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Grace Marks Survivor

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The Oxford dictionary defines a survivor as "A person who survives, especially a person remaining alive after an event in which others have died.". Grace Marks is a survivor. She lived through a particularly horrible childhood in a home with an abusive father both physically and emotionally, along with a negligent mother. Grace pushes herself through life with self motivation along with the support of select individuals. Despite everything she has been through Grace turns out to be a positive and proper lady and ends up married with a family of her own. Through all odds Grace never gave up, she survived. Grace grows up in a horrible living environment, she has a physically and emotionally abusive father and a mother who does nothing to protect …show more content…

As horrible as this all is it teaches Grace that the world is a cruel place and that no one is going to look after you except you. She learns to protect and fend for herself. Grace's father pushes her to get her first job when she is only twelve. Grace is told "it [is] time [for] [her] [to] [go] out into the world to earn [her] own bread" (Atwood 146), Grace learns the importance of money and it's importance in life. She's motivated to get a job and earn her own money as to not end up broke like her parents. Though they don't realize it Grace's father and mother help her learn the lessons Grace needs to struggle to survive. Grace meets many people on her journey that help her in her struggle to survive. The first is being the employer at her first job Mrs. Alderman-Parkinson, who employs Grace as a maid. By working for Mrs. Alderman-Parkinson in her home Grace now has a place to live and is removed from her toxic home environment. Through working for Mrs. Alderman-Parkinson Grace meets her only true friend in the whole novel, Mary Whitney. Grace learns a lot about life from Mary, she talks to her about things usually reserved for 'the talk' between mother and daughter but since Grace's mother was negligent in her

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