Life Exposed In Stephen Crane's The Paper Crane

Improved Essays
The Paper Crane
Imagine a time where people spent the evenings at the disco. Life was full of hope and women were looked at from a completely new perspective, oh the 70’s. Within the town of Woodsbury, a young girl named Emily lived with her family. Despite being 9 years old, she loved to feel and act like a grown up. She was a proper girl who always dressed-up in out of her mother’s wardrobe. From the shoes to the extravagant dresses, Emily found a way to make it work. She was insightful, although there were not many shoes to choose from, she always found a way to make her parents gasp. Her mother, Eleina, stayed at home while her father, Jonah, worked as a mechanic at the nearby steel factory. They lived in a two bedroom apartment right by Main Street; one of the busiest streets in the city.
Financially, they were well off. They had bountiful food on the table every night and usually father brought Emily some sweets from the nearby bakery. Emily’s father was a hard worker; he left early in the morning and came back late in the evening. On the days he would come home past her bedtime, she would patiently await his arrival eager to receive his goodnight kiss.
…show more content…
Eleina met him at the train station, while Emily stayed home. His train had arrived and as he exited the train, he was overwhelmed with tears as he saw Eleina. He was finally free, back to his old life, he knew that he had survived the worst. With his family at his side, Jonah felt overpowered. Despite having an amputated arm, he realized that his safe return home was a luxury in its own. Many of his friends would not survive the brutal war. He and his wife returned home, there he embraced Emily with one arm. Emily’s couldn’t believe her eyes; her father returned to her damaged. She realized it was her fault, since she couldn’t keep the crane safe and it’s wing broke; the same had happened to her father. However her father reassured her that none of this was her

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    A pig named Sambo, losing her favorite purse to a hole in the wall, the ruination of a little pink dress, three sisters and one crippled brother, playing in the creek, and later a lanky and blond haired and blue eyed young man… all memories and shadows of a little girl’s former life. Most may remember the 1950s as an era akin to the Roaring 20s and characterized by swirling poodle skirts, tapping saddle shoes, and bustling soda shops across America. However, Patsy Ruth Carroll can recall the 50s with an altered light as her family was very destitute and often had insufficient food to eat because her daddy would not work. On the other hand, she remembers the lighter times with a bright smile and a bustling laugh. Born on February 10, 1953…

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Lynda Barry shares a memory in the narrative essay “The Sanctuary of School” (New York Times 2 Jan. 1992). Ms. Barry recalls her unstable home life as a child and how a school became a sanctuary for the 7-year old. In it, Barry details a walk to school and uses the people she encounters along the way to define her sanctuary. Barry uses this personal experience to shed light on the broader issue of art programs fading out of public school budgets and is a plea for the children, like her, who use art as a form of therapy. Lynda Barry’s home life has led her to feel “neglected” and “unnoticed” (Barry 10) Following another night of her parents arguing, Lynda Barry “snuck” (1) out of her home to go to school, in a panic, and in the dark−to avoid…

    • 428 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The excerpt from Ann Dillard’s “An American Childhood” demonstrates the love, awe, and appreciation Dillard has for her mother through colorful anecdotes. It is through this small collection of stories that we, the audience, can see the bigger picture. Dillard lightheartedly describes her mother’s vibrant personality in the excerpt, it showcases her mother’s playful humor to her often mischievous nature. It paints a clear picture of the vivacious spirit within her as well as its impact on Dillard’s childhood and character. With Ann’s writing style, it is not difficult to connect with the story in a personal sense and, ultimately, admire Ann’s mother nearly as much as Ann does.…

    • 408 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the short stories Coming of Age in Mississippi and “Everyday Use”, Anne Moody known as Essie Mae, and Mrs. Johnson otherwise known as Momma, share similar characteristics in the way they are alienated by their actions in the two short stories. Essie Mae and Momma are both strong, independent black women who live in the time period of segregation and intense animosity between the black and white races. Furthermore, they are both experiencing conflicts of interest among their family members closest to them and their selves throughout the entirety of the two stories. Nevertheless, Essie Mae from the Coming of Age in Mississippi and Momma from “Everyday Use” possess the modern condition because of the way Essie Mae and Momma are alienated from particular members of their families and their behavioral actions to their surroundings.…

    • 1327 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Family is a common factor, visibly prominent in people's lives. To many, the definition of family varies. “Families differ in terms of economic, cultural, social, and many other facets, but what every family has in common is that the people who call it a family are making clear that those people are important to them in some way.” Katherena Vermette’s The Break revolves on a community of families whose lives intertwined with one another.…

    • 956 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On Jeannette Walls

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages

    CHAOS TO CAREER “I was on fire” (9). As strange as it seems, this is how Jeannette Walls began the story of her childhood, and a fire it was indeed. The Glass Castle is a riveting memoir that tells of Jeannette Walls’ unpredictable childhood. Her parents, or rather lack of true parents, pushed Jeannette to become the woman she is today. Years of poverty and moving gave her the drive to make her future the opposite of the life she had lived as a child.…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The sporadic storytelling creates an eerie mood in which the reader knows very little, but very much at the same time. The unknowingness shows the disconnect of humanity. Miss Emily is not cared about but for the use of conversation. At first, she is cared for by the Jefferson government and they do not make her pay taxes. As time progresses and the government officials are replaced Miss Emily has several tax collectors come to her home.…

    • 685 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Glass Castle Response

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages

    It was a typical Friday night, in the spring of 2003, my mom had just dropped me off at the gas station so I could go over to my dads. After I got in my dads truck we drove over to his friends house where we would stay till late hours into the night. I tried to stay up as late as I could so my dad would not leave me at this stranger’s house, but inevitably as the second grader that I was I couldn’t compete with the older men when it came to who could stay up the latest. Needless to say I woke up on a couch, in a house I’d never been to. I started crying and frantically looked for a phone, so that I could call my dad.…

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In the memoir of Jeanette Walls’ “The Glass Castle”, there are many themes to explore. Jeanette tells the tales of growing up in continued poverty with dysfunctional parents who find pleasure moving frequently in the dead of night. The Walls family was extremely poor and often there was no food, electricity or indoor plumbing in the multitude of places that the children called home. Jeanette grew up as the second oldest daughter in a family of six. Her father, Rex Walls, was a glorified entrepreneur who was rather bright, but always seemed down on his luck with a bottle of booze in his hand.…

    • 2011 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In her article “The Caddie Woodlawn Syndrome,” Anne Scott MacLeod explores the typical upbringing of American girls in the nineteenth century. MacLeod notes that while the common assumption for a girl’s experience growing up in nineteenth century America was much different than Caddie’s, autobiographies written around the same time Caddie Woodlawn takes place tell a different truth. Elizabeth Allen, one of the women who wrote an autobiography, explains her experience growing up: “I suppose someone must have had an eye on me, but I was conscious of no surveillance, and I roamed at large until the boys got out of ‘school,’ when I attacked myself resolutely to them, doubtless becoming a great nuisance” (MacLeod 202). Allen is not the only woman who writes of playing outside; MacLeod quotes another five or six in her article. Caddie’s wild childhood may not be as unique as originally…

    • 919 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jazzy's Stereotypes

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Emily didn’t seem like your average ordinary girl, she was enthusiastic and very sassy. She would act like she had everything, but in reality she didn’t. Her mom was poor and didn’t have a lot of money, but she still thought she was “all of that”. She had two best friends, the oldest named Jazzy, who had a lot of attitude problems and the second oldest named Kristina, who was very shy, but once you got to know her she was really nice. It was Tuesday, december the 21st, and Emily and her friends Kristina and Jazzy were sitting at a table in the cafeteria.…

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Toni Cade Bambara 's short story, "The Lesson" Toni tackles a lot of recoil injustice but what she talks about the most is economical injustice. In the story Bambara try’s to make a connection between poverty and education and how that relates to her own life. Bambara shows how poverty and education are connected together by taking us two main characters to show us what going on Sylvia and miss more are a student and a teacher. Sylvia is a poor student who lives in the ghetto Harlem with her family. Miss Moore is a well-educated black woman who sees that the kids lack knowledge out of poverty and decide to do something about it.…

    • 967 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this portion of the story Emily’s father has just recently passed away. After his passing Emily exhibited odd behavior such as refusing to admit her Father’s death and the refusal to give up his body many days after his death. The passage I chose is the townspeople commenting on her strange…

    • 1109 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Due to her inability to let the past go, isolated home, wicked appearance and dreary attire the town feels as if Emily is a burden to their newfound generation. Emily Grierson has a major problem with clinging to things. During the death of her…

    • 953 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Perfect. We live in a world where all anyone strives to be is perfect. Is that the sole purpose of life? To belittle or gain power over someone’s struggles? Merely to make yourself feel better or look as though you're perfect?…

    • 1427 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays