I think there could be multiple things that the author could have intended to get through to the readers. She could have wanted to teach or show young adults how hard life could get under certain circumstances. She also could have meant to reveal to kids that life isn’t always nice,easy or as pretty as you might have thought it was as a little kid. The true intent of the book could very well be something completely different from both of these things. In Make Lemonade the main focus is Verna Lavaughn’s life. That includes how she is in high school working as a babysitter for a 17 year old girl named Jolly with two little kids Jeremy and Jilly. Lavaughn talks about how she is working to earn money for college ‘’That’s why that word COLLEGE is in our house all the time, it’s why I babysit, it’s why I do all homework all the time, it’s what will get me out of here.’’ (Wolff 11). Lavaughn continues to work as a babysitter because of the love she developes for jolly’s children. Even though she didn’t get paid for a while she continued to be there for Jolly and her kids ‘’ I figure I don’t even feel bad about it. Matter of fact, shopping for shoes with Mr.Jeremy is fun. I don't need to get paid to have fun.’’ (Wolff 80). …show more content…
Jolly is only 17 years old and lives in a beat down apartment with her two kids.
She loses her job she had at a factory and almost got raped by her boss. She goes without a job for a while and Lavaughn even had to miss a day of school because Jolly didn’t go home for two days. The story line could be seen as a lesson to many teenagers, especially girls. Getting pregnant at 14 or 15 could change your whole life and that could be one thing the author is trying to get across to the readers. Making big decisions like that early on in life may affect it more then some people think it might. ‘’ But I never been in such a bad mess like Jolly is. I never had 2 kids and no job and the rent due.’’ (Wolff
63) Lavaughn deals with her friends telling her that there are better jobs that don’t require as much work as babysitting. On top of that she deals with the stress of being able to keep her grades up.
In conclusion, the story describes that life changes, and nothing stays the same throughout it. It is in the hands of the people to decide that how they want their life to be. They can make it as beautiful as they want to and they can also make it worse than it has ever been
While she might think that her plans are working, they only lead her down a path of destruction. She lands in a boarding house, when child services find her, she goes to jail, becomes pregnant by a man who she believed was rich. Also she becomes sentenced to 15 years in prison, over a street fight with a former friend she double crossed. In the end, she is still serving time and was freed by the warden to go to her mother’s funeral. To only discover that her two sisters were adopted by the man she once loved, her sister is with the man who impregnated her, and the younger sister has become just like her. She wants to warn her sister, but she realizes if she is just like her there is no use in giving her advice. She just decides that her sister must figure it out by
...aVaughn a story about a blind lady, Jolly’s point is that you have to be careful with who you trust and that you can’t change your past. Plus, LaVaughn states,“I suddenly see the sign of her life: Nobody told me.” She also understands that Jolly didn’t get herself into her mess. Jolly learns from LaVaughn how to prioritize and that getting an education was a good idea. Jolly becomes more dedicated and responsible after she goes to school and it made her life easier. Jolly and LaVaughn may have diverse personalities, but they still learned something from each other.
It was times throughout the book the reader would be unsure if the children would even make it. For example, “Lori was lurching around the living room, her eyebrows and bangs all singed off…she had blisters the length of her thighs”(178).Both Lori and Jeannette caught fire trying to do what a parent is supposed to do for their child. Jeannette caught fire at the age of three trying to make hotdogs because her mother did not cook for her leaving Jeannette to spend weeks hospitalized. She was burnt so bad she had to get a skin graft, the doctors even said she was lucky to be alive. The children never had a stable home. They were very nomadic and a child should be brought up to have one stable home. No child should remember their childhood constantly moving. This even led to Maureen not knowing where she come from because all she can remember is her moving. The children had to explain to her why she looked so different is because where she was born. They told Maureen “she was blond because she’d been born in a state where so much gold have been mined, and she had blue eyes the color of the
It is commonly believed that the only way to overcome difficult situations is by taking initiative in making a positive change, although this is not always the case. The theme of the memoir the Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is that the changes made in children’s lives when living under desperate circumstances do not always yield positive results. In the book, Jeannette desperately tries to improve her life and her family’s life as a child, but she is unable to do so despite her best efforts. This theme is portrayed through three significant literary devices in the book: irony, symbolism and allusion.
At this point of the story it is reflective of a teenager. A teenager is at a time in life where boundaries and knowledge is merely a challenging thing to test and in some instances hurdled. Where even though you may realize the responsibilities and resources you have, there is still a longing for the more sunny feelings of youth.
The author does not state this directly through anything in the book, but it could be an implied meaning that the author wanted the reader to understand. This book may cause the reader to realize that not all people are like them, and not all people come from a good background. Most people hide it behind a smile, but others may break down and have days where they just need to be comforted. Instead of making fun of them for being down, one could go up and help the person in need. Possibly a friend is all that they need to keep them going forward.
In the story “Block Party” by Walter D. Mayer, the story has elements that shows the difficulties of growing up as an teenager. One way it shows is through the characters. Peaches is kind at the end of the story. After finding out about the situation J.T. and his mom were in, she decide to give them some money. Peaches gave her $200 to JT and his mom, “Big Joe got them a little place on 141 street, across from a school. It wasn't no mansion but it was cool. Then Peaches gave them her whole 200 dollars wedding gift money, which JT said he would pay back but I know he didn't have a job (150). It shows that if you did something bad without knowing, there is always a way you can fix your mistakes. Even if you can’t fix your mistake completely, it’s better to do something rather than doing nothing and
She is described as a “normal” teenager. She is on the honor roll, has a nice boyfriend, and is really good at playing soccer. She has her whole life ahead of her, until she decides to sleep with her boyfriend which resulted in an unwanted pregnancy. Though out the book Devon was in denial of ever being pregnant. She couldn’t believe that she could ever get pregnant “that it could happen to a girl like her.” Later on in the story Devon goes her whole pregnancy without showing or telling anyone about it until the day she gives birth in the bathroom of her house while no one is home. She then panics about what is happening and decided to throw the baby away in the garbage outside. Due to her mother’s lack of guidance and lack of sexual prevention or informational classes in school Devon got pregnant, was ashamed so she hid the pregnancy, and ended up sacrificing her life and going to a juvenile detention center that could have easily been
She instantly knew what she wanted to do with her life, but it was a matter of being able to make a livable financial income. She sincerely states, “I cleaned my friends’ houses till I could find a job, I rode buses, I didn’t have a car and it was really sad coming from a ‘safe haven’... to go from bouncing around to friends’ houses, sleeping at random people’s houses. It was horrible.” She was only eighteen years of age. She in a sense lost the support of most of her family and she was forced to learn quite a bit about taking responsibility for herself so early in her life.
The theme of the story is maturity. This is because in the beginning of the story, Lizabeth had no sense of compassion for others. Lizabeth’s character had some hardships, and she was beginning to realize that she was growing up, but didn’t know the pace she was growing at. She was living in rural Maryland during the Great Depression as an African American, which can create many problems such as her dad not having any luck finding a job. Lizabeth’s mother had a job and was the breadwinner of the family. This really disturbed Lizabeth’s dad, who seemed to be going through a mid-life crisis and believed that he was worthless to his family and that he had failed them. For the first time, Lizabeth heard her father cry. This made Lizabeth fear because so many things in her life were going wrong, but hearing this
There will always be ugly things in the world,but you have to look deep within to find the beauty of it all.That's the first theme of the story.One example of why i say that is,And one other thing i remember,another incongruence of memory-a brilliant splash of sunny yellow against the dust Miss Lottie's Marigolds on page 213,lines 12-14 in the collection textbook.Another example of my statement is whenever a memory of those marigolds flashes across my mind,a strange nostalgia comes with it and remains long
Along with each age group comes some worries. When you are in the childhood age group, things that seem big to you actually are not all that big. For example, when Dennis’ mom tells him he has to go to Margaret’s house while she goes to work all summer, he acts like it is the end of the world. In the adolescent age group things get a little more stressful. Some things that are stressful for the adolescents are keeping up their grades because school has gotten harder, getting a job, making the team, and things like that. With the adulthood and older adulthood age group comes the realization of necessities needed to just get by because it is the first time you are supporting yourself. As time goes on you ge...
The speaker in the poem uses images to help to support the theme. For example the statement that "sometimes the woman borrowed my grandmother's face" displays the inability of the children to relate the dilemma to themselves, something that the speaker has learned later on with time and experience. In this poem, the speaker is an old woman, and she places a high emphasis on the burden of years from which she speaks by saying "old woman, / or nearly so, myself." "I know now that woman / and painting and season are almost one / and all beyond saving by children." clearly states that the poem is not written for the amusement of children but somebody that has reached the speaker's age, thus supporting the idea of the theme that children cannot help or understand her or anybody of her age. In addition, when the speakers describes the kids in the classroom as "restless on hard chairs" and "caring little for picture or old age" we can picture them in our minds sitting, ready to leave the class as soon as possible, unwilling and unable to understand the ethics dilemma or what the speaker is feeling.
Parents would work hard all day, but still could not afford to keep the family taken care of. There was only one way for the family, to survive and that was to force the children to work wherever they could. In Songs of Innocence, the narrator’s mother died (1). Following his mother’s death the narrator was sold by his father, because the he could not afford to take care o and himself. This was the tragic life of the lower class. Adolescents had to work so they could eat. In “Songs of Experience” it is unclear why the parents make their child work. It states that they “clothed him in the clothes of death” (7). The narrator conveys that he was having fun playing and running around, and then his parents forced him to work (Experience 5). Yet, his parents were at the church praying, when they needed to be out working with their