Step By Wicked Step by Anne Fine Essay Example for Free

Step By Wicked Step by Anne Fine Essay The setting for the story Step by Wicked Step is one dark stormy night when five schoolchildren on a school trip stayed in a towering mansion. They found secret tower room that was hidden behind a wall. The lights in the mansion were not working and they has to depend on the streaks of lightning and the moonlight for light. The tower room, covered in a coat of dust, had not been used for a long time. There were heavy drapes, plain dark coverlet and frame old maps. A dusty green album revealed the story of Richard Clayton Harwick’s journal entitiled† My story, Read and Weep. Following this each one of them related their own sad story of their broken homes and relationship with their family members. Time : 1)Evening- party meals organized by Stella for Claudia father thirty- seventh birthday. 2) Night- Claudia decides to make something for her stepmother when she fells sorry for her. Location 1) Her granny’s house- her father stays in her granny’s after argue with her mother 2) Stella’s house – the party meal for her fathers’ birthday and the things she does for Stella. Richard related the story of his life with his stepfather and he ran away to escape his problems. All the five children symphatised with Richard’s situation and they each has their own sad tale to tell. The setting enhances the plot of the story by providing the atmosphere for the story. The tower was dark except for flashes of lightning and later the moonlight. It gave the children the mood and courage to tell their story. The dust in the room symbolized their past which should be wiped away so they could look forward to a brighter future. Write about difficult decision made by one of the characters The novel Step by Wicked Step is about five schoolchildren who found and read Richard Clayton Harwick’s journal of his life with his stepfather and his running away from home. The five children were inspired to tell their own sad family stories of broken homes. In the story, Richard Clayton Harwick made the difficult decision of running away. Richard Clayton Harwick felt sidetracked by his father who made him promise to look after his mother and sister after his death. His father made no reference to him. He was disappointed and to make matters worse, his mother remarried. His stepfather Mr. Coldstone or the ‘black, black bat’ as Richard referred to him imposed very strict rules on Richard, to the extend that he felt his home was more of a prison. He was sent to Mordanger School where he spent ‘four long years’ and it was a place of bad memories. He was extremely unhappy in his own home, a place where he had such a good memories of his father. He was disappointed that his mother did not seem to want to make any effort to protect him from his stepfather. Richard decided to run away from home. He felt that the three of them, his stepfather, mother and Charlotte would be happier without him around. His mother would find life more pleasant, Mr Coldstone would be pleased and Charlotte would not miss him. I think this was wrong decision as his decision changed three lives for the worst. His mother died of heartbreak, his stepfather of fury while Charlotte probably of childbirth. I feel he should have stayed on and tried to get along with his stepfather for his mothers’ sake. He should have let the past go and kept the happy memories of his father instead of feeling and showing unhappiness all the time. As Charlotte told him just because life had dealt them one hard blow, there was no reason fro them to be unhappy forever. His decision to run away was not right decision as it caused too much sorrow. Write about the social issue in the story In the novel step by wicked steps, five schoolchildren read the journal of Richard Clayton Harwick which detailed his sad story of family life with a stepfather. The five schoolchildren who come from broken homes were prompted to relate their own family life story. The reader is reminded of the issue of family relationships. Richard came from a happy family unit until his father passed away and his mother married to Mr. Coldstone, somebody Richard could not get along well with. He felt that he did not belong to his family, his mother and his sister anymore. While Cahrlotte got along well with their stepfather, Richard could not and did not want to. So, he decided to run away, thus breaking off family relationship with them rather than bear the unhappiness of bad family relationship. The five schoolchildren coming from broken homes had to deal with stepparents, stepsiblings, and half siblings. Some accepted these relationships well other could not. Most of the time they pretended to be amiable for their parents’ sake. When matter came to head, some like Claudia and Pixie sorted to out their feeling with their stepmothers. They were thus able to rebuild their family relationships. Others like Callie, Robbo’s sister, preferred to run away from their problems. The common thing about them was they felt their opinions and feelings did not count with their parents. Family relationships should be built on understanding and parents should take into account children’s opinion, especially on the issue of family relationship.

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â€Å"Ilmu pengetahuan tanpa nilai-nilai yang mulia belum tentu dapat melahirkan masyarakat yang baik dan berjaya. Nilai-nilai yang mulia tanpa ilmu pengetahuan juga tidak akan melahirkan masyarakat yang berjaya†. Begitulah ungkapan kata-kata bestari oleh mantan Perdana Menteri kita, Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad, Bapa Pemodenan Negara yang merupakan salah satu daripada pencetus kegemilangan dunia pendidikan negara. Selamat pagi dan Salam 1 Malaysia saya ucapkan kepada: Pengerusi Majlis, Yang Amat Berhormat Datuk Johan Ashaari bin Murti, Menteri Pendidikan merangkap Timbalan Perdana Menteri. Yang Berhormat Datuk Romario Ansam anak Rungah, Timbalan Menteri Pendidikan. Yang Amat Berhormat Pehin Sri Maher Zain, Ketua Menteri. Yang Berhormat Freddy Jabu anak Jugah, Timbalan Ketua Menteri. Yang Berhormat Datuk Halimah, Menteri Tugas-tugas Khas Dalam Negeri berkaitan Pendidikan. Yang Berhormat Datuk-datuk dan Datin-datin. Yang Berbahagia Datuk Ariffin Faiq, Ketua Pengarah Pendidikan. Yang Berbahagia Datuk Sabri bin Rahmat, Rektor IPGM. Yang Dihormati Encik Hafiz Azman, Pengarah Pendidikan Negeri. Yang Berusaha Puan Saftuyah binti Safri, Pengarah Institut Pendidikan Guru Tunku Abdul Rahman. Pengarah-pengarah IPGK dan Wakil-wakil Pengarah IPGK. Yang Berusaha Encik Amir bin Jamal, Timbalan Pengarah Institut Pendidikan Guru Tunku Abdul Rahman. Ketua-ketua Jabatan Persekutuan dan Negeri. Ketua-ketua Jabatan dan Ketua-ketua Unit Institut Pendidikan Guru Tunku Abdul Rahman. Pensyarah-pensyarah Kanan. Para Pensyarah. Staf-staf Sokongan. Para Graduan. Para Ibu Bapa. Tuan-tuan dan Puan-puan dekat di hati. Tegak rumah kerana tiangnya, tegak bumi kerana paksinya, tegaknya saya di sini adalah untuk menyampaikan sebuah pidato yang bertajuk â€Å"Kecemerlan... .... Kesimpulannya, corak pendidikan yang diaplikasikan di Malaysia adalah lebih menyeluruh kerana ia merangkumi aspek fizikal dan rohani. Pendidikan di Malaysia bukan sahaja ingin membentuk pelajarnya yang aktif dan cemerlang dalam kurikulum dan kokurikulum malah ia juga memberi fokus kepada kelengkapan rohani dan moral agar pelajar yang dilahirkan sempurna dari segala segi. Maka dengan itu hadirin, saya sekali lagi menegaskan, pendidikan ini bukan sahaja penting untuk mengembangkan minda dan bakat manusia, malah ia juga penting untuk memacu legasi pembangunan negara. Ini adalah kerana pendidikan merupakan nadi kepada pencetus kegemilangan dan martabat sesebuah negara tersebut. Oleh itu, penting sekali untuk kita sebagai rakyat Malaysia dalam melancarkan aspirasi negara iaitu mencapai kecemerlangan dalam pendidikan untuk menaikkan nama negara di persada antarabangsa.

Effects of Civil War on Women

There are several changes that the Civil War brought to civilian society and some of these are the following: First of all, the United States of America have been brought back together, which also means that the States from the Southern portions were not given the permission to break away or become independent (Effects.. , 2006). Second, the Southern areas were â€Å"placed under military rule and divided into military districts† (Effects.., 2006). This also caused these areas to â€Å"apply for readmission to the Union† (Effects.. , 2006). Third, the national or Federal government has proven itself to the civilians that its power may not at all be surpassed by the States (Effects.. , 2006). Fourth, the Civil War resulted in the liberation of slaves (Effects.. , 2006). Fifth, the Civil War established plans for the country’s â€Å"Reconstruction† (Effects.. , 2006).The â€Å"Reconstruction† was the government’s plan to deal with the following direct effects of the civil war: 1) the freedom of slaves resulted in problems with regard to housing, clothing, food, and employment; 2) the economic ruin led to having no money, closed banks, low supply of commodities, destruction of railroads and bridges, and devastation of plantation and crops; and 3) the defeat of the confederacy led to the South’s not having any government (Effects.. , 2006). Last but not least, industrialism was established because during the war, production increased, as well as, several new technologies were added (Effects.., 2006).The aforementioned became possible because of the following: 1) the freedom of slaves; 2) the economic ruin in the South; and c) the defeat of the confederacy (Effects.. , 2006). Effects of Civil War on Women During the Civil War, women were given the opportunity to assume roles that people believed only men can carry out, for instance, â€Å"as nurses, government clerks, factory workers, family farmers, factory workers, some even disguised as a man to serve in the military service, etc. † (Encarta, 2007). This was the beginning of the triumph of gender equality since this upheld the gender roles (Encarta, 2007).

Social Issue, Symbols, and Themes of Blake’s “the Chimney...

Manivone Sayasone Professor Nicoll-Johnson English 6B 1922 15 March 2013 Social Issue, Symbols, and Themes of Blake’s â€Å"The Chimney Sweeper† Poems During the seventeenth century, people in England substituted burning wood with coal to use their fireplaces to avoiding paying hearth taxes. The burning of coal left soot on the interior walls of the fireplaces that needed to be removed to keep the fireplaces clean. Homes would be polluted with fumes of the coal residue if the fireplaces weren’t cleaned regularly (â€Å"A History of Chimney Sweeping†). Since children were small enough to climb inside the narrow interior of the chimneys, they were employed as chimney sweeps that worked in harsh conditions (Nurmi 17). As a result, the lives of†¦show more content†¦The speaker of the poem firstly revealed that his mother has passed away when he was young and that his father sold him to a life of chimney sweeping before the speaker could pronounce the word, â€Å"sweep† (Carbatonic Funk). As a sweep, the speaker revealed that he is exposed to soot constantly. In the second stanza, Blake appealed to the readers’ sympathy once more by introducing them to Tom Dacre. Blake wrote, â€Å"Theres little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head / That curld like a lambs back, was shavd, so I said: / Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your heads bare / You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.† (Blake lines 5-8). Tom is a new sweeper in the poem who represented â€Å"other neglected children in poverty† (Heath). Blake also made Tom into an individual instead of â€Å"another faceless young chimney sweep† by giving him â€Å"a name, feelings, and emotion† (Carbatonic Funk). Giving Tom his individuality can be seen as Blake’s method of telling those who exploited children for financial gain that children have â€Å"basic human rights and deserve to be treated respectfully† (Carbatonic Funk). In addition, the removal of Tom’s white hair symbolized his â€Å"sacrificial life to societyà ¢â‚¬  (Heath). Blake had the speaker compare Tom’s hair to â€Å"a lambs’ back† because the lamb symbolized â€Å"the Christian theme of Christ’s purity, sacrifice to humanity and temporal neglect of His Father† (Heath). More ChristianShow MoreRelatedThe Romantic Poetry Of Blake And Shelley1494 Words   |  6 Pagessymbolism, feelings and intuition, freedom from laws, impulsiveness, simplistic language, personal experiences, democracy, and liberty, significant in various art forms including poetry. 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