The Girls Of The Atomic City Character Analysis

In The Girls of Atomic City, Denise Kiernan reveals the story of the women who helped win World War II. She starts the book off by giving a little background information on some of the women. The women packed up everything and moved away to a secret city called Oak Ridge. This city was unknown to most of the world. She gives the details on how they ended up in Oak Ridge. They did not know where they were going, or what their job would be, all they knew was they were going to help win the war. Everything was very secretive, they only knew what they needed to know in order to do their jobs. Denise Kiernan takes the interesting stories of multiple women and combines it into one big story. Kiernan believes that the women helped win the war by all of the hard work they did behind the scenes. By reading this book the reader will learn about the fascinating stories of these women and events leading up to World War II.

Riva was truly a “smart owl” she found different ways to keep her and her brothers alive, and out of harm’s way. For instance, she managed to get herself off the Nazi deportation record that was made every week. Riva did this by making friends with the work manager who was forced to make the deportation list. Riva realized that if she kept on worrying about what is going to happen in the future it would be depressing; instead she thought about when she was going to be reunited with her family. *******FINISH***********

Unlike her other coworkers who desperately needed a job to get by. One of those coworkers was the single mother of two children who was named Colleen. After Ehrenreich had finished her time in Maine she had told Colleen who she really was and what she was doing going undercover. Ehrenreich begins to ask Colleen questions about what she thinks about poverty and those who have more than those who really need it to which she responds, “I don’t mind, really, because I guess I’m a simple person, and I don’t want what they have. I mean it’s nothing to me. But what I would like is to be able to take a day off now and then… if I had to.. And still be able to buy groceries the next day.” (p119) This reveals the importance of a simple maid’s job, it puts food on the table and helps sustain more than one person while Ehrenreich who lived alone and only had to support herself was able to go back home and not have to worry about keeping her short lived maid position. After leaving her occupation it is time to move on and go through the job process again. She had applied to Wal-mart where she had discussed what had to be done when finding a new job Ehrenreich states, “ Each potential new job requires (1) the application, (2) the interview, and (3) the drug test- which is something to ponder with gasoline running at nearly two dollars a gallon, not to mention what you may have to pay for a babysitter.” (pg135) Going back to search for a new job is a difficult task that may not

Katie Nolan, Francie’s mother, is the main reason that Francie is able to survive her arduous childhood and succeed in life. Food, heat and protection are always available to the Nolan children even if it means that Katie has to work multiple jobs or even sacrifice some of her own needs. Katie gives all she can to provide for her children and Francie truly values her mother’s hard work. Francie appreciates her mother’s thougtful acts, but still, Francie develops

Girls in Taylor’s high school typically drop out to have children of their own. Many of the boys drop out to work on farms. Taylor sets morals for herself to stray away from getting pregnant or dropping out to work on a farm. Along with Taylor, “Mama always said barefoot and pregnant was not my style. She knew” (Kingsolver, 4). A neighbor of Taylor, Newt Hardbine had adhered to the typical act of their town. Newt dropped out to work on his father’s farm, and in the meantime got his girlfriend pregnant. Newt and Taylor could pass as brother and sister, so people within the town always wondered who was going to be the one to escape the small town life. This primarily affects Taylor in her decision to leave Pittman County. She does not want to conform to the social norm of her small town, so Taylor decides to work in their county hospital just to make enough money to buy a run-down Volkswagen. She makes a goal for herself, to drive until she is out of gas and rename herself after the town she ends up in. From there, she would continue until her car broke down and settle in the new town. It is ones choice to let themselves be affected by these morals so this example shows how the societal norms of a town are able to run one away to avoid

Experiencing further unstable environments, these children are forced to move from one foster home to another. They rarely develop meaningful relationships and constantly endure lack of care and protection by adults. Sabreen, another gifted student, was able to excel in school despite her unstable environments. She, too, became a ward of the county battling to find a stable home, constantly being placed in unstable environments, environments that do not encourage any achievement. When her situation becomes untenable, she goes AWOL, like Olivia, refusing to return to county supervision. Corwin masterfully frames the problem that wards, like Olivia and Sabreen, face when they feel that going back into the system is not an option. The additional struggles can be seen through Olivia and Sabreen accepting jobs with long hours in order to make enough to pay their bills. The responsibility on taking care of themselves financially detracts from their studies, which quickly can become a vicious, never-ending cycle.

In the novel, Kracha's family is a full one. He has three daughters and a world of problems at home. Despite this he refuses to waste away at the mill after a couple of years. So he sees opportunity, and becomes a butcher. Unfortunately he fails at his attempts to climb the ranks economically. Kracha, like most workers of the time, drowns him self in alcohol to hide from the problems of bills, finances and taxes. Kracha's wife, Elena, had to take in boarders to lighten the economic load. This is a typical practice of women in the mill towns. Not only did they take in boarders, but also they took care of the house and had to raise the children wile sometimes taking odd jobs to make ends meat. The second part of the novel is about Mike Dobrejcak who married, Kracha's eldest daughter, Mary. Mike is also a mill worker, migrated to America when he was still in his teens. This second generation of Slovaks is becoming more aware of politics, and how important their votes are in elections. With a greater understanding of the issues around them the second generation of immigrants started to vote. Still working in the mills they hold fast to the American dream. Faced with the same problems that the first generation had, now he was faced with wage cuts along with the never-ending struggles with the union. The next part of the book is about Mary. When her husband (Mike) dies she is compensated from the company and the local or lodge he is a part of. Since fatal accidents were common

The play Lost in Yonkers written by Neil Simon take action in the United States in 1942. In the Jewish family, Kurnitz becomes a tragedy. Died a wife and mother of two children, her name was Evelyn. She left the widowed spouse with a debt of $9,000 for her medical treatment. Eddie, her husband, quickly got a decent position of a Salesman, which allowed him for the year to eliminate this burden. But, his duties related to the continuous travels and he has somewhere to leave his sons, Jacob (Jay) and Arthur (Arty). The only possible place where to leave them for an almost a year will be his mother's house. She is a senior woman with a very heavy character with whom he had no contact for several years. The father took the boys in Yonkers, where

In the book, “The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II”, Denise Kiernan emphasizes the effect that women had on world war II and what they did to help out. Two major cities are mentioned throughout the novel, Tennessee and New York City, home to many residents especially women who played a part in the major key of the story, the building of the atomic bomb. These two cities are huge factors in the novel because the project was established in Manhattan but then later on executed in Tennessee. Women from outside of the state where asked to come to Tennessee because that is where the chemical of uranium was being built for the atomic bombs. Citizens were brought in by being told about money and jobs to

Mothers are typically seen as kind, loving, and nurturing, at least in a perfect world, that’s how they are. Rather, in the real world many of us wish that is how all mothers are. Various situations can lead to a woman to be too mothering. It is a factor that transcends real life. This conflict causing dynamic is very prevalent in numerous stories, films, and plays. Two plays where it is shown in significance are Machinal and The Glass Menagerie. In both cases, the actions taken by the mother roles in the shows, resulted in some of the character’s roles ending in unfortunate events of some sort.

To make the character Winston Smith, the main protagonist from the book 1984, complex, George Orwell had to give his character multiple traits to keep Winston from being another boring, vague, and 2-dimensional character. Winston is a complex character because he undergoes emotional changes throughout the book, he has a variety of personality traits to drive the plot, and he has significant interactions with other characters throughout 1984.

As the conflict between Kat and her society, she finds herself losing the fight. Despite accolades she received while working on the razor’s edge, Kat’s life is less than successful. Her relationships with competitive men and left her broken and hurt. “Twice she had abortions, because the men in question were not up for the alternative” (pp.17). Kat’s choice to

Maureen also creates a dream of her own, and wants nothing more than to go back to California. Though Maureen was young when her and her family lived in California, this is the only place that she wanted to go. Jeannette and Lori tell Maureen of the great times that they had in California and explain to Maureen that she has such blonde hair because of all the gold in California, and blue eyes because of the ocean. Maureen responds, “’[California] is where I’m going to live when I grow up’” explains Walls (207). The stories that Jeannette and Lori tell are responsible for Maureen’s dream to go back to California. However, it seems that Maureen takes after her parents, and struggles to fulfill her dream. While Lori, Jeannette, and Brian go off and start their new lives, Maureen is stuck back in Welch. Lori and Jeannette decide that Maureen should move to New York with them, so they make arrangements and Maureen goes to live with Lori, and begins going to college. Things are going great up until Rex and Mary move to New York. It is at this time that Maureen seems to give up on her schooling. After Lori kicks her out, Maureen spends her days living with Rex and Mary in a squatter apartment. She wastes her days away by smoking cigarettes, reading, painting, and sometimes just sleeping away the day. Jeannette tries to help Maureen by talking to

The loss of her husband causes Amanda to develop a dependence on her children. She wants Tom and Laura to become successful. Amanda complains that Tom does not earn enough money at the shoe factory. She wants him to attend night school so he can attain a better career.

However, in most poverty stricken families in America, most of these children give up in life and drop out of school (Brooks-Gunn Jeanne and Duncan 60). In addition, most of them even end becoming street children and later on join gangs in the streets and are introduced to drugs which later on turn them into criminals. A good example from the story is Maureen. She was defiant and only found solace in drugs and running away from home and the ultimate outcome was that she ended up in a mental hospital. What happened to Maureen in the story is what happens to many American children living in poverty. Jeannette and her other siblings endured hunger, bullying and poverty in their family with the hope that they were going to become great in future. The children in the family cared for each other and they strived to be successful, which they did, except for Maureen who never accepted to be