The novel, Whirligig, by Paul Fleischman shares the story of Brent Bishop, a teen who moves around often and has a hard time doing so, leading him to become extremely insecure about himself. The reader experiences Brent going through a troubled move as he loses control of himself at a party where he was bullied and became drunk. He ended up suffering the consequences of his actions by becoming suicidal on the road and ultimately killing another teen, Lea. Brent then leaves on a journey in search for becoming a better person and in restitution for Lea’s family. Brent's actions both before and after his journey result in many different consequences,both positive and negative, and they all changed him in one way or another. When thinking of a consequence, one usually thinks it is a punishment that will affect one’s life in a negative way. In this novel, Brent learns that that is not true since he experiences consequences which are good for him. One would think that hitting and killing another young teen could only have a negative impact on Bent's future. However, it actually results in a positive outcome for Brent in the end. The outcome of this was Lea’s mom’s wish for remembrance of Lea, “This is my only request. That you make four whirligigs, of a girl that looks like Lea. Put her name on them. Then set them up in Washington, California, Florida, and Maine--the corners of the United States… That’s what I ask.”(41) Lea’s mother wished that Brent would accept this journey across the United States to build these whirligigs, and though at first it seemed like a negative outcome, it ended up being a positive one since Brent was able to get away from his past and blossom into a better, more mature young adult. Another positive c... ... middle of paper ... ...a of brightening up the days. The result of his actions all changed Brent and were steps in his journey to becoming a better, more mature, less insecure teenager. Brent's journey has brought him many consequences, helping him mature as consequences do for people every day in the world today, and even in the past. In India, one of the main religions is Hinduism and a basic principle of Hinduism is something called karma. Karma is what determines their placement in their next life based on what they did in their previous life; the result of their actions. Their religion was based off of consequences similar to how our lives revolve around the consequences of our actions. The famous quote “what goes around comes around” is an American karma and shows how consequences affect our lives tremendously, such as Brent’s did for him. Works Cited Whirligig by Paul Fleishman
Brent was the closest to Blake. He was his brother. Brent and Blake grew up together. They have memories of their childhood together and things to reminisce on. Brent remembers Blake was being curious and accidentally fired a gun. Luckily, the gun recoiled and drove the hammer into the web between the thumb and index finger . This accident left a scar between those two fingers. But when Blake became a drug dealer, He abandoned his brother before his death. Brent became heartless to the point that ,“I told myself to feel to feeling. I had already mourned Blake and buried him ... I skipped the funeral “(Staples,408). Brent probably knew his brother more than anyone. Brent throw away all the memories they shared because Blake was a drug dealer. I understand that Blake was ignoring his brother’s warnings and that made him frustrated ,but that 's not a valid excuse to not attend your own brothers funeral. The thing that broke this bond was the fact his brother was a drug dealer and that was his closest family member need to abandoned his
Eric Rauchway’s Murdering McKinley: The Making of Theodore Roosevelt’s America is an examination of the events, social conditions and dramatic political changes taking place in America immediately prior to and during the birth of the 20th century that led to the assassination of William McKinley and the rise of progressivism. It is furthermore an investigation of the motives behind the assassination, and an analysis of the events leading up to what made possible “Roosevelt’s America,” arguably the first recognizably modern period in American history from a 21st century perspective: the progressive era.
The biggest lessons learned are the ones that Brent learns on his trip to the four spots. All kinds of people contribute to Brent’s change of attitude; one comment or story or facial expression at a time. Not only does he help himself, but also several people that he meets.
Mistakes can seriously impact the people who make them; however, the effects are not always negative. In the book, Whirligig, by Paul Fleischman, a teenage boy named Brent is the new kid in town and he faces some major problems with his peers. After being pushed around, treated like a pawn, and utterly rejected, Brent tries to commit suicide by taking his hands off the wheel of his moving car. Although Brent’s attempt is not successful, his actions still have a tragic ending- Lea, a young, kind, beautiful girl, is unlucky enough to be in the car that Brent crashes into. The car accident results in Lea’s death, but also the start of Brent’s magical journey of redemption. Brent’s task is to travel to the four corners of the country, build and display whirligigs, and keep Lea’s spirit alive. Though Brent may not realize it, the trip does influence him in many different ways, one major change being Brent’s newfound ability to create strong relationships with a variety of people that he meets during the course of his adventure. Throughout Brent’s journey, Paul Fleischman uses the people that Brent interacts with to portray the idea that friendships can be formed regardless of personality type, race, and age.
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
Everything is criticized at every level in this story, the people by the main character, the main character by the author and even the story by the author as well. The cruel egoistic personality of Anders is definitely identifiable through these different levels of criticism. I will prove that the inner motivation of this behaviour derives from Anders' egoistic personality which sometimes makes him cruel against others, sometimes against himself. Furthermore, I will prove that whenever Anders criticizes somebody or something he actually tries to punish because of the imperfectness of the object. In order to make the referring to the different part of the story easier I divide it into three parts. The first part ends when the robbers appear at the door of the bank, the second ends when one of the robbers shoots at Anders and the left is the third part.
The name of my book is Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan. This is a mystery thriller about five teens who plan to kidnap their English teacher to teach him a lesson. Their teacher is very hard on them and does not allow any room for slacking. But instead of just kidnapping him for a while, they decide to abandon him for a while by a deserted lake in the middle of nowhere. Two of the teens come back to find that he is dead. Now they must decide what to do with the body and how to explain his death.
Introduction:The road to maturity and adulthood can be a long and difficult road for teens, especially when it comes to decision making and changing your view on the world. The popular short story, “On the Sidewalk Bleeding”, written by world-renowned author, Evan Hunter in 1957, displays this perfectly. Hunter uses the protagonist, Andy, to illustrate his development from adolescence into adulthood as he shifts from a state of ignorance to a state of knowledge, from a mindset of idealism to realism and from a selfish personality to a selflessness personality. Hunter expresses the major theme of coming of age through this protagonist character who is seen shifting from a state of adolescence to a more matured state of adulthood throughout the story.
Brent Staples is fearful because he is constantly threatened, both physically and emotionally. Staples has justified reason to feel afraid, as he resides in a world where hate and judgement fill the minds of those around him. Due to the prejudice
Depression is the most common mental illness and the reason why many people commit suicide. It is commonly found when people fail to cope effectively with stress or experience painful, disturbing or traumatic events that overwhelm them. Suicide has become one of the main cause of death for young adults in Canada, leaving only tragic incidents behind; around 4000 Canadians die every year by committing suicide (“Canadian Mental Health Association”). America, by E.R. Frank, is about a young child, who goes through a lot of emotional and physical pain due to the people around him. When he is older, America hesitates to tell anyone about the traumatic events that he had gone through. America’s emotional state is damaged by his mother, Browning, and the whole system. In general, these people caused America to suffer emotionally and mentally. They did not take good care of America, forced him to think
was fighting a fire on duty as a firefighter, Derek blamed “blacks, brown, yellows, its all their fault” and that lead him down a dark path. Disgruntled and confused, Derek became a leading member in a Neo-Nazi group, which he called the D.O.C. Danny, his young brother, watched, listened, and breathed every word Derek spoke. He too bought into the world of hatred. During the time Derek spent in jail for killing three black burglars, Danny tried to do everything possible so his brother would respect him when he got out. But the time in jail transformed Derek. He rethought his whole life when his former black principal visited him in jail to ask, “Has anything you’ve done made your life better?” (Kaye).
Imagine that you are responsible for someone else’s death and you have to live with that for the rest of your life. You would try to seek forgiveness from the victim’s family but also try to find a way to forgive yourself for this horrible mistake that you made. That is exactly what the two main characters in Whirligig and Crossroads have to overcome. Brent is the character from Whirligig that tries to kill himself by drinking and driving but instead kills another person. As for Justin, he kills a mother and daughter by recklessly street racing. Both of them not concerned for anyone else but themselves and didn’t give much thought as what could happen. They now have to find a way to accept if the families of the three killed will forgive
In result, Bebe’s mother told her she was disappointed in her, then sent her to her room, leaving her alone with her own consciousness, and leaving her alone to think about what she had done. On her way to her room she stopped to watch her neighbor, who was beating his son for something that was seemingly less important than what Bebe had done herself. She recalls a time when all the kids, the neighbors, her siblings, and herself, had all gotten in trouble together and the neighbors had said he was going to beat them all (128). Even though the neighbors boys were beaten and spanked they continued to get into trouble and do the things that caused them punishment, knowing they would get into trouble for it. Yet, even before Bebe's mother told her she was disappointed in her, she felt guilt and remorse, due to the way her mother had raised her, instilling values in her that saying and doing certain things wasn’t acceptable. This is one of the main examples of how there is no specific set of values, and that each family gets to choose their own values and how they instil them in their family.
...e glass in an automobile accident. With all the excitement and let down going on it still embedded in his mind, J.B. viewed all the negativity that he received from his family. As determination to achieve his goal because he knew he was going to better his family and most importantly himself.
... by running into actions instead of thinking things through, he ended up learning that there is always a consequence to the choices you making in