Pictures of Hollis Woods Character Essay

Imagine how you would feel if you had no one to love.  No friends, no family.  Even the person that is supposed to help you and take care of you doesn't care if your life is miserable.  If this was your life, would you still be the confident, outgoing person that you are today?  In Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff, Hollis Woods is an unwanted orphan with one wish; to have a family.  Even though she has been to innumerable foster homes over the last twelve years, no one has ever shown Hollis love.  Hollis feels the need to protect her true emotions by acting defensive and disagreeable.  Hollis may seem like a terrible child, but she is really just afraid of being hurt.   

Even though Hollis is afraid of being hurt, she pretends to be defiant and strong.  She shows examples of this very early in the book, on pages 3 and 4.  She tells us on page 3 that she had stayed with a mysterious Regan family and that she ran away from them, but nothing else.  She tries to make it seem like we would are prodding in to her private information by wanting to know more, but she's really just afraid of being judged about her reasons for running away.  On page 4 she is being driven to another foster home.  She seems like she is purposely ignoring her caseworker, but she is actually thinking about the Regan family and their son, Steven.  Hollis has a hard time expressing her emotions   because she is too afraid of how others will react to them.  

Throughout the book, Hollis slowly looses some of her fear of being hurt because she is faced with impending situations that require judgment based on how she feels.  Most of these situations are in the climax and falling action and decide how the story will end.   One example is in chapter fifteen, when Hollis decides to call Beatrice to tell her to go live with Josie.  Hollis realized that she cared more about Josie than she about being sent to another foster home.  She realized that she loved Josie and wanted what was best for her.  Another example is on page 162, when Hollis decides to do back to the  Regan family.  She knows that they love her and that she loves them.  She finally realizes that not all of the problems are her fault and that she wants to go back.  Hollis learns to act on her emotions and do what's right; which helps her find a family and be happy. 

Hollis Woods is a lonely child that is afraid that people will hurt her if they see her true emotions.  Throughout the story she slowly realizes that there are people that love her and gave her a family.  Hollis starts the story felling troublesome and hurt, but she learns to let the people that she loves see her real thoughts and feelings. 

Pictures of Hollis Woods First-Person Response--Mustard Stain Woman

        Hollis Woods.  That child is pure trouble.  It should have been so easy.  The agency told me "find a good home for the baby." I did not sign up to have the child need to be reassigned more than twenty times in tewlve years!  Then she's finally old enough to try a little harder, and she starts running away the second she gets a little annoyed.  Now she finds a place where she's happy but the lady looses her memory!  Why couldn't she just stay with the Regans.  They didn't care if she was trouble, they actually liked her.  She just couldn't accept good enough!  Now she and the old lady are missing and it's my problem.  I swear, that child lives to give more to worry about. 

Giver-Feelings Essay

         What would our life be like without any true feelings?  There would never be any true love, or anger, or sadness, there is only general happiness and sometimes minor annoyance.  This is how the community lives.  Only the receiver has any knowledge of other feelings.  In a community that revolves around sameness, feelings couldn't fit in, so they were taken away.  Since each feeling is so different, they each were taken care of in a different way. 

          One of the easiest feelings to remove is love.  Around the age of twelve, the children of the community start to get feelings called "stirrings".  They don't know it, but the stirrings are the first feelings of love.  To treat these stirrings, the community invented a pill that neutralized the feelings of attraction that the stirrings led to.  Kids take this pill because they think that they have something majorly wrong with them, but they can take a pill that will completely fix everything.  They never have any reason to feel these stirrings again so they just take their pills and don't question anything.    This is the solution to love. 

          Anger and sadness are also dealt with quite easily.  The community gives everyone the same amount of everything, so no one has any reason to complain about unfairness.  Everyone is well fed, has a nice house, and lives a very comfortable life, as long as they follow the community rules.  In general, everyone is happy, so no one is unhappy or upset very often. 

         This is a world that doesn't need feelings, but is that better?  No one has to think for themselves and no one really is their own person.  Everything is decided for them by the community and they don't have strong feelings, so they don't complain.  This a world that revolves around order and sameness.  It is very efficient and runs smoothly, but I still would rather be able to live freely and be allowed to live life to its fullest.  That means that I would be allowed to have all feelings and choose my own life. 

Fiction Introduction

        Red rivers of blood shimmered in the fiery explosion.  Amber screamed, but she knew that there was no hope.  They were all dead, their lifeless bodies twisted at impossible angles.  She shook with choked sobs as she ran into the black night.  She didn't know where she was going, and she didn't care.  She just wanted to be far away from the remains of what used to be her life.  

Emerged From the Stars

        Beauty, light, wonder, the sight that stood before them could be called all of these things.  It looked as if millions of sparkling lanterns were floating down from the sky.  Flickers of falling flames looked like golden rain in the black night.   Soon the glowing stars had settled into a delicate swirling pattern around a closed white peony.  The glowing orbs dimmed and glowed,  seeming to breathe magic.  Then, The majestic flower surged and unfolded sending a shower of pink sparks into the air.

        The fairy council gasped, where they had been expecting a fairy, sat a beautiful baby girl.  Her golden hair and rosy pink cheeks seemed to glow in the starlight, and her blue eyes sparkled like sapphires.  She was clothed in a delicate pink  dress  flowing with many layers, like that of the flower which she had emerged from.