drinking to her last comment in the book “I'll Forgive Her” (Crane).
The grandmother who is miserable and mean to everyone, throughout the play she played her part well. There was a time in the story where she took the candies and pretzel behind Jay 's back and him to pay for them even though he takes it. He was so upset, he wanted to leave Uncle Louie to be a gangster to help his father so he could be able to come back for them. Another humorous moment was when Aunt Bella, would constantly go to the movies, and she met an usher name Johnny there and within 10 days he asked her to marry him. She wanted to but scared her mom would say no, and saying yes to giving her five thousand dollars for Johnny to open a restaurant. This was hilarious, who in their right state of mind, meet a guy and say yes to marrying him after such short time meeting
Another concept of motherhood as featured is that of strength where after her parents divorce, Maya’s mother is able to move on with her life and even support her daughter against her boyfriend, Mr. Freeman. Here, Maya considers the aspect of strength as one of the pillars of motherhood and she persists with it despite her doubts and fears as a young woman. When she goes back to Momma’s house after Mr. Freeman’s death, she experiences the strength of her grandmother in helping her to overcome her silence.
She holds back the close emotional connections that her children and husband crave. Instead, she prepares her children for life's disappointments and hardships, for which she has never expected.
The following paper is written based on the video “When Kids Get Life”. The video explains three major cases that hit the news across the country. The writer expresses the views of why the United States has an inflated number of juveniles sentence to life. The writer looks at the Colorado justice system and how it has become harsh against juveniles in the past years and why. The juvenile justice system was improved however; it only benefitted the victim’s and prosecution when it comes to trial and the transfer of the case to adult court. The cases that are presented in this video only show victims of crimes that were committed on the juvenile offenders in the writer’s opinion. The offenders in these cases were sexual abused, tormented, and victims of assailants that helped commit the murders. The writer implicates that the judges, jury, and even the district attorney’s should all be a part of the
We always had prestige times with our step mom. I don’t remember my childhood at all, So every time I ask her, she tells me I was one of those weird kids, but the good kind of weird she’d say to me. The change I went through was exuberant. She made me the young lady I am today. I’m not as bad as I used to be before I met her I’ve toned my life down a lot. I stopped worrying about if my mom was ever going to love me. My stepmom made life worth living. She is my idol I look at when I give up. She is the light at the end of the tunnel.
Ever since I was little I remember playing games where I would fight the bad guy and win the girl in the end. This never seem to affect me or make me wonder what small effect it had on my thought process. In games such as Zelda, call of duty, assassin creed, gears of war, Mario, and even halo you play as a white heterosexual male. The idea of playing this way never seemed to phase me as a young child. As I grew up and became more aware of the difference of people and the need for other as well as myself a need to be able to connect and find one 's self in different place such as games, movies, and TV shows. I became aware of the one sided views that video games seem to have. Then I realized that it was seen as acceptable to only have the one sided displayed due to the lack of speaking out on the need for change.
People around us have a significant impact on the way we live our life, whether consciously or subconsciously. In the novel The Color Purple by Alice Walker, the protagonist Celie’s life is greatly impacted by that of her friend, mentor, and lover, Shug Avery. The confident and independent Shug teaches her about equality, the way to be religious without being devoted to a figurehead, and how to respect and love herself. She teaches all of these qualities by living them herself in everyday life; the way she carries herself, speaks, acts, and even prays in ways that inspires Celie. If it was not for Shug’s assertiveness presence, Celie would have never had the opportunity to become a different person and her view on life would be more sheltered.
The divorce causes their slightly smaller family to move back south. Jackie grows to love the south, and despite the discrimination existing there, some white’s still treat her and other blacks well.
Throughout the month of March I finished Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, which focused heavily on the future, and quickly began the famous science fiction novel 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke out of wonder for what people nearly four decades ago thought the world we live in today would be like. I had ample amounts of time to meet and exceed my goal whether that be at 6th grade camp, on the plane over spring break or on my lazy sundays. To my surprise I was able to finish the novel in just over a months time and become a stronger reader in the process. The fact that I also found this book wildly interesting also contributed to my ability to finish it so quickly but nonetheless I have definitely gone from a good reader to great