What is it to sacrifice, to sacrifice is to give u Essays - Fiction

What is it to sacrifice, to sacrifice is to give up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy. This can be seen in the essay "Marita's Bargain" by Malcolm Gladwell as well as the novel A Walk to the Jetty by Jamaica kincaid. Both of them make sacrifices for their self in which they mirror each other. In "Marita's bargain" marita sacrifices her Free time and recreational activities to achieve the excellence and success she desires. While in A Walk to the Jetty Annie sacrificed her close relationship with her mother to live her own free life. What makes them analogous is how they both make the sacrifice of their family cultures and values in exchange to change their self. First, in "Marita's Bargain" Malcolm states at the end of telling the reader about the average day of marita on page 12 lines 320-325 malcolm narrates " I leave school at five p.m., and if I don't lollygag around, then I will get home around five-thirty. Then I say hi to my mom really quickly and start my homework. And if it's not a lot of homework that day, it will take me two to three hours, and I'll be around nine p.m. Or if we have essays, then I will be done like ten p.m., or ten-thirty p.m." From this quotation malcolm explicitly say how marita had to replace all her free time with her studies. Secondly, in the novel A Walk to the Jetty annie states "I don't see them now the way I used to, and I don't love them now the way I used to. The bitter thing about it is that they are just the same and it is I who have changed, so all the things I used to be and all the things I used to feel are as false as the teeth in my father's head. Why, I wonder, didn't I see the hypocrite in my mother when, over the years, she said that she loved me and could hardly live without me, while at the same time proposing and arranging separation after separation, including this one, which, unbeknownst to her, I have arranged to be permanent? So now I, too, have hypocrisy, and breasts (small ones), and hair growing in the appropriate places, and sharp eyes, and I have made a vow never to be fooled again." In this annie proclaims how as she was younger her bond with her mother has deteriorated over the course of her life and it still hasn't changed. Finally, both annie and marita sacrifice their culture and family values in order to change themselves. This can be exhibited from both quotes in marita's bargain as well as a walk to the jetty. In Marita's bargain page 13 line 351-357 the author says "Marita's life is not the life of a typical twelve-year-old. Nor is it what we would necessarily wish for a twelve-year-old. Children, we like to believe, should have time to play and dream, and sleep. Marita has responsibilities. . . . Her community does not give her what she needs. So what does she have to do? Give up her evenings and weekends and friendsall the elements of her old worldand replace them with KIPP." this quote shows how marita had to give up her community in order to obtain what KIPP has to offer. In A walk to the jetty Annie she says" Now, too, I had nothing to take my mind off what was happening to me. My mother and my fatherI was leaving them forever. My home on an islandI was leaving it forever. What to make of eve rything? I felt a familiar hollow space inside. I felt I was being held down against my will. I felt I was burning up from head to toe. I felt that someone was tearing me up into little pieces and soon I would be able to see all the little pieces as they floated out into nothing in the deep blue sea. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I could see that it would be better not to think too clearly about any one thing."