The novel Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff is mainly about a seventeen year old girl named Jolly, who encounters many difficulties as she has two children from two different, absent fathers. Jolly desperately needs help raising her two children, Jeremy and Jilly, and LaVaughn helps babysit temporarily. LaVaughn is caught up in Jolly’s problems and she guides her on the right path. However, LaVaughn cannot sacrifice her academics to babysit for her because she wants to go to college and she wants to start to build her future. These two main characters take separate paths as they each develop and mature throughout the stages of the novel and they have similarities and differences. Both, Jolly and LaVaughn, illustrate actions that …show more content…
Jolly needed to take a hold in order to give her children a better life and resolve all of her problems.
LaVaughn, on the other hand, is a fourteen year old whose priority is to get good grades in school and to go to college. She wants to go to college in order to move out of her unsafe neighborhood. LaVaughn states, “that’s why the word COLLEGE is in our house... it’s what will get me out of here” (Pg 11). Going to college is very important in her household since she will be the first in her family and in her building to extend her education further. LaVaughn demonstrates her maturity and responsibility when she offers to babysit two sloppy, drippy kids in order to raise money for college. At her babysitting job, LaVaughn grows fond of Jeremy and Jilly although the job isn’t doing her much good because she is “too tired to study and keep her grades up”, according to Myrtle and Annie. She is very diligent, determined, and caring. LaVaughn is looking after Jolly and guiding her on the right path, even though she is way younger.
Although LaVaughn and Jolly have their own characteristics, they share some similarities. LaVaughn and Jolly both are very young and they enjoy the same type of humor. In page 44 of the novel, Lavaughn states, “That was so funny, that night we did the TV voices.” Moreover, both characters have “burdens”, things that aren’t your fault but you carry them around. LaVaughn’s burden is the death of her father and Jolly’s burden is the death of one of her
Humans have come to a conclusion that all lives are different, but all go through many hardships and tragedies. The impact from a slight difference can vary to be very vast to very small, such a slight difference, however, can change a person’s life as a whole. In the book, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore there is a difference that can be identified between the author’s life and that of the other Wes. This difference, though can be very critical and is ultimately able to lead to a path of triumph or failure for an individual. The lack of involvement a mother has for their child can fundamentally deprive them from succeeding, and parent involvement has the opportunity to
In the novel, The Silver Star, by Jeannette Walls, a conflicted mother, named Charlotte, struggles with taking care of her two kids named, Liz and Jean. Jean is a twelve year old girl who goes by the name Bean. She is very responsible and good at taking care of herself. Liz is fifteen years old and she takes care of Bean and herself. The girls try hard to figure out where to stay whenever their mother unexpectedly leaves for a couple days.
A similarity Johnny and Dally both share is a terrible home life. Early in the novel, Ponyboy dissects Johnny’s homelife. Pony says, “His father was always beating him up, and his mother ignored him, except when she was
An unconventional relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter linked with murder, deep strung emotions and change, only briefly describes the different happenings of the book The Third Life of Grange Copeland, by Alice Walker. The novel reads like a soap opera moving from one violent dysfunctional generation of a family to the next. The book comes to show the development of a relationship between Grange Copeland and his granddaughter, Ruth. Through the growth of their relationship it can be seen that people have the ability to change and that they can break free from social constraints. The relationship that Grange and Ruth has is multi-faceted and both of them learn and benefit from
While the issues regarding poverty are addressed in both the books Make Lemonade by Virginia Wolfe and “South of the Slot” by Jack London, each author has a very different view of the life of the lower class. In “South of the Slot” the lives of the lower class are heavily romanticized while Make Lemonade provides a more grounded and unsettling look at the struggles of the lower class. In "South of the Slot” the protagonist Freddie Drummond is a wealthy sociologist who becomes fascinated with the carefree way of life of the impoverished workers he studies. Make Lemonade on the other hand is written from the perspective of Verna Lavaughn, a penurious student who attempts to look after a young mother Jolly who is struggling to raise her children
Children and young-adults look up to their parents for the hard choices they need to face and for support when needed. When a child is taught to make their own decisions, they can learn to be more independent in the future. According to Psychology Today, “Decision making is crucial because the decisions your children make dictate the path that their lives take.” To become a healthier and more mature adult, it is critical to a young person that they make positive judgement calls. In the novels, The Other Wes Moore and The Scarlet Letter, the authors focus on the point that children are greatly influenced by their parents to make the right choice. In The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester, the main character, has a child named Pearl who is considerably impacted by her mother. Pearl is compared to her mother using direct characterization and tone, but is also seen as more valuable than a symbol of disgrace. The same thing occurs in The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore. The author, Wes Moore, and the other Wes Moore both grew up in the same area with similar home situations, but they ended up taking different paths as adults. The author captures their similarities and disparity through the use of literary devices to bring about the idea that their parent’s decisions affect them. The direct characterization and tone present throughout The Scarlet Letter and The Other Wes Moore gives the message that the choices the parents make influence their children’s decisions in the future.
In any genuine friendship there are the differences between the people that spark curiosity, yet, it is similarities that draw two together to form a tight bond. This is evident in the friendship that starts between Vivian and Molly. Vivian, from outward show, does not display the slightest similarity with Molly. It is not until one examines the often tragic back stories of both that striking parallels begin to be made clear. By the time all is uncovered, the likenesses shared between Vivian and Molly far outweigh any disparities. In examining the relationship between Vivian and Molly, a perfect balance is struck in Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline.
Do you know someone who had to sacrifice their education because the had children before graduation? Have you ever met someone who’s biggest goal is to make it to college? These are two examples of what characters are going through during the novel. Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff, is a story about the financial struggles some people have to to go through in life. It is also about how you have to step up and help these people if you are in a better position than them. Throughout the book there are a few very obvious themes. One is the fact that the characters want education in order to achieve their dreams and benefit their lives. They know that it will help them later in life.
Humans have come to a conclusion that all lives are different, but all go through many hardships and tragedies. The impact from a slight difference can vary to be very huge to very small, such a slight difference however, can change a person’s life as a whole. In the book, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore there is a difference that can be identified between the author’s life and that of the other Wes. This difference though, can be very critical and is ultimately able to lead to a path of triumph or failure for an individual. The lack of involvement a mother has for their child can fundamentally deprive them from succeeding, and parent involvement has the opportunity to play a huge role in college success by giving
Levinons’s theory of early childhood development is related to the lack of stability that Charlotte encountered in a big family, especially within the context of high infant mortality amongst her siblings: “Mom: There was a boy named Jimmy that only lived for a
In Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls, the life of Lily Casey is shown as she goes from the oldest child growing up on a ranch to a determined mother of two working to support her family. Because of her disabled father and ladylike mother, Lily was raised to depend only on herself as she took care of her siblings and the work around the ranch. This upbringing is reflected in how she views the problems that she must solve later in life, and has both positive and negative repercussions. Forced to compensate for her parents’ incompetence, Lily grew up to be self-reliant and controlling.
Important has a different meaning to everyone, because everyone has different important things in their life. For some people, it is their family, or their friends, or something they love to do. For LaVaughn in Make Lemonade, by Virginia Euwer Wolff, the thing most important to her is her education. LaVaughn is a 14 year old girl who babysits for college money because her mom does not have any. Her main babysitting job in this book is for Jolly, a teen mom who is struggling to work and take care of her kids. LaVaughn goes through ups and downs with Jolly and tries to help her -- but one thing sticks with her the whole time: throughout Make Lemonade,
In the short stories, “Saving Sourdi,” by May-Lee Chai and “The Moths,” by Helena Maria Viramontes, the main character of each short story goes through their own coming of age experience where they are forced to mature in order to overcome an obstacle. Chai explains her main character, Nea’s, struggle as she is forced to mature and overcome the departure of her older sister, Sourdi, from her life after she gets married and moves away. Viramontes, on the other hand, depicts her narrator’s struggle as she is forced to mature and overcome the death of her Abuelita on her own. Despite their very different approaches, both Chai and Viramontes successfully convey their main character 's struggles in their journey from youth to adulthood.
Throughout the story there are several aspects of the Protagonist’s character that play a major role in the shaping of her future. During her childhood she
Water is the most refreshing drink in the world, and probably the cheapest. People drink water because it's easy to achieve and cost barely anything. Lemon is one of the worse kinds of grapefruit people eat or doesn't eat at all. It taste extremely sour and even bitter if you eat the skin. But if you add these two ingredients together, you get one of the most prolific drinks ever. There are hundreds of ways of making lemonade. From whiskey lemonade to chocolate lemonade, there is a very wide range of making lemonade. But the simplest of all these kinds is the water base lemon drink, where water and lemon is the two crucial flavors in the drink. It's refreshing, healthy, and helps reduce Fibromyalgia, a