Little Miss Sunshine

Mary was an unorthodox mother who was often swaying back and forth between the temptation to pursue her selfish endeavor of becoming an artist and her duty as a mother to assume responsibility and support her family. This constant feud resulted in the entire family losing faith in her and becoming distraught. Jeannette’s mother was one of the key factors that contributed in the plan for her and her older sister, Lori to move to New York and start a fresh life there. It was with the realization that the only method in which they can prosper and live a good life was to leave their parents and start a life anew. Jeannette and Lori realized that they must think logically and think about progressing in life although this plan may not comply with the ideal plan of living together as an amalgamated

Nathalie Diaz’s poems “How to Go to Dinner with a Brother on Drug” and “ My Brother at 3 A.M” point out how drug and alcohol abuse cause stress and problems over a family. Diaz explains the struggle that her family has to be through because of her brother addiction. Diaz’s poems show her life and the struggle she needs to experience such as drug addiction, violence, and poverty.

Both the play Real Women Have Curves by Josefina Lopez and the movie adaptation make an attempt to communicate the message of female empowerment through their respective protagonists, Estela and Ana. Men resolve most of Ana’s problems, whereas Estela relies on herself and other women. The play conveys the theme of female empowerment because it is female-centric, successfully addresses the issues of body image, and focuses on women’s independence and self-validation. Lopez’s play serves as an example of what can happen when women uplift and depend on each other, as opposed to men.

The true essence of “The Birthmark” is infiltrated through the hidden structure of the strength of a woman. As we unpack the passion behind the obsession that Aylmer presents with his genius in science, on the surface, one may recognize his obscenity and categorize it as a reflection of masculine control. Though, this is in fact true, what strikes as an unbeknownst strength is the hidden sacrifice that Georgiana represents as she succumbs to her spouse and his desire to make her “perfect”. As Hawthorne structures this sacrifice as a mere testament of how women of the late 1700’s - 1800’s valued the perspective of their spouse, it is necessary to extract how this act of selflessness attributes to the amount of love and respect Georgiana has for

In Gerald Early’s essay “Life with Daughters: Watching the Miss America pageant,” Early talks about his experience of watching Miss America pageants with his family. The issue explored in his essay is the way black culture in society is affected by America’s standard of beauty and the difficulties black women experiences when trying to find one’s identity because of this. Early believes that America’s standard of beauty is white, the look that is most praised in the beauty pageants. He uses rhetorical strategies such as allusion, ethical persuasion, and emotional persuasion to emphasize that America's standard of beauty has an effect on black women.

The 1950’s was a very controversial time specially for woman, during that era they symbolized the traditional gender roles; housewife’s, submissive and conservative. Surprisingly, Marilyn Monroe, Barbie and beauty pageants became very popular even though they challenged the image of an ideal woman at the time by portraying more beauty and sexuality. These icons symbolized various messages while still upholding some of the traits that dominated that era.

The movie Real Women Have Curves was about a Mexican- American your woman by the name of Ana. Ana struggle to accept the traditions of her family that were heavily enforced by her mother Carmen. Ana has just graduated high school, quit her job, and dreams about attending college. Her mother had a different plan than Ana. After finding out that Ana has quit her job she forces Ana to come work in her sister Estela’s dress factory. Although she went and work in the factory to help out her sister Ana did not give up on her dream of attending college. Without her mother knowing and help from her high school teacher she began to fill out college and scholarship applications. After finally being accepted into the University of Columbia, Carmen takes a stand and make Ana to but her family before college. Ana has more curves than her mother would like her to have. Carmen thinks just because Ana is “fat” she will not be able to find a husband. But Ana is comfortable with her body and encourages the other women in the factory to love themselves for who they are and take chances. That is exactly what Ana did when she finally got her father’s blessing and decided to go to New York for college.

The concept of a tragic hero can also be applied to real-life individuals. For example, Demi Lovato is a perfect example of a modern day tragic hero. Lovato starts out as someone who is common in social status but becomes noble in character. Further, Demi Lovato worked hard for her career in music, amidst all of the hate she received from others. The setting of which Demi Lovato grew up in was one of loving family members, but also one of hateful peers that didn’t respect her for who she was. When, the harsh words Lovato received overthrew the love that was there, she became swept up in the whirlwind. Therefore, her tragic flaw that ultimately leads to her suffering is her lack of self confidence when faced with opposing forces. For the modern tragic hero, the downfall occurs when her situation with bullies spiteful words started to build up inside of her until she finally can not take it anymore. For instance, Demi’s tyrants would call her “fat”, she believed them, and would soon after develop unhealthy eating disorders, anorexia, bulimia, and so much more in the future. After Demi Lovato had done so much self harm, Lovato undergoes recognition, a shift from ignorance about her own

Social psychology is essentially the study of how human beings interact, behave and think around others. It is rooted in explaining the various different experiences we face each day in our social lives. Nowadays, film-makers try to depict these psychological phenomena in their movies to make them realistic. One such movie stars Emma Stone, an Oscar winner playing the role of Olive in the film “Easy A”. The film in short describes the high school life of a chaste girl, Olive, who conforms to peer pressure and starts lying about her sexual behavior in order to maintain a certain reputation as well as to help out her troubled friends. This eventually leads her to challenge her self concepts to extreme levels, causing her to either liberate herself from the façade she created or sink into the role. Easy A describes many genuine psychological phenomena and I am going to focus on three of them; Cognitive dissonance theory, how societal and cultural norms dictate our attitudes and thoughts, and different ways of persuasion.

The other characters, Richard (Greg Kinnear), and Frank (Steve Carrell) are the father and uncle in the scene, but they have a less important role. They are only present in the family conversation at the top of the hill, and do not contribute much to the scene, besides giving the scene the essence of ‘family values’ in the way of a group discussion about how to help

Imagine walking into a room and being instantly identified as a criminal. Imagine having to experience this in every room you enter. Imagine walking into a store and being watched, expected to be a thief or sometimes even expected to reveal a knife, gun or a bomb. When we meet new people, most of us look for differences rather than similarities. From young we are taught that everyone is different and that continually makes us associate others by these differences. We focus on these exact materialistic differences and rather than embracing them, we continually distance ourselves because of them.

The Cage by Ruth Minsky Sender is a story about a family who strives to survive. Riva Minska, a young girl who lives in the ghetto must take care of her own brothers and find a way to stay alive. She is selfless and noble towards others which paves a bright path in her future. On the other hand, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is about a pair of starcrossed lovers who fall desperately in love. Romeo Montague is a young boy who lives in Verona. His actions lead himself and others to tragic results. Romeo’s impetuous and selfishness give Romeo a spot in the hall of shame, while Riva’s selflessness, compassion and optimism towards others lands her a spot into the hall of fame.

In the story “The Books of Elsewhere,” by Jacqueline West, the main character, Olive Dunwoody, faces many difficult, gruesome, and life-changing challenges throughout the story of the book. All of these challenges affect her emotionally. What are the emotional changes that Olive experiences throughout the book, and how are they expressed?

"Easy A" is a movie that is loosely based on Hawthorne's novel, "The Scarlet Letter". In this movie, Olive can be compared in a way to Hester Prynne. Although they both have different roles in their society and being in different time periods. They always have one thing in common, the similarity is that they both wear a red "A" on their clothing. In the Scarlet Letter and Easy A, they both have many differences but one constant similarity.

“Click, click, click.” The sound of a six year old prancing on stage in five inch stilettos, pounds of makeup on their once pretty, raw faces, and self tan packed on their skin. This is a scene from a child beauty pageant. These pageants encourage young girls to become someone they are not. Many young woman that have participated in pageants as young girls, still do not love their bodies. Yet, the industry is multiplying quickly. Although child beauty pageants teach participants valuable life skills, in the midst of that, pageants set a unrealistic standard for beauty causing young adolescents to develop self-esteem issues and use too many self-altering substances.