Farm Girl

Farm Girl

  • Submitted By: Lissasown
  • Date Submitted: 05/08/2013 7:34 PM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 445
  • Page: 2
  • Views: 2

Farm Girl
Jessica Hemauer’s memoir, “Farm Girl” is a great story about how growing up with responsibilities from an early age leads to a well-rounded, responsible person.
As a young girl, Jessica is expected to help with the chores on the family farm. Doing chores entails getting up very early and working for hours before getting on the bus for school. She feels that it is unfair that she has to work so hard when all of her friends are able to sleep later and join clubs and sports teams at school. The chatter at the school lunch table is about all of these things and Jessica feels left out. Jessica is not able to participate with clubs or play sports because she has to help with the family business.
When Jessica wants to play basketball, her father allows it because she promises to get her chores done. Finally, Jessica is able to participate with her classmates in conversation at lunchtime. Being included in the conversation is what she has always wanted, but she still doesn’t want anyone to know that she is different.
Jessica does a very good job of describing events in the story such as the smell of the manure on the work clothes and also the smell of breakfast cooking. She also describes how her siblings each have chores and how she feels in control when she gets to feed the calves. As the youngest, someone else is always watching over her but feeding the newborn calves makes her feel in charge (Hemauer, 2011).
The author describes her life as she was growing up. Working hard and having responsibility made her stand out as she got older. This is a good story for girls to read, especially since most girls go through times when they feel like they don’t fit in as they are growing up. The author sends the message that she hated the chores and responsibility. Jessica said, “Though I hated it growing up, working on the farm has taught me many lessons about life, which has shaped me into the individual I am” (Hemauer, 2011, p. 83). She learned skills in...

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