Over this past summer I have had the pleasure of reading the novel We Were Liars, written by E. Lockhart; a very well written young-adult novel which entails the adventures and difficulties faced by the main character, Cadence Sinclair Eastman, and her three cousins during their visits on their family’s private island off the coast of Massachusetts. The book commences giving us background information about Cadence and her family. The Sinclairs, her mother’s side of the family, is a wealthy upper-class caucasian family; within the family is Harris Sinclair and his wife Tipper, as well as their three daughters Carrie, Bess, and Penny. Every summer Harris and Tipper along with their daughters and their families would travel to the family's private island, Beechwood Island, where Harris had built homes …show more content…
for each of his daughters. Penny and Cady lived at Windemere, the Sheffields at Cuddledown and the Dennises at Red Gate. Harris and Tipper resided at the largest home, Clairmont with its family portraits and expensive artwork. The older cousins, Cadence Eastman, Johnny Dennis, Mirren Sheffield along with Gatwick Patil were eventually nicknamed the Four Liars by their aunts. For eight summers, three of the cousins who were closest in age, Cady, Johnny and Mirren hung out together on Beechwood Island. During summer eight, Aunt Carrie arrived on Beechwood with Johnny and baby Will and her new partner, Ed, a dark skinned man of Indian heritage. Her marriage had taken a turn for the worse and she was now newly divorced. Ed brought along his nephew, Gat, who immediately seemed to fit in with the three cousins. Gat and Johnny grew close and Gat began coming to Beechwood every summer after that. From this point on the three cousins and Gat became known as the Liars. Cadence enlightens us on some of the tragedies that have arisen within the family contributing to the main conflict of the novel.
She informs us of her parents’ divorce as well as the death of her grandmother Tipper. When Cadence's father left, Cady was heartbroken. After the break-up, her mother told Cadence to ignore her feelings to pretend like nothing had happened. They proceeded to redecorate the house, throwing out anything that reminded Penny of her husband and retreated to Beechwood Island. As with the divorce, Cady's mother refused to allow her to mourn the loss of her beloved grandmother. However, Cady was very broken over the loss of these two people from her life. Gat would comfort Cady and attempt to allow her to talk to him about what had happened. That summer Cady found herself forming a friendship with Gat that would soon blossom into a first love. They began spending more time together, mainly going swimming together during the evening time. Until one night Cady apparently went swimming alone, and was found in her underwear on the beach by her aunts and was taken to a hospital on Martha's Vineyard. Cady remembered nothing about what happened that
night. For summer seventeen her father plans to take her to Australia and New Zealand, but Cady wants to return to Beechwood. She wants to see Mirren and Johnny. She wants to remember the accident and to know why Gat disappeared. Her parents eventually decide that she will go to Beechwood for four weeks. In what will be her first trip back to Beechwood Island since her accident, Cady can't wait to catch up with the Liars. Cady happily arrives at Beechwood, but they are not waiting for her at the dock like her other cousins. She discovers the newly updated Clairmont, in which the Sheffields now stay in alongside Harris. The Liars have Cuddledown to themselves and they never show up for meals at Clairmont. Cady spends her sojourn wasting time with her cousins and beloved Gat at the secluded home. Gradually Cady begins to remember events from that summer and suddenly her vacation of nothingness becomes clear, memories of a fire reveal the truth of what happened two summers ago and how family conflicts led to an unspeakable tragedy. Memories of that certain night began to flow at such ease. She remembers the plan; if we set fire to Clairmont the aunts will no longer have possessions to fight over, making them come to a realization that their family is of much more importance than objects. The Liars had started off well until Cady hears screams, realizing that she hadn't planned the fire well enough. Cadence had not given her cousins and Gat enough time to escape causing them to become trapped and unable to escape. She spends the next few days in her room, mourning her mistakes and death of her loved ones who had long lives ahead of them.
A character that was admirable in the novel “we all fall down” is John. John is the father of Will who is the main character, they spend nearly the entire story together looking for a way out of the world trade center during the 9/11 attacks. During the story you learn that John is very smart, brave, and respected. These are all characteristics which play a crucial role in saving lives such as his co-workers and a random lady they find on the way named ting, but mainly in the ending John and Will successfully escape.
The Other Wes Moore is a novel that shows the different paths of two different men, one successful and the other not so fortunate. We discovered their different identities and how their choices and role models effect their lives. Wes 1 was led by his brave, hard working mother and the great military men. He didn't make incredibly great decisions but the people in his life helped him turn into the successful man he is today.However, Wes 2 had a brother who dealt drugs. The novel guides you through the 8 crazy years that led to Wes Moore 1's success and Wes Moore 2's life sentence for prison.
“The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his” (Moore, 2011). This quote perfectly describes the book The Other Wes Moore. This book was a story about two people who have the same name and grew up in similar environments, but had very different lives. The author of the book, Mr. Moore, became successful and was given the opportunity to receive “one of the most prestigious academic awards for students in the world” (Moore, 2011). On the other side of the spectrum, the other Wes Moore “will spend every day until his death behind bars for an armed robbery that left a police officer and a father of five dead” (Moore, 2011). Mr. Moore decided to contact the
From the hood life, ghetto neighborhood, Three African-American made a pact to become successful doctors and face the obstacles that can lead them to down fall together. The Pact, a memoir written by Dr. Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt, describes their story in the 1980s of becoming doctors and the struggle that they faced. The three Young men were each other’s motivator. They followed each other’s steps and helped themselves succeed. One of them is Sampson Davis, a kid who grew up in those bad circumstances but still made it through that path and became a doctor.
Charters, Ann. The Story and Its Writer – An Introduction to Short Fiction. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. Print.
The book We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, follows the story of seventeen year old Cadence Sinclair. Growing up, Cadence spent every summer on her wealthy grandfather's privately owned island. Without realizing this until the end of the book, Cadence makes an important sacrifice and it changes her life completely. Surrounded by a luxury life on the island, it becomes clear to her and her three friends, known throughout the book as “The Liars,” that money is the thing driving her family apart. The four teenagers plot a way to fix the problem. All goes wrong and Cadence ends up sacrificing her friends to get what she always wanted, which was ultimately peace within her family.
In William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily”, readers are introduced to Emily Grierson whose character was highly respected in her society but for some mysterious reason fell off the grid. The other people in her community became curious as to what was going on in her life and any effort to find out the truth had proved to be futile. This journal seeks to show the narrator’s view of the Miss Emily’s story, as the narrator would refer to her due to the first person plural point of view the story was written in. Consequently, the sense in telling the story should be noted, as denoted by the title and why he would constantly use “we instead of “I”. Furthermore, the journal shall assess the effects on the overall story and the character of the narrator.
In the dystopian novel of The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, the theme is Loss of love. Loss of love is both demonstrated inside the novel and as well it is presented in the real world life where real humans live in. Who knew that in a fiction novel it can seem so real as these situations that are happening in the novel were not made up and were real things happening to the Characters. Just like these situations happening in the novel they are actually happening in the real world today. Loss of love occurs in the novel of The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil through three influential characters; Inner Horinters, Phil, and Carol. The fictional representation of loss is similar to real life situations such as Undocumented Immigrants
Mona Vanderwal is a character from the television series, Pretty Little Liars. Pretty Little Liars is a TV show that focuses on the lives of four girls who cope with the death of their close friend, Alison DiLaurentis. Later in the show, Ali actually comes back to the town which causes of a lot more drama and confusion. Mona is secenteen and attended Rosewood High school where she wanted to be a friend of the close group of four. Also, the four girls and others eventually are tortured by “A” and “A Team,” which at certain times Mona is rumored to be apart of. Mona was always on the outside looking in so was always bullied prior to Alison’s death and then went crazy and went sen to Radley for eight months. Radley was a mental hospital that Mona
John Ruskin once said, “The essence of lying is in deception, not in words”. With regards to what Ruskin talks about, deception is an act that Americans have lovingly embraced. It has been so embraced that we don 't even know if we are deceiving or being deceived. Stephanie Ericsson’s essay, “The Ways We Lie”, claims that “our acceptance of lies becomes a cultural cancer that eventually shrouds and reorders reality until moral garbage becomes as invisible as water is to fish” (343). In a sense, the relation between Ruskin’s quote and Ericsson’s claim is they both describe the current state of the American culture. The modern American culture is full of deceit and lies whether it’s to protect someone or hide a secret. And yet, we still accept
Sarah Orne Jewett was born in Berwick, Maine, 275 miles away from Oakfield, where my grandmother lives. Jewett’s story, “Miss Tempy’s Watchers,” takes place in a small farming town in New Hampshire, yet as I read the story for the first time, I was certain it took place in the small northern Maine town, and my grandmother was a subject of the author’s study. Jewett makes use of the dialect New England is known for by following very broad rules as well as the pickiest details one might never notice unless one were looking with ultimate scrutiny or from personal experience.
Frank, Otto and Pressler, Marjam, Eds. The Definitive Edition: The Diary of a Young girl. New York: The Anchor Rose, 1995, Print.
Defining the American character is quite difficult because American identity is vaguely founded on shared values and ideologies, more so than a particular creed, race, or culture. In order to describe the American character, we will consider the dominate and distinctive qualities of Americans as interpreted by J. Hector St. Jon De Crèvecoeur and Thomas Paine. First, we will examine how Crèvecoeur illustrates Americans as industrious, prideful, and political in “Letters from an American Farmer.” Then, we will analyze from Thomas Paine's “Common Sense” how he depicts the prevalent qualities of Americans to be driven by justice, liberty, emotions, and individualism. Also, because both authors consider the American character and culture different
Griffin, Susan. “Our Secret.” 1992. Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. 9th ed. Ed.
In the story My Favorite Chaperone, by Jean Davies Okimoto, I believe the theme is how working together makes life's struggles easier. The characters show this theme throughout the story. As children immigrants, the main characters struggle with combining a new culture with their family culture to find a new identity without bringing shame to their family. In the story, Maya, the main character, faces issues in how to fit in with a new world in America. In this new world there are different rules and expectations while she still has to respect and follow her family's traditions and rules. This conflict is shown when Maya wants to go to a school dance, but knows her parents would never let her go especially after she gets in trouble for