... nobody tell me nothing I don't already know. At least not when it comes to my kids,"(1) we understand that Viola really believes she "knows it all." A Day Late and A Dollar Short goes within a maximum of 10 year span, often times recalling past events, of the lives of the Pierce family. Viola, Cecil, Paris ... her mother in to her life. Charlotte's children Tiffany, Monique and Trevor are also isolated from their extended family and in Charlotte's words " Mama ain't never got nothing nice to say about mine...both my daughter's got good sense... Trevor's my bright star, get near straight...

• Word Count: 1181
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... of a Salesman mainly takes place inside of Willy's "disturbed, faltering brain, as he relives crucial scenes from the past even while groping through present-day encounters." Although we glimpse what Willy is "seeing" inside his head, the stage setting is the kitchen and two bedrooms of Willy's house, crowded ... "tasteless, rowdy and feather-brained in a horrifying manner." Linda is shown "to be patient, tactful, and considerate." At first the reader may think Big Mama is the strong one, and Linda is too passive, Linda"is shown from the first to possess a realistic awareness of the true...

• Word Count: 1755
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... is not very aggressive, neither is she weak. She argues with Walter, but normally follows his advice and instructions. She quietly notices, resents, and tolerates Mama's terference in her upbringing of Travis. She is overly apologetic to Murchison, when he finds Beneatha and Walter dancing wildly to African music. But despite ... house, she is crushed, feeling her one dream in life has been destroyed. She says with desperation that she will work twenty hours a day in all the kitchens in Chicago and that she will wash all the sheets in America if she has to, but she will make an ... . A p...

• Word Count: 2602
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

... of this evolution in her book, "Like Water for Chocolate". The protagonist of the novel, Tita De La Garza, is the youngest daughter of Mama Elena. As the black sheep, Tita spends most of her time in the kitchen. Due to tradition, she is prohibited from marrying because she is ... change of character, from despair and loneliness to strong-willed maturity and a passion for life. Tita's caring and forgiving nature makes it easy for Mama Elena to control her like a puppet. Tita never feels a close mother-daughter bond, but instead believes that her mother "had repressed Tita her entire life....

• Word Count: 626
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... love and leave the home. Instead she was confined to the destiny of looking after her mother until the day she died. This was an extreme act self-centeredness of the part of Mama Elena. She was denying Tita the love and the fulfilment that a successful marriage can bring. This upset ... the issues creep up on the reader creates a feeling of shame for me, that I had not noticed the signs, however subtle, at some earlier date. Mama Elena was constantly abusing Tita, emotionally and physically. Yet the incidents were made such a little deal of that I barely registered their occurrence, yet ...

• Word Count: 1309
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... . I am the reason why my parents got married. They never planned on getting married, and they really did not plan on having children. When my mama found out that she was pregnant, they both thought the only option was to get married, and of course, because of the time period, that was the ... only option. I was born on July 19, 1983, the day that set the record that year for being the hottest (I would have taken that as a bad sign). My mama and daddy had just been married on May 22. After I was born, all hell broke loose. Looking back ... , as he called them. Daddy was dealing with so mu...

• Word Count: 384
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... based on the concept of dreams, whether it is an individual dream or the family dream. At the beginning of the play we see all of the characters individual dreams. Mama strongly believes in the importance of family and tries throughout the play to teach this to her children and grandchildren. Dreams are also more important to her than material wealth ... , and her dream is to one day own a house. Ruth, Mama's daughter-in-law, agrees with Mama. She too sees the importance of family and having a new home to unite the family. Mama's son, Walter has a more selfish dream of opening a liquor s...

• Word Count: 870
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... model to his son and not the strong black man of the family. "I want so many things that they are driving me kind of crazy Mama," (Hansberry 254). He tells his mama as what would make him happy. Walter as the only man of the family does not even think he has a real job as he complains ... to his mama that "I open and close car doors all day long. I drive a man around in his limousine and I say, "Yes, sir; no, sir, very good, sir" (Hansberry 254). Walter's devotion to ... had no clue that his wife was carrying a baby, and once he found out, he simply walked out of the house without sayi...

• Word Count: 947
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... furious. Therefore she cannot marry and this does not root well for Tita or the De La Garza Family. Tita falls madly in love with Pedro Muzquiz but Mama Elena forbids Tita and Pedro to marry. The only thing that Pedro can do is to marry her sister, Rosaura, who is one year older. This ... Then she put on felt slippers and another two shawls. No good. Finally she went to her sewing box and pulled out the bedspread she had started the day Pedro first spoke of marriage. It didn't help at all" (19). After putting clothe item after clothe item any normal person would be as hot as an ... made...

• Word Count: 1106
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... - Men at war Summary: So the females had to provide for themselves. Both women set up stands to help them make money. Nnu had an older female friend named Mama Abby. Mama Abby helped her read letters from her husband and sometimes took the children. Nnu desired Abby's life her eldest son provided for her and that all she wanted her son ... had very little money and Aduka kept putting her wealth in Nnu face. Nnu did her trade so that she could keep her boys in school so that would some day take care of her. In a fit of anger Nnu treats one of Aduka visitor badly. Aduka finds out and calls...

• Word Count: 2054
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... such as a pair of chopsticks tied together by a thread of red string, implying to expect a boy soon in Chinese. No later than the last day before the wedding ceremony, the dowry should be sent over to the groom's family. In the process, fireworks are lit and sometime accompanied by a marching ... normally the garment for the bride. In mid-20th century, new China was going through large-scale reconstruction. Simplicity is the fashion code of the day. The bride preferred clean and ordinary wear at the wedding, and the glamorous wedding garments became unpopular. In the 60s, the whole socie...

• Word Count: 9974
• Approx Pages: 40
• Grade Level: High School

... would own a t some point. "This was the house Papa talked about when he held a lottery ticket and this was the house Mama dreamed up in the stories she told us before we went to bed." (p.4) On Sundays, which was Papa's day off, the family would go out and look at the nice houses on the hill. "I am tired of looking at what ... we can't have. When we win the lottery... Mama begins, and then I stop listening." (p.86) Esperanza soon got sick of looking at all the ... Vargas is even worse off. Not only did she not have the money for a better house; she barely has the money to feed all of he...

• Word Count: 1279
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... a husband and a daddy from it he would gain a solid identity. Anney too wanted nothing more than some authenticity. She grew up "trash" and hated it. "Mama hated being called trash, hated the memory of every day she"d ever spent bent over other people's peanuts and strawberry plants while they stood tall and looked at her like a rock on the ground."(pg?) Her ... for: validity and Bone was stuck in the middle. Bone posed a threat to Glen, she took her mothers attention. "There's a way he's just a little boy himself, wanting more of your Mama than you, wanting to be her baby more than her...

• Word Count: 1590
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... she finally filed for divorce. Women and men who suffer physical abuse do not only feel the physical pain but also psychological and emotional pain as well. In the present day, it has become easier for a woman to leave an abusive situation than it was thirty years ago. This is mainly due to support groups and shelters for battered women. Another ... simply could not pay all of the bills; therefore we had to do without a lot of necessities. The day that I knew that it had to end was the day that my three year old daughter brought me a bag of cocaine and said to me, "Mama, what is this?"....

• Word Count: 1174
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... because of what it stands for. The problems in Mrs. Ames marriage are first seen in her basic differences with her husband. "She would be absent from him all the day in being clean, busy, kind. He was a man of others things, a dreamer. At times he lay still for hours, at others he sat on the roof behind his telescope". (Pg ... woman, she keeps herself busy by cleaning and being kind. These things are solid and everyday actions. Her husband is quite different however. He is an astronomer. He spends all day in bed or on the roof with his head in the clouds. He is more concerned with his t...

• Word Count: 1902
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... attraction to him. Lockwood, however, seemingly becomes intimidated at this and begins to neglect the poor girl, who in turn was "led to doubt her own senses and persuaded her mama to decamp". This spells the first of many unsuccessful relationships in this book. Some of the relationships featured are not as wholesome as they should be, emerging from the wanting ... as a possible suitor after Linton's death. This relationship is the one that ends the book with Nelly Dean informing Mr. Lockwood that they are to be married on New Years Day. This relationship is out of keeping however, wit...

• Word Count: 2116
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... his wife. He does not march with the times. He is a conformist, and ever since they were married he has promised his wife he would build her a new house one day, but he never did. He wants to build a log cabin for Norma Jean but she thinks that it would be inappropriate in the new subdivision "I don't want to live in ... understand that Norma Jean has the right to do what she likes. From the moment Mabel catches her daughter smoking, Norma Jean decides to be herself. "Everything was fine till Mama caught me smoking", says Norma Jean, standing up. "That set something off". In short, Shil...

• Word Count: 855
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School