Growing Up free essay sample

This short story looks at children and two of Carys ovels were directly concerned with childhood. Themes Children and growing up is the central theme of this story, as it is with several of the other stories in the Anthology. However, the central character is an adult and so it links well with Flight, where the story follows the emotions of a grandfather trying to accept his granddaughters forthcoming marriage. Your Shoes also has a central narrator, although that story is written in the first person. This short story is certainly concerned with relationships between the generations. Children as a destructive orce appear in Growing Up, in the came way that the boy in Chemistry has an urge to damage his mothers boyfriend. Superman and Paula Browns new Snowsuit also examines the theme of the destructive power of children. Adults struggling to understand the behaviour of children are a central issue in Growing Up, as they also are in Superman and Paula Browns New Snowsuit. We will write a custom essay sample on Growing Up or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Notes The first paragraph establishes the central character, a businessman Robert Quick. He is named, unlike the anonymous central characters of several of these stories. He is described as a conventional businessman, in a dark suit and hat. Significantly, he sheds some of his formal clothes as he goes into the garden, perhaps representing that the rules and values he will encounter there are far from civilised. Ls. 7 19 The garden is described as a Wilderness. It has been neglected because Mr and Mrs. Quick are too busy to tend it. It has suggestions of other gardens, perhaps the Garden of Eden, or Paradise. Perhaps also there is a suggestion that Mr and Mrs. Quick are too busy to other civilising their daughters, Just as they have ignored their garden? Could the story symbolise the wild, untamed nature of the children who run wild in it? l. 23 a suggestion of the frontier, primeval forests.. Cary hints that there may be the possibility of fear and menace in the garden. It is not a place of easy comfort, as Mr. Quick thinks. L 27 the children have previously enjoyed a close relationship with their father and have made a fuss of him when he returns home. However, this contrasts with the way they ignore him this time. Is the reason they snub him because he is a man? Quick recognises that they will be women soon in lines 42 to 49; later on in the story they are wellbehaved for their mother and he feels rejected. Cary is specific about their names and ages; Jenny is twelve and Kate thirteen. They are both deep in their own worlds and Quick doesnt mind that they pay hardly any attention to his arrival. He thinks it represents their honest attitude to him. Perhaps he is too easy going with the children. Do they need to show him a bit more respect? Ls. 58-81 the two girls Growing Up free essay sample November 4, 2010. I am in the car going home from school, telling my mom I won two movie tickets for the best website design. Her cell phone goes off, interrupting our conversation. She answers it and shock illuminates her face. â€Å"What!?† she yells. The tears stream down my face before I know what happened. She pulls over and stops driving. I look to her for an explanation. â€Å"Grandpa. He’s gone.† A flashback enters my mind of a crowded hospital room from a few weeks before. My grandpa wasn’t doing well, but he was healthy enough to go home. And now he is gone. I think of my grandmother, an incredibly strong woman. How will she handle the loss of her husband of almost 60 years? By this time, my mom resumes driving and we are now at my brothers’ school. My mom takes us to the library for privacy and shares the devastating news. We will write a custom essay sample on Growing Up or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Now I have to survive the long night with my family. But I know we will make it†¦eventually. I went through this in March of the same year, when I lost my other grandfather. His death was easier to accept, as we knew it was coming. Now, there is another funeral and I am better prepared this time. I know my family will be there to support each other. I know it is going to be hard. And I know that since I am the older sibling, I have to care for my younger brothers as. They aren’t ready to accept that Grandpa is gone, but we will get through it together. Death was, and still is, hard to understand, but I wasn’t a child anymore, shielded by my parents. I was growing up and learning to accept death and life. I focused on my schoolwork and my friends helped me through my loss. I accepted my grandpas were gone, but I still miss them. Summer finally comes—I have completed my freshman year. I participate in summer gym, and enjoy the warm weather. But in July, my life changes again. We are eating dinner as a family when the phone rings and my mom gets up to answer it. She goes into the living room. When she comes back, there are tears in her eyes. My uncle was found unconscious in his shed. No one knows if he will make it. I cry and pray he will live. And again, my thoughts go to my grandma. She lost her husband eight months ago. Will she have to lose her son too? The news isn’t good. My uncle Jim passed away of a heart attack at the age of 50. And so I attended my third funeral within 16 months. I now truly was an adult. I think of my grandma all the time. I know that she says her prayers, attends church, and sheds a tear every day for her husband, son, and the rest of her family. I learned a lot through the experience of losing close relatives. These lessons include how important family and friends are, and how important it is handle difficult situations maturely. But most importantly, I learned that no matter what life throws at me, I can’t give up.