Analysis Of A Northern Light By Jennifer Donnelly

More than anything, Mattie Gokey wants to go to college and make a life for herself, but she is held back by her father, a promise she made to her deceased mother, and a predictable life in the North Woods. A central question in A Northern Light might be “To what extent is it acceptable be selfish?”. In this book Mattie must choose between supporting her family and making a life for herself, which she seems to think would be a selfish choice.

Mattie had so many traumatizing events occur in just a few months, yet she stayed strong and fought through the pain day by day. One of these events were when she tried to leave Philadelphia. Her and her grandfather were on a cart leaving Philadelphia, When they got thrown off because they thought that Mattie’s grandpa had Yellow Fever. All of their belongings were on that cart. Now Mattie and her grandfather faced starvation in the middle of nowhere.

She’s thrilled by this, but Mattie is still trying to palliate Nells situation. By the time Eliza's two nephew twins get sick, Mattie has decided to help out Nell until she can find a home for her. When Mattie helps Eliza and the Free African American Society, she realizes how much pain everyone else around her is also encountering. “A dying woman in a cot surrounded by strangers was sorrowful, but a dying woman surrounded by her children, her handiwork, the home where she worked so hard, left me in tears” (pg. 192). This can show that pain is everywhere, and it will be with everyone for years to come, and we learn from it, that it will never cease and it becomes a part of us.

The horrible accounts of the holocaust are vividly captured by Elie Wiesel in Night, an award winning work by a Holocaust survivor. It describes his time in the Holocaust and helps the reader fully understand the pain he went through. In the text, Elie continuously mentions how he is losing his faith to god. It is evident that he has nearly, if not completely lost his faith during the events of the holocaust. In the memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel’s faith changes because of the absence of God, the dehumanization of the prisoners, and all of the death that surrounds him.

In the book Wes (the author) gets ready to jump out of the plane; he contemplates his life and the person he longs to become and begins to consider all of the people who influenced his life, which helps him, realize that he wants to stay at Valley Forge to attend junior college, It shows how much he grew, by recognizing how much the people in his life have influenced him. Wes had the resources he needed to succeed because of his support system. His mother and grandparents put him through military school which he attended until he received his associate’s degree. Attending military school helped Wes make the connections he needed to get into a good college. Wes knew that he was going to go to college and he stuck to that plan and received a scholarship and completed his master’s degree at Oxford University.

Anderson teaches many lessons in her novel but among the most important is taught by showing the many steps Mattie took to reach full independence. She began as a bratty teenager with her head in the clouds, and ended as an independent woman with dreams and aspirations. She discovers her identity and while her situation is out of the ordinary, she proves that aging and revealing your true personality can make the difference between life and death. In the beginning of the novel, Mattie feels that she should be praised whenever she does something for someone else. For example, in the beginning of the book on page 3 it says, “I made a face at the doorway. I had just saved her precious quilt from disaster, but would she appreciate it? Of course not.” This demonstrates that Mattie wants perpetual praise from others, an expectation that children often possess. Mattie is also too young to understand the responsibilities that come with adulthood. This is evident in the novel when Mattie is dreaming of a future with no responsibility. Mattie

About a year later, Robinson’s uncle came to visit. He had served in the first World War. Afterward he had settled in California. When he returned to visit his family in Georgia, they scarcely recognized him, because he was dressed so finely (Mann 57). Once he learned of their troubles, he was immediately convinced that his sister and her children would do better in California. Within a few days, she boarded a train with her five little ones.

Soon after being deserted on the road, grandfather comes down with a summer grippe and becomes helpless. Mattie then needs to take care of them both by finding food and water. This shows responsibility because she not only had to take care of herself, but of her grandfather too with no help from anyone, and no one to tell her what to do.

This news is disheartening to Tom, but the family’s only choice is to keep traveling west. Tom’s grandmother eventually dies too from exhaustion and heat. Finally after many grueling days in the hot sun and numerous stops to fix the car, the Joads arrive at California. However, their dreams of finding a wonderful place to live are shattered when they hear California residents calling them Oakies and saying bad things about them. Californians feel threatened by the families migrating into California because the newcomers will take all the job opportunities and they will steal food to avoid starvation. At first the Joads can’t find work and they are forced to live in one of the Hoovervilles. The Hoovervilles are very run down and Connie , Tom’s brother, runs away from the family because of the disappointment of realizing his dreams will not come true.

During high school, I struggled to maintain my grades and focus. I was in a small town, and every ounce of opportunity seemed to slowly be sucked away from the town as the years past with the aid of the downward economic spiral beginning. I felt, like many of my fellow classmates, that opportunity had passed us by. I didn’t dare conjure even the thought of attending Eastern; it would’ve been too similar to the

Going through an era when the Vietnam War was a smash hit in your town, many high school senior boys would be drafted out if their number was on the list of people. The men drafted had to leave behind their families and aspirations. Tim O’Brien uses different perspectives in The Things They Carried to show if something tragic happens in life, consequently dealing with it may be hard. Moving on will help in the future.

Starry Night by the renowned artist Vincent van Gogh has a significant meaning. Aside from the beautiful sea blue colors mixed with the sunny bright yellows, the graceful and thick brush strokes and meanings behind the colors tells a story of hope and passion.

Throughout the documentary “The Northern Lights” there are two conflicting views of how this spectacular event exists. Some people strongly believe in science and proclaim that only strict factual information can explain such a phenomenon. Others argue that there is more of a spiritual aspect to the Northern Lights and that this is the explanation for how and why we can see them. Throughout the documentary, I found three different worldviews; a worldview is defined as a groups understanding of reality shaped by cultural assumptions.

The Aurora Borealis also known as Northern Lights, are beautiful colored lights that appear in the skies of Alaska. An aurora, is a natural light reflected in the sky, mostly seen in the high latitude regions where it only gets as high as 23.5 degrees north or south. The colors that are usually seen in the sky are green, yellow, red, blue, purple and pink. These emitted lights are mostly seen during September, October, March, and April. These lights have been controversial since they were first seen, because they are literally a night show, and nobody knew why they were caused but know there are a lot of theories and explanations that can support it. Even though these beautiful lights are breathtaking, there is one danger to them called solar

In the 18th century, a new form of art, called Romanticism developed in Europe, and reached its peak in the 19th century. One of the significant artists of the Romanticism art period was Frederick Edwin Church, a painter from New York, who portrayed landscapes. One of his remarkable works is his oil, canvas piece, Aurora Borealis, in which he portrays the Northern Lights.