Preview

Family and Young Boy Charley

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
737 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Family and Young Boy Charley
Book Report
“For One More Day”, By Mitch Albom
Made by: Kitti Kristanti, Sec 1d

For One More Day
“This is a story about a family, and as there is a ghost involved, you might call it a ghost story. But every family is a ghost story . The dead sit at our tables long after they have gone.”
This is a beautiful, haunting novel about the family we love and the chances we miss. It explores the question, “What would you do if you could spend one more day with the ones you love?” The story covers a conversation Charley Benetto has with a sports writer. Throughout the conversation he goes back and forth between the one last day he had with his mother and the important events in his life, sharing his feelings– both past and present– about them. I particularly enjoyed the way he shared throughout the book little vignettes of the times his mother stood up for him and the times he didn’t stand up for her. As a mother myself, I couldn’t help wondering if someday my own children would be able to look back and see with clarity the sacrifices I have made for them. Throughout the book I ‘heard’ some of the same things from the young boy Charley that I hear from my own children. It was rewarding and brought hope to see him come to a realization of how his interpretation of the events had been inaccurate and skewed by emotions in the moment. Perhaps my children will also understand someday
As a young boy Charley Benetto makes the choice to be a daddy’s boy and does everything his father asks him to. Then his father disappears, leaving a broken family and an embarrassing situation for the young Charley to endure. Being raised by a single mother has it’s challenges and plenty of embarrassment, many that Charley takes out on his mother.“So he chooses his father, and he worships him- right up to the day the man disappears. An eleven-year-old Charley must then turn to his mother, who bravely raises him on her own, despite Charley’s emabarrassment and yearning for a

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Each individual creates their own choices to stumble upon their experience which may either trigger awful consequences or opportunities on their new path in life and into the world. J.C. Burke’s “The Story of Tom Brennan”, employs the story of the protagonist, Tom Brennan, and his family as they embark upon new journeys and decisions to restart their new lives in Coghill. Their horrific past explains the reason of their move from Mumbilli to their grandmother’s house. The reputation of the Brennan’s was once great and happiness filled their lives, however all is lost when Daniel, Luke and Nicole had a car accident. Football was once Tom’s only favourite sport. Unfortunately, in his new world, it meant nothing. It is just a game to fill in the time. He has lost his edge for he feels uncomfortable “For me, playing footy would never be the same. Here in Coghill, it would just be something to fill in the time – the endless, endless time”.…

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In addition to the influence of the children’s perspective on the reader’s interpretation of the adults’ roles in the novel, the reader also makes inferences and conclusions about the adults based on their actions. Consider the various failures of the adult characters in this novel: moral failures, the failure to parent well, and the failure to negotiate life successfully, to name just a few. You may choose to analyze only one character and his or her failures, or write a comparative analysis of several characters, but in any case, build an essay in which you posit reasons for the failures of adults to protect children and to offer hope to the next…

    • 113 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Living life with the absence of a mother figure is one of the most significant factors that has majorly influenced the outcome of her life. Having a mother to guide, encourage, and mold a child is essential in developing their character, and as Baby does not have one, it has prevented her from learning valuable lessons in life. Due to this, Baby is left in the care of her single father, Jules, who has always been involved with narcotics, and “trie[s] to be a mother, but [has] always kind of fallen short on the mark” (O’Neill, 186). She recognizes the fact that her father is unable to take care of himself, and is not considered a true authority figure due to his immature tendencies and vacuous decisions. Baby is, hence, forced to take on the parental role, and is deprived from her childhood and the nurturing environment that is necessary in order for a child to properly flourish. This forces her to learn how to be self reliant and independent, however, without guidance, Baby turns to what she knows best and succumbs to the life of drugs, alcohol and prostitution —a fate that was inevitable due to her circumstance and the external factors that surround her. As Baby does not comprehend the feeling of unconditional love that children are supposed to feel from their parents, she searches for love in all the wrong places. When she meets Alphonse, a pimp in her…

    • 1407 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He tells the story of a young girl and boy in trying situations and persuades his audience to feel sorry for them. The boy lives in a bad area. His father is “jobless” and his mother is a “sleep-in domestic.” The girl must take on the “role of [a] mother” because her “mother died.” What reader can help but feeling sorry for a young child who has no hope? They still live in fear and desolation and have no hope, for their race is sinking. Once, their people worked with “George Washington” and “shed blood in the revolution.” But, they fell from higher hopes and were put on “slave ships... in chains.” The reader can’t help but feel sorry for a race that has been so abused and taken advantage of.…

    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As a memoir, this is truly unique. It must have taken tremendous effort to write this often painful recollection of your own life. Yet, the exercise of exploring the dynamics of such a dysfunctional family, and the parental unit as a separate entity analyzed by a daughter, had to be a revelation and a healing experience. One merit of the work is the strength of character bred into these children, celebrated and seen in…

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As this story unravels, the reader is able to observe the changing of a relationship, tradition, and young man. While reading, each character appears equally content, yet neither is truly pleased. The root of the unhappiness in each character is due to the change that has occurred in Joe and in their tradition. While his father accepts his change of mind, he is quite obviously offended and most likely feels hurt by Joe’s decision. On the other hand, Joe expresses sorrowfulness. This leaves the reader’s mind focused on the past, when the relationship was ideal and each character was happy; reminiscing in the…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He is mainly worried for himself when his father is not around. When the boy was sick he tells his father, “Don’t go away” (247). When his father is dying, the boy tells him: “Just take me with you. Please” (279). He feels as if he cannot survive in such a horrible world without the love and support of his father. The boy eventually finds other “good guys” and realizes it is best for him to move on in the world and not give up.…

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Flannery O'Connor Essay

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Flannery O’Connor cleverly creates for us timeless short stories about simple characters that appear easy to understand. Beneath the words she manages to communicate an intricate message to us regarding faith, love and family. That we are bound together as families in love, even though we do not always like one another. In most families, we tolerate each other shortcomings, like the nagging and bossiness of the grandmother, and the rudeness of the children. We see in her characters, many of the good and bad behaviors that we all accept are the best and worst of each of us on an everyday basis. The impatience and cranky nature of the father in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and the fascination of parker with tattoos, are symbolic of many of the eccentric and crazy behaviors and habits that family members often exhibit. With faith in those we love, and a belief in God, we accept and tolerate the dichotomy of good and evil operating in all humans everyday.…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books. Each body has a story to tell...”…

    • 208 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    "Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we're here."…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sitting in silence, they watched the grandfather clock tick eerily, mimicking the reverberating beating of William’s heart. The vision of dread on Edna’s face was overwhelming. The thought that William could die- from a scratch, gunshot, disease- after spending five nights, watching her husband suffer in pain. A young, strong male, suffering in the dirt; nothing could be more painful to a mother. William didn’t have a choice, but if he did, he knew he would pridefully follow in his father's…

    • 1023 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Parenting, or bad parenting, is a strong and clearly defined theme in A Good Man is Hard to Find along with generational shifts. The grandmother wouldn’t take her “children in any direction with a criminal like” (1) The Misfit. Even with her warning bailey, as a clear example of generational shift, doesn’t “look up from his reading” (1). This showing of complete and utter disregard of his mother presents the problem of generational shifts, Bailey neither cares nor respects his old mother’s words.…

    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jasper Jones

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In this coming of age story, Charlie must question his conventional notions of what is right and wrong as he navigates small town morality, racism and hypocrisy. Discuss with close reference to the novel.…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The story, written in the form of a letter, shows the process of a thirteen-year-old girl becoming more mature as she expresses her grievances from her tragic childhood. At the beginning of the story, she described both the emotional and physical difficulties her family suffered through because of the absence of her father. She felt lonely, insecure and confused as she hoped that her father would come back. “Sometimes I had bad dreams. I would dream the welfare took us away and no one missed us, not even mommy. Daddy where were you?” (Page 163) At the end of the letter, however, the girl started to understand that her view of the world before was unbalanced and incomplete, “through a thin veil full of small holes”. (Page 165) She felt more released and started to notice “the greatness of the world”. (Page 165) She began to treasure all the memories she had with her family instead of thinking about her misery all the time, “we carried on living.” (Page 165) There was a great transition of her character from the beginning to the end of the letter.…

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    One Big Happy Family

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The story was about young women whose family life seemed to be the ‘American dream, for those of us looking in from outside. However, one day author realized that in order to find happiness within herself she should first learn how to listen her feelings.…

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics