In the book "Darkness Before Dawn," by Sharon M. Draper, the characters resist stereotypes of girls, women and boys. I have chosen Feminist Literary Criticism from the three reading response theories. This is a type of reader response about the stereotypes of women in society. To show how this book resists stereotypes of women, I have chosen four characters from the book. I think each of these four characters is either a very strong woman or thinks women are strong. The first character I have chosen from the story is Edna. She is a homeless woman in the story. Edna is poor, but she also is a very strong woman. She knows how to take care of herself and wants to help other people. In the story, she helps Keisha when Keisha gets into trouble. So I think it is a stereotype that when people are poor, they are always in despair or very sad. In our society, a lot of people think that all homeless people can't really take care of themselves and that they can't help other people. If I were a poor person, maybe I would feel downcast everyday. Also, I might not think about helping others. Instead, I might hope to have more people in my life that can help me. Edna shows that this is a stereotype. I think Edna is very strong and this is how she survives with a very hard life. She can be happy even though she is very poor, and she tries her best to help other people. That is what makes me feel she is a strong woman. She is a poor woman, but the man who tries to hurt Keisha seems to have a lot of money. Edna shows that a woman's strength comes from inside. She passes her strength on to Keisha and helps Keisha understand how a woman can be strong and change her life. Edna is one of those characters who has affected me a lot. The second character is Keisha, who is the main character in the story. Keisha's ex-boyfriend Andy committed suicide. Keisha tries to make herself happy and tries to forget about Andy. She tries to start a new life. Then she meets twenty-three-year-old Jonathan. Jonathan is the principal's son, and he becomes Keisha's boyfriend. Jonathan is not really like Keisha, though. He has bad things in mind for Keisha. When he doesn't get what he wants from Keisha, he runs away. After reading the book, I can imagine how Keisha feels. She goes through so much in the book. I feel that before, Keisha was a girl, but she turns into a young woman in the book. She gets more mellow and strong. She will always be a strong woman, trying to find the light in the darkness. The final characters who resist stereotypes about women are Tyrone and Rhonda. At Rhonda's birthday party, Tyrone gives Rhonda a book called "Smart Quotes by Smart Women for Smart Women." This shows that Tyrone thinks of his girlfriend Rhonda as a smart young woman, and he encourages her to be strong. I can see from the book that Tyrone is happy having Rhonda be a smart young woman. Tyrone does not feel unhappy or feel threatened by the idea of having girls or women be strong. Instead, he supports Rhonda and her wish to be strong. I think Rhonda will be strong, partly because her boyfriend encourages her. Also, she is smart, and she shows that smart women can and should be strong. All women are not weak, and smart women and men know that it is better for both to be strong. They understand that this strength is better for society. In conclusion, after reading this book, I know more about some social issues. Also, I know that is important for girls and women to be strong. Everyone in society benefits when both women and men, or girls and boys, are strong like the four characters from the book. Edna is a strong woman, and although she is poor, she still knows how to take care of herself and help other people; Keisha is a strong women, and after some tough experiences, she is finding light in the darkness; and Tyrone encourages Rhonda to be strong, and Rhonda knows that smart women should be strong. This book shows how important it is for women to be strong and that smart women make all of society stronger. Also, this book helps me realize that I want to be a strong girl, too.
Have you ever had something that you thought was so good that was so bad? Have you ever heard "the grass is not always greener on the other side?" Well reading this book will explain what all that means.Continue to read my review to understand the drama in this book, before you read it. Kiesha has just got out of a relationship with a boy named Andy. They were in love.Andy commited suicde and Kiesha thinks its her fault. She broke up with him and then pow he's dead and gone. I think Sharon(author)tried to give us an outlook on how the drama started and it did.After the Andy drama slid away we(readers) learned who Kiesha is and what is her style. Its the beginning of her senior year and its the first day back. They learned there will be a new teacher there, the principles son. Jonatan Hathaway. The way he was described in the book he looked super good had the best brand of clothing. With pretty gold eyes that you couldnt say no to. Anyway, He was attracted to Kiesha and so was an old friend Leon that she had known for a while only she didnt know it. Jonathan had her thinking he was the one. He made her feel mature and grown on the inside. The other boys in the school had a childish outlook. Its going toward the middle of the year and they are getting closer and closer. Leon wa sa good friend to her and Jonthan was her grown up intensions. Only her mother and father did not like him. Everybody that met him looked into his eyes and said "something doesnt look write about this man.only i cant put my finger on it." So being a good friend, Leon,without kiehsa knowing ,thinking it was Jonthan,sent her a beatuiful silver necklace with a real silver butterfly on it. She fell in love and could only think about Jontahn. He also sent her a dozen roses with the same silver ribbon around it. Niether the card or the flowers had a name so she could only imagian and think its was her mature "boyfrerind" that sent them because none of the other boys at school would think of doing this. So going to the christmas dance they didnt want there relationship being expose that he was 21 and she was 17. Pluse had a job. So she used Leon until mid-night until she claimed she was sick and wanted to go home. So when Leon left, her parents still werent there. So she left a note and left with Jonathan. He took her to his place and had a candle lit dinner fixed they ate and went to the couch. He made a move on her she decide she wanted to go home finding out she is not as grown as she think she is. But he wasn't going for it he tried to rape her but with the grace of GOD she cut him and got away. Its 100 degrees below zero and snowing and she half way naked, running for her life. When a poor lady that her and a friend helped out, helped her out and took her to her humble place to keep her warm. She called her parents and they were there without the blink of an eye. Her dad ferious and her mom beyond worried. They pressed charges but Jonthan had escaped. Read the book to find out the greatest prt ever leaves you wandering....? I know ......
What do You think about Darkness Before Dawn (2002)?
This book is a really great teenage book. It follows after the book Tears of a Tiger, but the main character is now Keisha Montgomery. This book follows her life and her new situations. In Tears of a Tiger, her boyfriend Andy kills himself after drunk driving and killing his bestfriend. In this book is shows Keisha trying to recover from Andy's death, which is hard for her even with support from family and friends. While taking her mind off of things she joins the track team where the coach and pricipal's son, Johnathon Hardaway, starts to see Keisha. Her parents do not want her to date him but she continues to see him. Everyone tries to warn Keisha about what kind of guy he is, but still she does not care. So finally one night, on a date between the two, he takes her to his appartment and tries to have sex with her. Keisha does not want to and Johnathon gets mad and tries to kill her. She tries to run away and calls her parents from a phone who came from a person she ran in to. She tries to apoligize to her parents and now feels so ashamed where she refuses to go to school anymore. Her friends try to comfort her and tells her he does not work there anymore. Thankfully she returns to school and continues on to graduate. This book is very touching and is very emotional. I would definetly recommend this book!
—Karissa Kennedy
Darkness before DawnSharon M. Draper 276 Pages 1230 Avenue of Americas New York, NY 10020Simon and Schuster Children Publishing Division $5.99ISBN: 978-0-689-85134-6Imagine your boyfriend and you are fighting over the fact that he still is stilling mourning over his dead best friend. You understand his pain, but you are tired of him not giving you the attention you desire. You storm out crying--breaking up with him. Then everything else is a blur. Keisha Montgomery, a senior, thought that everything would be better after the funeral of her boyfriend, Andy’s best friend, Robbie. She knows that Andy has been through a lot and she encourages him to join the School Show. Andy accepts and proceeds. During the show, Andy did an inappropriate strip – don’t worry his pants were still on but that made Keisha flip. She stormed out breaking up with him.In Darkness before Dawn, Keisha-still upset at Andy-discovers something over the phone with her best friend, Rhonda; that her ex-boyfriend was suicidal. Keisha cries and cries, frightened if all of her beloveds were going to disappear like Andy and Robbie. While she takes care of Andy’s younger brother, Monty, she meets her new track coach, a twenty three year old, Jonathan Hathaway, the principal son. Would Keisha be able to fall back in love with the tall handsome coach? Extraordinary and capturing, this book showed me, how unfortunate people’s lives can be. Lucky, Keisha was a strong woman who fought for her rights and her dignity. This realistic fiction novel, symbolizes the brave women that survived these horrible incidents. Not saying it’s a good thing, but those incidents help those unfortunates to grow and show the fortunate of the lives of girls all over the country.Draper’s style of writing imprisoned me with her sorrowful words. She creates a journal in my head;containing the feelings of Keisha’s words burn. Every Page, every word, shows her steps in recovering after being sexually abused. Reading her emotions makes me, want to bring Andy back to protect her. But what’s the fun in that?Just like the title, Darkness before Dawn, the darkness devours the light; her bright future gets demolished by her darkness past. Can Keisha’s light overshadow her dark past or will her dawn-future- die just like her beloved Andy and Robbie?Either way, Keisha, grows or her life would never be the same again.
—Megan
I think this was a great ending to the Hazelwood High trilogy. I really enjoyed how each scene or chapter focused on one specific character and had moments in their life so we could understand them better and understand how they feel. I think this book also taught many life lessons, for example, dealing with tough situations. Keisha had to overcome depression and other feelings after her boyfriend Andy committed suicide, and she learned to be a leader and a better person by comforting his family and friends. I felt it was emotional, and the sequence of the books was interesting. The first book started with Rob dying and the others reacting, while the second goes back to when Andy was younger and him dealing with his parents and sister. The last comes back to Robs death, then adds on to Andy's death and the feeling after for his classmates and family. I would definitely reccomend reading the whole series as I enjoyed it a lot.
—Alexander Chiu
