My Mother's Wife Chapter Summaries

A Midwife’s Tale is a book written by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. The book itself is publishing and presenting the daily diary entries of Martha Ballard in an organized and professional way so that it could be published as a book. The diary entries begin in 1785 when Martha Ballard was already 50, and continue up until a few weeks before her death May 7, 1812.

The Glass Castle is a 2005 memoir by Jeannette Walls. The book is about how her family lived in the 1950s in poverty. The title resembles the false promises and commitments her father Rex Walls made to her specifically or her family, he always talked about building a glass castle for the family once they were finally financially stable along with many other projects. The book also shadows the idea of the “American Dream”. Eventually Jeannette and her siblings move away from their parents and go to New York city and have a successful life.

The Fifth of March is a work of historical fiction which takes place in the city of Boston from the year 1768 to the year 1772. Rachel Marsh, the main character is a 13 year old girl who is an indentured servant to John and Abigail Adams. Among the interesting and diverse cast of characters is Uncle Eb, Rachel’s abusive and greedy uncle, and Matthew Kilroy, who is the British soldier whom Rachel loves. In the story, Rachel wants to find herself a place in the world as the growing thirst for revolution spreads among the American people, eventually leading to the Boston Massacre. Rachel finds herself caught in the middle of the revolution, with her patriot friends and Matthew, who kills a man during the massacre. Through her many struggles, in the end, Rachel becomes “A plain American, a true American.” She then leaves for Philadelphia,leaving her dowry behind, showing that she is independent and free of the malicious Uncle Eb.

What is a family? As a young child, Kingsolver played in her room with a toy set called “The Family of Dolls”, which served as the perfect example of what a “real” family is: “four in number, who came with the factory-assigned names of Dad, Mom, Sis, and Junior.” She always ended up comparing her family to this perfect idea of a family that she played with. As a grown-up Kingsolver went through divorce herself, creating a “broken” home for her child. Kingsolver experienced the abnormalness and society’s ideals pushed through her head. But although her family was

After studying women and gender history in early America for the past semester, my views about American history have changed tremendously. Having very little prior experience with history, I had many assumptions and preconceived notions from high school history classes. Women were never even mentioned in my previous learning about U.S. history, so I assumed they took on unimportant roles and had little, if any, impact on shaping our country’s history. However, after this semester of delving deeply into the women of early America, I could not have been more incorrect. Although they were not typically in the public realm, we cannot fully understand history without studying women. The following readings uncovered the roles of women in the private sphere and were crucial to my new understanding of the importance of women in American history by bringing women to the forefront.

Jacqueline Woodson was born in Columbus, Ohio to Jack Woodson and Mary Ann Irby. She has an older brother named Hope and an older sister names Odella. Only a year after Jacqueline’s birth, her parents separated and she and her siblings moved to her mother’s parents’ home in Greenville, South Carolina. Though slavery ended a century before and the Civil Rights Movement has already begun, racism and discrimination are rampant in the South. The children are left with their grandparents for long stretches as their mother explores New York. Eventually, Jacqueline’s mother finds a place for the family to live in New York, and she moves her children there. Besides adapting to life in New York, where Jacqueline and her siblings feel out of place due

How does one define family? Throughout our readings, we find ourselves learning the ideas of theorist, concepts, and definitions to help us define and describe what family is. The family could possibly be what or who we say they are, or in simpler Bozett’s term, who the patient says it is! (Plumer, 2010). A family could consist possibly of values, roles, communication, environment, and relationships. Families may transition through all of these principles that either unites them or tears them apart. For instance, the movie Mrs. Doubtfire portrays these perceptions of what family is when family processes are shifted within a household. We will now discuss in more detail of the family assessment found throughout the movie starring the Hillards.

The book starts of by showing the reading with a small scene of children running along the train tacks one summer night, in this chapter we meet our two main characters nine year old Pharoah and Lafayette, as they experience one of the few peaceful days in their lives. In the next chapter we meet the children’s mother LaJoe who is described to be a beautiful, gentle woman who has been though too much. We also learn about the children home, an apartment complex known as Hery Horner Homes named after the Governor. In this chapter we also learn a bit more about LaJoe and her past life, and how she was

The reason for this is because family is an experience that virtually all viewers can reflect on and get ideas about family life. The definition of a family was depicted as a social unit characterized by one or more of the following elements: dependent children that had an adult who was the head of the household, dependent children with married couples, adult children with married couples, and dependent children with adults that shared their housing with others. Furthermore, this definition of family had not been limited to a legal marital arrangement, nor was the dependent children status limited to natural or adopted circumstances. Thus, adults who performed parental duties as the head of a household were coded as a representation of family, regardless of their legal status (Robinson & Skill, 1994).

What is family in your opinion? Family can be a source of support, compassion, optimism, love and happiness, but family can also be a cause of depression, betrayal, hurt and pain. Family is not always determined based on having the same DNA but it is the relationships that people can make or have with one another. Family can consist of several different people like, friends, co-workers, classmates, a community, etc... Some family members can be your worst enemies because they have the most information of secrets to bring a relative down. Being able to trust a person, depend on them, and be carefree is a person that can be valued as being a part of a family. In the movie Little Miss Sunshine, their dysfunctional family is loving, supportive, optimistic and motivating. The movie is filled with humor about a modern middle-class family that is about to encounter a financial catastrophe but in the midst of their struggles they still find the beauty in life and the meaning in life. The beginning of the movie Richard, the father is giving a motivational speech about winning, he states “There are two types of people in this world, winners and losers”.(Little Miss Sunshine) Richard is a protagonist motivational speaker that is obsessed with winning. He is so consumed with achieving that he ridicules his family for not being perfect throughout the film. Richard trying to build up the ideal life or what he thinks is the ‘American Dream’ around himself. He chooses to ignore aspects of the life around him that he sees as unacceptable or out of sync with his ideal lifestyle, trying instead to fulfil his role as the authorative head of the family and provider. Sheryl is the mother who is optimist, she is always giving words of encouragement even when Richard is trying to bring down his family and she is all about being truly honest. Frank is the brother of Sheryl whom at the beginning attempts to commit suicide due to a broken heart and losing his standing as Americas pre-eminent Proust Scholar. Dwayne is the son of Richard and Sheryl and is committed to joining the air force. He also is very committed that he takes a vow of silence until he gets into the air force, but then he finds out he is color blind and breaks his

In “Little Snow White” by Germany, Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm, there is a Queen who becomes jealous of her seven-year-old daughter. She envied her daughter’s beauty and sends a huntsman to kill Snow White. Snow White is then all alone and unable to care for herself and becomes dependent of the Seven Dwarfs. Although she is the main character, she is also the weakest character in the story. In Fables, we encounter a very different Snow White. Here Snow White oversees the town, Fabletown. Unlike the original fairytale story, there are no Dwarfs looking after her. She doesn’t need a Prince to come to her rescue because she is the hero in her own right. Her fierceness makes her a strong female who embodies power. Unlike the Little Snow White, in Fables Snow White is the head in charge, she’s independent, and bold.

Many times people are asked to think about what is important to them. A person may say their home, car, children, material items and some may even say family. In the book Little Women (1868-1869) written by Louisa May Alcott illustrates several family values. The story of the March family starts out during the civil war in New England. The family is left to survive on their own because their father went to protect his country. During the years of life the March children, Margaret (Meg), Josephine (Jo), Beth and Amy, had to face the fact that they were very poor, and couldn't have everything that they fancied. As the family stayed home and awaited the return of their father they received "fatherly" support from an old neighbor Mr.

In the novel Little Women by: Louisa May Alcott, a common theme is expressed throughout. To the family in this story, each other is the only thing that matters, therefore, displaying the message family is the most important thing you can have in your life. The four sisters, Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy, belong to a very poor family in which the father is away at the military, leaving their mother alone to care for the children. The mother works very hard, but still can not manage to create a solid income for their family. The four sisters understand how hard their mother works

The changing concept of family is most evident at the camps, especially at the government camp. The entire camp was like a family because they set their own rules and ran the camp as they saw fit. Those having a hard time were helped as a matter of course not charity. When it appeared trouble was coming, they all worked together as a unit to defend the camp.

"The Mother," by Gwendolyn Brooks, is a sorrowful, distressing poem about a mother who has experienced numerous abortions. While reading the poem, you can feel the pain, heartache, distress and grief she is feeling. She is both remorseful and regretful; nevertheless, she explains that she had no other alternative. It is a sentimental and heart wrenching poem where she talks about not being able to experience or do things with the children that she aborted -- things that people who have children often take for granted. Perhaps this poem is a reflection of what many women in society are feeling.