Emily Heiderberg example essay topic

925 words
Emily Heiderberg never imagined anything bad would happen to her. In the novel, Begotten by W. James Richardson, she will learn to be forgiving and she teaches the people around her the same thing. There are many stories involved and they all started with the tragic incident that happened to Emily when she was at a family outing. An unforseen incident that would change the lives of the Heiderberg family, as well as the whole town of Detroit. Certainly this book is written for adults. The auth our uses profanity and racial remarks, but it is necessary to tell the story in that manner.

The bad language used by the characters shows their hate and anger, but also shows that some are willing to change their ways. Richardson's method of writing is kind of hard to comprehend at first. Every chapter would start off with a new character their story. You don't know who it is until a few sentences later. The chapter starts with a character, but some chapters would have two or three narrators with a couple paragraphs each character. Sometimes it would be confusing, but once I found out who was talking, I would sometimes have to reread the paragraph from the start to understand the situation.

Another thing that bothered, maybe it wasn't the auth our's fault, was that many quotation marks were misplaced all over the book. the first few were tolerable, but after a while it got annoying. That bothered me much and like I said, I'm not sure if it was the author or the publisher. I don't really like the style, but it's what the author used to get many stories into one. One of the many stories in the book involves Emily Heiderberg. Misbegotten means unlawfully conceived, so it wouldn't be right to say that Emily is an important character in this book. Emily is a teenage girl with a bright future, but the things that happen to her dims that future.

During the book she tries to overcome her fears and to become herself again. Her rape causes all certain problems to arise. Another character that is important is Hugo Heiderberg. He grew up hating all people that weren't with the idea of whites being the supreme race.

He is retired Detroit police officer and a member of the Euro-Brothers Defense Society. He was part of the 'Dirty Dozen', a groups of cops that were on trial for beating a black man. He was acquitted of the charges. Freida was his wife and Johanna, Emily, and Brian were his kids. Although he was a loving family man, his background outside of the family wasn't as loving. Most of the events that happened in the story was because of Hugo's connections.

His anger and hatred lead to many of the incidents that occurred in the book as well. Not everything is Hugo's fault. Tommy Williams, a young African-American male, is the catalyst for the events that occurred. He was a troubled kid, involved in drugs and violence.

Looking for ways to use the money is what Tommy did for Henry. He hung around Henry to use Henry for his money. Tommy wasn't always this way. He grew up in a nice, loving home with great parents, but got caught up in the wrong crowd. He became a violent man, using what he could get and he only looked out for himself. The whole book would have never of happened if it wasn't for Tommy and his wants.

Although there are many stories and lessons told, the title says it all. Emily gives birth and gives it up for adoption. She didn't want it and she thought it was something that wasn't suppose to happen. Emily never thought that the misbegotten child she conceived would end up saving her father's life. Like Emily's mother used to say '... God works in mysterious ways.

' It's crazy how the whole story unfolded. Many things happened, mostly bad things, but the outcome was something even greater. It's funny how the world works. Big and little things that happen in life seems to make the world a little clearer in the future. When something goes wrong, people assume it's a bad thing. I'm not saying getting raped is a good thing, just saying that with great pain comes great joy.

You can't have the sweet without the sour. Emily found out that first hand and she ended up with more joy then pain. She overcame all that was given to her and she made it through with the help of her loved ones. This was a good novel to read with the exception of the misplaced quotation marks.

It was set in a familiar place to me, Detroit. So I can see all the events unfold in my head as it was being told. Many lessons were taught in this novel. The respect for other's differences and to let go of the past. Not to forget the past, but learn from it and forgive the bad people in your life. Things happen and it may not seem right, but it " ll end up in the right place in one's life.