Evelina Corcos 711

"Building Bridges" Essay

At any certain point in someones life, they have family problems or have to make tough family decisions. Throughout the short story “Building Bridges”, by Andrea Pinkey, the relationship change between a teenaged girl named Bebe and her grandmother who she lives with named Mama Lil is shown, and how Mama Lil develops a stronger and deeper relationship with Bebe over time. In this short sort, the author shows that family relationships can get difficult, but in the end your family will always be there for you. Andrea Pinkey does this by progressively showing how Bebe’s relationship with her grandmother is becoming stronger, and how towards the end of the story Mama Lil finally feels like she understands Bebe.

The author wants the reader to think and understand how Mama Lil feels about Bebe working on the Brooklyn Bridge and how Mama Lil’s actions have an impact on Bebe. “Bebe, get that backward idea out of your head. That grit-work ain’t no place for you. And besides, I ain’t never heard of no girls be doing that. You need to be getting yourself a real summer job, something civilized.” This shows that Mama Lil clearly doesn’t want Bebe working on the bridge, and that she’s very apposed to the idea of Bebe working on the bridge. “I never got tired of looking at its steel girders and iron cables- and its beautiful crisscross rafters that had started out in somebody’s imagination, had been put to paper, formalized in an engineer’s plans, than woven together, bolt by bolt. Now Belle (the name she calls the bridge by) was a powerful giant who carried all kinds of people to all kinds of places.” To Bebe, working on the Brooklyn Bridge has been her dream for a long time and she has a passion for it.

Through the middle of the story, Bebe keeps trying to explain to Mama Lil how important this job is to her but Mama Lil doesn’t think its a civilized job, and that Bebe should get a job at a more sophisticated working facility. “I ain’t gonna be the one who allows you to take part in such foolishness.” She wants to make sure Bebe is aware that she doesn’t approve. The bridge is all she wants and she wants Mama Lil to expect that. Mama Lil is starting to open her eyes to this idea of Bebe being an engineer but she isn’t going to let Bebe see that. “Blow me away, try to make me disappear, like your puffs of smoke.” By Bebe saying it lets the reader understand that Bebe feels very rejected by Mama Lil and she’s hurt that Mama Lil doesn’t want, and isn’t going to let, her do what she wants. “She sat back on her sofa, blowing her smoke straight ahead, her eyes avoiding mine.” You can tell that Mama Lil’s coming to realize that maybe Bebe’s dream isn’t so silly after all and that Bebe is going to keep asking for this until she agrees to sign the form or give her a straight answer. But Mama Lil isn’t intending to show it. 

Towards the end of the text, Mama Lil starts being more open about the whole bridge situation with Bebe, but she still does not think that its the right decision for her to make. “Bebe, if you put your mind to it,you could be awfully good at doing hair. Give it a chance child.” Mama Lil says to Bebe after she brings up the bridge again. “Mama Lil, look at me.” Bebe says as Mama Lil is smoking a cigarette. “Im enjoying my cig Bebe, it tastes better with my eyes closed.” Bebe then says “Mama Lil your eyes are always closed, closed to seeing me.” Now, Bebe realizes something. That in order for her to live her dream, she needs to let Mama Lil let her go. “Let me go Mama Lil, let me dream.”

  In this story, it is shown that family relationships can be difficult at times. But after all, your family will always be there to support and love you. Most people have family problems, or things can get rough sometimes, but family will always help you get though things. So in the end, Bebe and Mama Lil did resolve their problems, and Bebe did end up working on the Brooklyn Bridge. Their relationship can be used as an example for many relationships between kids and their guardians at any certain time period in their life.

I grew up around a lot of people with accents, my dad who used to have a strong Italian accent and my babysitter when I was little used to have a Spanish accent. So when they would say my nam it would always be in European accents and thats what it reminds me of. My family also changed my name (not legally) from Evelyn to the European translation Evelina. Not many people have the same name as me, I’ve only ever met about 4 or 5 other people with my name. 
My name reminds me of the house I lived in for eight years in Los Angeles, California. It was always sunny and the house was so amazing. When I think about my name I think about how my dad and my babysitter and family friends used to say it. The fact that not many people have the same name as me makes me feel original. Some people might feel out of place because they have a different name but mine makes me stand out.
My name reminds me of a color thats like a mix between a red and an orange, like a scarlet or a coral. A color you don’t see every day, but every now and then you occasionally see it. I’ve never been to a store that has a keychain or flashlight with my name on it, Evelyn? All the time. I f I go to Starbucks with a friend I tell them that my name is “Ev” because they can’t spell Evelina. Once I tried and they spelt it “Balinda”. Sometimes when I meet new people or have new teachers they tend to call me Emalina or Evilena. My name is like the number seven which makes sense because my name has seven letters in it. Seven is a prime number which means other numbers can’t go into it. This makes me feel like I’m unique because the number seven is a number that isn’t similar to other numbers. 
My mom almost named me Violet after the Florentine soccer team. Which in Italian, translates to Violeta. My parents almost named that because my dads Florentine. I have both of my parents last names, Mazar and Corcos, but I only use Corcos which is my dads last name.
But in the end, I love my name and I would never change it. No, I don’t like the name Evelyn and have never gone by it but Evelina I have and I haven’t ever wanted to go by anything else.

Evelina Corcos 

711 

The Fault in Our Stars

By John Green

Over this summer my favorite book I read was The Fault in Our Stars. I know, typical right? But honestly this book is so amazing and heartbreaking, I couldn’t help myself, but I read it two times and had to write something on it. This book is so filled with emotion and during the book there are moments when you find yourself smiling and others where you find yourself bawling. Written my an amazing author John Green, who is also the author of Looking For Alaska, Let it Snow, and many more brilliant books.

The Fault in Our Stars is about two teenagers names Augustus and Hazel. Hazel was diagnosed with lung cancer when she was very young and Augustus had cancer in his leg. Augustus and Hazel met at a support group and talked ever since. After a several months, they become closer and Augustus decides to spend his wish on going to Amsterdam to meet Hazel’s favorite author accompanied by Hazel! They visit the author the 2nd day they’re in Amsterdam and he ends up being a drunk who is extremely rude. He makes fun of Hazel and Gus for having cancer and Hazel ends up cursing at him and his assistant apologizes to them and then quits. They then become friends with the assistant and go to the Anne Frank Museum together, where Hazel and Gus kiss for the first time. The day later Hazel and Gus are sitting on a bench near a river and Gus tells her that they found more cancer in him and that it spread through his whole body. When they get back he has Hazel and Issac (his good friend who lost his eyesight to cancer) prepare eulogies for his funeral since he knows he has a short time to live. They meet at a church and Hazel and Issac say their speeches. Hazel’s eulogy was absolutely heart wrenching. About a week later, Augustus dies. At his funeral the writer shows up. When the funeral ends and Hazel gets in her car, she starts sobbing. The writer opens the car for and sits down, and hands her a sheet of paper. He tells her to read it and she yells at him and throws it on the floor. He tells her that he was deeply sorry for his actions and that he was overwhelmed because his daughter died when she was seven of Leukemia. She tells him that she’s sorry but he needs to get out of her car. A couple days after, Issac asked her if she read the eulogy Gus wrote. She has no idea what he’s talking about, then runs to her car and picks up the paper. It’s the paper the writer gave her.

John Green by far is my favorite author ever. I also went to the premiere of the movie and met all of the actors. It was SO amazing seeing the book come to live by not only watching the movie, but meeting the actors, and they were so sweet and amazing. I decided to read this book because there was such a huge buzz over it and everyone seemed to love it. I had also read Looking For Alaska (also written by John Green) before hand so I knew that John was a great writer.