Thank You Ma'M

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Maheen Adnan
Ms. Laura Schmitz
PDP 10 American Literature
11 November 2008
TITLE
Claim-The author highlights the intersection between the innocence and illusions of youth and the future uncertainty to show the many depictions of humans.
Connie's innocence of youth is portrayed by many actions that she does. Her adolescence is projected through how she carries herself and how “everything about her has two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home” (paragraph 5). The author shows how “her walk”, “her mouth”and “her laugh” show how she is different at home and how she is different to the world (paragraph 5). Showing how she is always worried about her looks and how she is dressed shows how she has not fully developed as an adult yet but rather still in her adolescence. “Connie paid close attention to herself” (paragraph 13) and “sat with her eyes closed...dreaming and dazed...over onto thoughts of the boy she had been with..” shows how love is something great in her life and how she can sit around and dream about it (paragraph 11). The author also relates how her immaturity is being shown how she incorrectly uses religion to help herself.
In the transition to adulthood, the author focuses on the false use of religious imagery to show how it reflects her life. Connie's priority is never religion therefore it would not give her salvation if she ever needed it. Things like “none of them bothered with church” (paragraph 11) and “Christ, Christ” (paragraph 14) show how she knows they exist but either doesn't care or doesn't follow or understand the meaning. When Connie says “Christ, Christ” she says that only as a wording but it has no meaning
(paragraph 14). Connie tries to find ways that religion could help her from Arnold but without ever
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keeping it a priority it does not save her from the “devil”. In the end, Connie looks at all her choices and tries getting out of the hole she put herself in by using religion....