ELA Session Two Part B Essay (Critical Lens)

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and conevenience, but where he stands at times of challange and controversy" was quoted by Martin Luther King Jr. I agree with the quote that a person is not defined by who they are when around people. They are defined by what they do in a time of need. Two books that support this quote are Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs and How the Garica Girls Lost Their Accents, by Julia Alvarez. This two books showed what a person does in a toime when they are faced with life's challenges by the use of setting, characterization and point of view.

In Incidents in the the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs the setting had an effect on the main character Linda. Linda was living in the South during the time of slavery. Linda wanted to protect her children from slavery so Linda escaped from her master. Linda faced the challange when she tried to escape not tring to get caught by Dr. Flint. Dr. Flint tried to catch her in the North but never did catch her. Another challange Linda faced was before she escaped to the North Linda neede to a place to hide. Linda hide in her grandmothers garret. The garret was tiny, she couldn't sit or stand which give her problems at the end and she became cripped.

In How the Garica Girls Lost Their Accents, by Julia Alvarez the character Carlos would always get into trouble because the way he acted. Carlos will be with other people protesting their hatred toward the dictator Trujillo. Carlos didn't like Trujillo because of the way he ruled the Domician Republic. Carlos will go protest with other man then Trujillo didn't like this, so he send his men to make this problem go away. When Trujillo's men went to the Garcia house the children and adults will have to say that Carlos was not their, which endangered his whole family. During this challenging time Carlos needed to help his family escape from the Dominican Republic to the United Stated which Carlos did.

The books Incidents in the the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs and How the Garica Girls Lost Their Accents,by Julia Alvarez showed that both characters had the same point of view. Both Linda and Carlos needed to protect their families in a time that they were most challanged. Linda and Carlos had to different reasons for protecting their familes. Linda neede to protect her family because Linda lived in a bad place to raise her family. Carlos needed to protect his family because he endangered his family and himself. Carlos went to protest his hatred toward Trujillo. Trujillo's men went to solve this problem which is way Carlos endangered his family.

Both books Incidents in the the Life of a Slave Girl and How the Garica Girls Lost Their Accents showed a person is not defined by how they are around people, but what they did in a time that they are challanged. Also how they protected their families.