We all sometimes feel like we are being pressured to do something or to be someone. It’s hard not to be. Sometimes we just want to let go of all the things people expect us to be. Sometimes we just want to defy what society wants of us. We all live in a bubble of expectations and reality. Living our daily lives in a bubble, pretending to be someone we are not, living our lives pretending to be happy in our bubbles. “Defying Gravity” is something we wish we all could do, whether it means flying or popping that bubble we are all entranced by, that seems to blind us from the reality of who we truly are. Being yourself is harder than you might think. This can be seen in the short story called “Raymond’s Run” by Toni Cade Bambara as the protagonist
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Squeaky faces the trouble of taking care of her older brother Raymond, a boy who is mentally disabled and needs her supervision. She is a small, squeaky girl that lots of people do not perceive as tough but, proves them wrong as a star runner and by her competitive nature. However, underneath her bubble she wears her confidence, quick-witted personality, and troubles with pride, making her someone you do not want to have an argument with. Everybody has something or someone they are are pressured to be. In Squeaky’s life her mom pressures her to be a “perfect” girl but Squeaky defies her and lives life as herself. In the song “Defying Gravity” from the original Broadway musical Wicked a theme that carries through is about defying the person society pressures you to be and being yourself. Both Squeaky and the protagonists in the musical challenge who they are by not listening to society or who their influences tell them to …show more content…
I much rather just knock you down and take my chances even if I am a little girls with skinny arms and a squeaky voice, which is how I got my name Squeaky. And if things get too rough, I run. And as anyone can tell you I am the fastest thing on two feet.
(p. 26, lines 16-23)
This quote explains the quick-witted, tough personality she has molded herself into, from living in a world where being herself requires having such traits. Being herself might mean fighting all those people who tell her to act otherwise, all the while having the joy and pride of being herself:
I was once a strawberry in a Hansel and Gretel pageant when I was in nursery school and didn’t have the sense than to dance on my tiptoe with my arms in a circle above my head doing umbrella steps and being a perfect fool just so my mother and father could come dressed up and clap. You’d think they know better then to encourage that nonsense. I am not strawberry. I do not dance on my toes. I run. That is what I am all about.
(p. 32, lines
Squeaky faces the trouble of taking care of her older brother Raymond, a boy who is mentally disabled and needs her supervision. She is a small, squeaky girl that lots of people do not perceive as tough but, proves them wrong as a star runner and by her competitive nature. However, underneath her bubble she wears her confidence, quick-witted personality, and troubles with pride, making her someone you do not want to have an argument with. Everybody has something or someone they are are pressured to be. In Squeaky’s life her mom pressures her to be a “perfect” girl but Squeaky defies her and lives life as herself. In the song “Defying Gravity” from the original Broadway musical Wicked a theme that carries through is about defying the person society pressures you to be and being yourself. Both Squeaky and the protagonists in the musical challenge who they are by not listening to society or who their influences tell them to …show more content…
I much rather just knock you down and take my chances even if I am a little girls with skinny arms and a squeaky voice, which is how I got my name Squeaky. And if things get too rough, I run. And as anyone can tell you I am the fastest thing on two feet.
(p. 26, lines 16-23)
This quote explains the quick-witted, tough personality she has molded herself into, from living in a world where being herself requires having such traits. Being herself might mean fighting all those people who tell her to act otherwise, all the while having the joy and pride of being herself:
I was once a strawberry in a Hansel and Gretel pageant when I was in nursery school and didn’t have the sense than to dance on my tiptoe with my arms in a circle above my head doing umbrella steps and being a perfect fool just so my mother and father could come dressed up and clap. You’d think they know better then to encourage that nonsense. I am not strawberry. I do not dance on my toes. I run. That is what I am all about.
(p. 32, lines