"Building Bridges" Essay

It can be hard for some guardians to let go of the children they watched grow up. “Building Bridges” by Andrea Pinkney is about a teenage girl named Bebe who fights with her grandma, Mama Lil, about following her dream of being an engineer. Through Bebe and Mama Lil’s relationship, Pinkney shows that family relationships are complex. Mama Lil and Bebe’s relationship changes throughout the story. In the beginning Bebe and Mama Lil fight a lot. In the middle they can’t agree on Bebe’s future. Finally, in the end, Mama Lil realizes that she can’t ignore Bebe’s dreams and she is truly afraid to let go.

When we first meet Mama Lil and Bebe you can clearly see that they don’t get along. Bebe says to the reader “Yeah, over the years Mama Lil and I had thrown a lot of dissing words back and forth.” Page 19. Bebe and Mama Lil fight a lot with each other. They are both very opinionated and have very different personalities that don’t always fit well together. Another example of this is “she thought I weighed too much and dressed badly; I thought she smoked too much and overdid it with her fake gold chains.” Page 18. Both of them have opinions about each other that aren’t nice. They have different ideas of what Bebe should be and what she should not be. They don’t agree on what’s right and what’s wrong. Even though they love each other they don’t always show it or make it clear.

            As we get to know Bebe and Mama Lil better we realize that Bebe believes that Mama Lil doesn’t want to see Bebe’s version of herself.  The night before the bridge project is supposed to start Bebe tells the reader “Mama Lil did something that got me real mad. She brought home a summer job application from Rimley’s Beauty Parlor, where she and her gossipy friends spent their days.” Page 27. Mama Lil knows that Bebe wants to work on the bridge and not in the beauty parlor, but she brought it home anyway. This upsets Bebe and gets her annoyed at Mama

Lil about this decision because she feels so strongly about working on the bridge. This makes Bebe want to fight Mama Lil about this decision because she feels so strongly about working on the bridge. Also, this leads Bebe into thinking that Mama Lil is ignoring her and doesn’t care about her dream. Bebe tells Mama Lil this when she thinks she is being ignored. “Mama Lil, your eyes are always closed. Closed to seeing me.” Page 28.  Bebe thinks that Mama Lil doesn’t see her for who she is, she only sees what she wants to see. Bebe thought Mama Lil wanted her to be a different version of herself and not do what she wanted. Mama Lil wants Bebe to follow her dreams, but she is too afraid of being by herself.

            Later in the story Mama Lil realizes that Bebe’s dream is too important to keep ignoring but the thing is she is reluctant to let Bebe go. Finally Mama Lil admits to Bebe “Your dreams are the kind that’ll take you away from here, Bebe – away from your Mama Lil. You got big hopes, child, but they gonna leave me alone, by myself.” Page 29. Mama Lil wants to have Bebe go and follow her dreams, but she also doesn’t want to loose the one family member she has left. She wants what’s best for Bebe, but she is afraid to be alone without her. Bebe also doesn’t want to leave Mama Lil or disagree with her, but she will follow her dream no matter what. Bebe says to Mama Lil when she is determined to go after her dream “I don’t want to cross you, Mama Lil… but I will if I have to – to do what makes my soul feel right. To dream my dreams.” Page 30. Bebe really wants Mama Lil’s approval to work on the bridge but she will do whatever it takes to reach her goals. Even if it means that she has to disobey Mama Lil and follow her dreams without her approval. This puts Mama Lil in a difficult position because she wants what’s best for Bebe but she is also afraid of being alone without anyone.

            Overall in the short story “Building Bridges” Andrea Pinkney has made it clear that family relationships are more complex than you would think. This short story relates to teenagers in the real world because lots of teens have trouble agreeing with everything their guardians say to them. It is normal for them to not also think the same ways and act the ways they are told. Also, a lot of guardians/parents have issues letting go when their children grow up. From this short story you can learn that your parents/guardians always want what’s best for you, even when they seem like they are holding you back from doing what you want to do.

     My name Agnes is like the color light pink. It's plain and simple like my name. Also it's a name that may seem old-fashioned to some people. Agnes can seem like an old lady name; sometimes I even agree. But I also believe that my name fits me well.

    My name means pure and holy in Greek. But I don't think that that definition fits me. It was also my great-grandmother's name. I've never met her because she died before I was born. But I am told that i have the same color eyes as her. Even though we have the same name i wasn't really named after her. My mom had a cup that she drank milk out of as a child that had been my great-grandmother's, and it said Agnes on it. My mom always liked the name and thought it was pretty. My dad liked the name because it was the name of his favorite clothing store Agnés B. He always thought that the name was cool. My parents also wanted a name that was unique and not common.

   I do know that my full name is a mouthful, Agnes Belle von Ziegesar Griggs. But i don't understand why people mispronounce Agnes. It's not that hard to say and it's spelled exactly the same way it sounds. But I guess it's mispronounced because it's a name that you don't hear or see a lot.

   My middle name Belle means beautiful in French. I really like my middle name because I think it really fits in with my full name. My parents chose my middle name because they wanted something with one syllable. because if I had a long middle name my full name would be too long. They chose Belle because a friend suggested it and they liked it. My mom also liked the name Pearl but my dad didn't like it.

   I feel like my name is like the number 5. Both my first and middle names have five letters and 5 is kind of lucky number to me. Also 5 is a prime and an odd number. Both those qualities make 5 different from other numbers, and my name is different from other name because it is so unpopular.

   My name is who I am and makes me the person that I am today. My name is something that has been with me my whole life and i couldn't imagine having any other name for myself.

Reading Response

                 This summer I read Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I found this book to be both an interesting story and that the characters in the book made me not want to put this book down. I also watched the Twilight movie this summer. I found that the book was better than the movie. The book went into better detail than the movie. Also the movie created scenes that were not in the book.

                     The first example of why the movie is better than the book is the book went into better detail than the movie. One example of a scene the book went into greater detail about is when Bella is in the hospital after James has bitten her. Edward tells her she should stay in florida. But Bella wants to go back to Forks. In the book it says "Don't leave me...Do you swear you won't leave me?" (pg. 471). In the movie Bella doesn't say very much about it, she just reacts. Furthermore in the movie it's a quick 3 minute long scene, that doesn't have as much dialogue and action as the scene in the book. In that short period of time the movie didn't capture just as many events that happened in that particular scene than the book did.

                  A second example of why the movie is better than the book is that the movie added scenes that did not take place in the books. For example during the scene where Bella meets Edward's family the movie has Bella meet his family while they are cooking for her. When Bella tells them politely that she has eaten already Rosalie breaks a plate because she is angry. But the the book it says "Waiting to greet us, standing just to the left of the door, on a raised portion of the floor by a spectacular grand piano, were Edward's parents." (pg. 322). That is the scene where Bella is introduced to everyone, the cooking scene doesn't even exist in the books.The way it is in the book works better for the story because things happen before then add up to what happens. 

                  Overall I believe that the book is much better than the movie because the movie included scenes that didn't take place in the book and didn't always work perfectly with the story line, and in some scenes the movie didn't go into very much detail about events that were very detailed in the book. So all in all, both representations of the story are good, but the book is better storyline.