“Working Towards a Better Future”
... to feel or act the same way. Anne moving out is the only way that she and Leon can have normal lives. Sarah moves out; however, she goes away to college as a way to better her life. While away at college Sarah starts to feel that “sometimes you can want something a whole lot, only to find out later that it wasn’t what you needed at all.”(Walker 186) Sarah is starting to feel like she isn’t in the right place, and that nobody really understands her. Anne and Sarah need to feel independent in their decision, since they effect other people’s lives. Being able to live on their own and support themselves shows a lot of independence. Anne and Sarah don’t accept gifts from others as a sign of independence. Anne doesn’t like relying on others for help nor does she like accepting thing from people. Anne won’t even accept a bottle of shampoo from her mother. “Magda, can we please not start right in on my hair?”(Kingsolver 155) Accepting the shampoo from her mother will make Anne feel like she needs her and can’t provide for herself. When Magda offers the shampoo, Anne takes it very personal and gets upset with her mother. While Sarah is away at school she gets a telegram informing her that her father has died; as a result she must go home to Georgia. Sarah’s friend Pam offers to “well maybe you’d want my father to get somebody to fly you down, you wouldn’t have to worry about trains and things”(Walker 180) Although Pam is Sarah's friend, Sarah just ignores the offer and changes the subject. Sarah doesn’t accept the offer as a result of feeling like charity. Pam offering this to Sarah makes Sarah frustrated. Sarah hurries up the conversation and leaves for the train station. Since taking gifts from others would be a sign of weakness, Anne and Sarah both decline the offers in their different ways. Growing up without your parents can be difficult for anyone. After Anne’s father died, Anne started to act different. She became embarrassed of her mother, saying that “I was the teenager in America that couldn’t use hairspray because it’s death to the ozone layer.”(Kingsolver 149) Anne pitied her mother wondering why she was so different from other mothers. This made Anne feel like she was a rock in her mother’s path. Even though Magda was very normal, she did things differently. Anna thought that she did this to hurt her and push her out of her life. On the other hand Sarah didn’t have any parents. After her mother had died Sarah blamed her father “the moving killed her” (Walker 182) Sarah shut her father out of her life saying that “when he was alive sh...