My Childhood Has Been Surrounded By Stories - 1266 Words

My childhood has been surrounded by stories, whose casts and settings are as real and fantastical as any fairytale. Masterfully orchestrated, these stories have been brought to life by the people that have survived decades to tell them, people I love dearly but will never truly understand — my grandparents. A South Korean surgeon trapped on a North Korean farm; a razor-sharp loan shark of a mother in Haiti; a sibling-favoring geography teacher in South Korea; a proud doctor in Montreal. These strange and unknowable people are my ghosts, characters in unvisited places and unknowable times. These timeless moments are the fragments of my history, woven for me in that haphazard place between the real and the imaginary, the past and the present. These stories are the legacy of my grandparents. I am a stranger to their worlds, worlds that survive only in their memories. The people who once inhabited their lives becoming ghosts that inhabit mine. My grandmothers: one Haitian — Grandmama — and one Korean — Halmoni. Each from a wildly different culture and world and yet so similar to one another — smart, headstrong . . . rude to waiters. My Korean grandfather — Haraboji. Quiet, sweet, burps at the dinner table, and loved at the community gym where he has spent two hours, every day, for the past three years. And my Haitian grandfather — Grandpapa, who died in 2007, joining the rest of the ghosts in an almost-remembered place in my mind. When I think about my grandparents, IShow MoreRelatedGreen Stones901 Words   |  4 Pages1 How childhood experiences make the protagonist evolve in Doreen Baingana s short story â€Å"Green Stones†. The short story subject to study is â€Å"Green Stones†written by Doreen Baingana, an Ugandan writer. â€Å"Green Stones† relates the story of a whole Ugandan family seen through the eyes of the youngest member of the family, Christine. Baingana portrays through the protagonist how perspectives change as people evolve and grow up. â€Å"Green Stones† is related in first person, and as said beforeRead MoreBefore Night Falls Essay1365 Words   |  6 Pagescapturing our feelings and sympathy of the Cuban Revolution. Arenas wrote over twenty books, including ten novels and numerous short stories and poems. Arenas was not the only writer affected though as he states that, â€Å"All the literature of this century is somewhat burdened by the theme of uprootedness,† (Arenas, 36) which means every piece of literature surrounded the system of being exiled or the fear of being caught or doing wrong and being thrown out to vanish. He was also strong towards hisRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book Solitude Of Raven 908 Words   |  4 PagesSolitude of Raven The nature has gifted human being with tremendous qualities of life where one side is full of happiness and the other part is the sorrowness and life is just the name to experience the both parts. The joyful moments we want to share and try to hide the bitter part. The photographer who made the analyses of life on these parts would like to explain more in detail in his book that divides his experience based on the reality and real life meaning called the book†solitude of raven†Read MoreComparing Philomena And The Movie Philomena Directed By Stephen Frears1077 Words   |  5 Pagesbooks and movies of the same title differ, especially when referring to characters and plots, but they can also be created with very similar themes. It is well known that a whole entire plot of a book cannot be turned into a movie; a director only has so much time to work with. 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My ride through life has only just begun, I always wonder where the tracks are going to take me next. From the beginning I’ve had people riding along with me, I’ve never been alone. At times I get sick of the ride and want it to end, but life is short and goes by fast. I’m trying to seize the moment and live for the ride. The day of my birth was hectic from the stories I’ve been told. My mom works at Mercy Medical CenterRead MoreMy Life With Teachers. I Pushed Past My Mom And Threw My1583 Words   |  7 Pages My Life with Teachers I pushed past my Mom and threw my heavy book bag across the kitchen floor, speeding down my basement stairs like a child on Christmas morning. I was so excited for my favorite part of the day, that the words my mother called down to me were completely inaudible. After a long day at school, this moment was all I looked forward to. I ran across the room to my massive white board, and began to write a message across it in cursive. I stepped away, and read outloud what I hadRead MoreThe, Legend, Lore, And Hearsay Essay1651 Words   |  7 Pagesaddresses the migration of his ancestors. As a result, the people had been modified by their journey, and so finally they began to consider who they were and what they were meant to become. â€Å"What remains is fragmentary: mythology, legend, lore, and hearsay--and of course the idea itself, as crucial and complete as it ever was. That is the miracle,† (Momaday, 77). In regards to his culture, Momday expresses his perception of the storie s his father once told him as a child. Indeed, he is now old enoughRead MoreAlices Journey to Find Her Identity1031 Words   |  5 PagesLewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a story of a young girl’s journey down the rabbit hole into a fantasy world where there seems to be no logic. 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