Breaking Cycles In Kathryn Stockett's The Help

I have an older cousin who was finishing grade 8 and she was telling me how she was scared to go to high school. I told her to just relax and keep calm. She came back after her first day and told me it went

Karen got getting her yellow sweetheart rose represents her father not claiming her as his daughter like before. Her father was not comfortable with her being Lesbian and he did not know how to react. When parents night came along her father opened up about his feelings towards her being a lesbian and

In turn, Sally’s words negatively affected Esperanza’s autonomy. Next, when Esperanza talked about having to work, she stated that “It wasn’t as if I didn’t want to work. I did... I needed money. The Catholic high school cost a lot, and Papa said nobody went to public school unless

McCandless and Angelou change their own identities to create better lifestyles for themselves throughout the two books. Chris McCandless walks alone in the wilderness to invent a new life for himself. His relationship with his family is different as he is closest to his sister, Carine. He feels that his parents are too controlling, and he wants to be more free. Chris seems happy at his college graduation, but he leaves his house unexpectedly and never returns.

In response to her mother’s harsh words, the subject simply replies, “I was not allowed to do high school cheap and now I’m doin cheap” (19.4). The implication being that she made this choice intentionally. Modernism describes this as a Byronic Hero; someone who “appeals to society by standing apart from society, superior yet wounded or unrewarded” (Craig White's Literature Courses). The Harris poem evokes contradicting feelings of rebelliousness, and acceptance; it speaks of taking control of your life by letting go.

Suddenly everything is very different in Ji-Li and her family’s life. As the book goes on, they are shutting down stores, they arrest her own father, and Jiang’s family worries about other people being arrested as well. Ji-Li Jiang’s main argument while writing this book is that is it always important to stick together. It is important to stick together with you family and your friends, even if the times get tough.

Again, in the book, Eleanor has just given birth to her second daughter and her husband, Louis is upset because he does not think that France can be led by a woman. Because of this, Eleanor decides she wants a divorce. This is because she believes that a woman can run France and that women are just as capable as men. Then, five years later she finally gets an annulment, but according to how an annulment works "An annulment,... treats the marriage as though it never existed" (Annulment, Wikipedia). Therefore, an annulment is not possible because they have two kids and their kids will keep the marriage from being erased from history, because the kids are still considered the results of a marriage that is not supposed to exist anymore.

Dresses got shorter while the nights got longer to them. Instead of getting married at a young age and staying home with the kids, women decided to postpone their family lives and go to college or find an actual job. They wanted to prove that they could make their own decisions. Their determination also led to women flaunting themselves in a way that was never even thought of before. Corsets went out of the window, and bras became a new style.

First, Molly’s human development is inhibited by her adoptive mother expecting her to behave like a lady and punishing her for success within other roles, such as Student Body President. This lack of freedom to decide what she wants to do is also applicable to her financial constraints that shaped her college decision based on scholarships as well as limitations surrounding her ability to be a film director due to her gender and sexuality. Personally, my human development was ultimately shaped by myself, however, my parents had influence in the background. While my parents expected me to attend college and get a job right after school, I ultimately wanted the same thing for myself and had some freedom in deciding which university to attend as well as what field to get a job in. However, I attended TCU, which they were strong proponents of, and pursuing jobs in the banking industry, which they regard as stable and respectable positions.

In the Odyssey Penelope tries hard to embrace all the things women are given in life. She can do anything about the fact that Odysseus has been gone for almost twenty years, that her son does not know his own father and who he is supposed to take after, and that her home is almost in ruins because of all the suitors refusing to leave the house and trashing the house. Penelope is forced to choose a suitor, remarry and probably have more kids too. Penelope is not allowed to say if she wants that or not. We, as readers, can tell she is putting things off for as long as she can, but what if her alone was not enough.

The first essay I chose to read was called I Am in Dementia Prison with My Mom, Janet had no prior knowledge or understanding as to why her mother’s health, mind, and thought process was deteriorating. She couldn’t come to terms with her mom being mental sick and when she did she had help and support from her entire family. The second was titled Transferring Mom was New, But Restlessness and Inactivity Kindled her Agitation. Against her and he husband better judgment she took her mom to the store. I believe she did this because she did not want to tell her mom no, as a caregiver, especially to a loved one sometime following your intuition and saying no can be difficult

(29, 54) Despite the fact that Jolly was in a bad place, she still had people in her life like LaVaughn who were having a positive influence on her and her actions. For example, Jolly dropped out of high school at a young age because of her giving birth to Jeremy and Jilly. She had never got the chance to go back because she had to work to be able to pay the bills. There was no time to go to school, which Jolly originally laughed at because the thought of going back to school was incredulous to her and it was ridiculous.

When one has an advantage, whether born into, born with, or earned, it seems counterintuitive that one would give up this advantage. In The Help, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, a member of the white elites of Jackson, Mississippi during the Civil Rights era, rejects her high position of birth to help the lower class black housemaids, or “help”. Skeeter does this by interviewing black housemaids about their, mostly negative, relationships with their white bosses for a book while alienating herself from members of the white elite and dismantling the current system. This creates a contention: why would someone of the artificial aristocracy try to create a more meritocratic system and what does this show about the state of mobility in America? This

I read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot for the first time in high school for a summer reading assignment I was rushing to complete the last week of summer break. Four years later, I chose to read this book again because I now have an interest in biochemistry, in particular a goal to study antiviral agents in the hopes of a Hepatitis B cure. This time around, I understood the significance this book had because it revealed details of the racist treatment of African Americas that are intertwined with the hidden truths and hypocritical acts of the medical system that unfortunately still exist. On October 4, 1951 Henrietta Lacks died from cervical cancer at the young age of 31.

Rebecca Skloot’s purpose in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is to present Henrietta and her family’s story while presenting issues regarding science, ethics, race, and class in Henrietta’s story. Skloot also had a major goal of teaching people about Henrietta’s case so that it could be learned from in the future. This purpose can be broken down into three sub-purposes: showing the world the woman behind the science, discussing the roles of race and class, and critiquing science and ethical issues. By informing the reader about Henrietta Lacks’ cells that have changed the medical world and about the controversy surrounding them, Skloot is successful in presenting her purpose. All of these smaller purposes come together to create a novel that makes the reader think, feel, and want more of the Lacks’ riveting story.