My version of Charlotte Temple in the 21st Century

Charlotte was a young and beautiful 15 years old girl from Poland. As a young girl Charlotte was raised in a very sheltered and religious family for her whole life in a small town. Charlotte was very naïve and innocent because the way she had been raise. One day her family decided to send to an all girl boarding school that was located in the capital city of Poland (Warsaw). While Charlotte was in boarding school she meant many girls from different places and countries. She became close to one girl name La Rue from France. Unlike, Charlotte La Rue was a trouble girl, whose dream was to go in America and marry a rich man. One day La Rue told Charlotte about how you can date a man from America online. At first Charlotte told La Rue that they was no way in her life she’ll ever do anything like that. But La Rue was very manipulative and got Charlotte to start online dating. While online Charlotte found a man name Josh from the U.S.A who falls in love with her and insist that he’ll come visit her. One day he comes to Poland with his friend Will, who he brought for La Rue to meet. When Josh was in Europe he falls even harder for Charlotte and does whatever he can to convince her to go back with him to the U.S.A. Charlotte thought there was no way she would accept the offer because her parent would be extremely upset. However, in the end with the help of La Rue, they were able to convince Charlotte to come with her back in the States.

When Charlotte arrived in the U.S, she didn’t know much about Josh and things started to turn around. In the beginning Josh told her he was a very wealthy man, and when they arrived he only had a small 1 bedroom apartment. However, that was not the only problem charlotte had. After a month in the state Charlotte became pregnant. During that same month Josh went to a bachelor party in Las Vegas, in which he ended up marrying a girl he meant at a club. Things kept going down during charlotte’s pregnancy because she was young and did not know much about the States. She decides to stay with Josh because he promised her he loved her and he will get a divorce soon, but he never did it.

In the end after Charlotte had Josh’s baby she decided to attend a church and meant a man who promised to take care of her. So, one day she leaves Josh and went to be with her new man who helped her with the baby and helped her go back to school.

Response to Charlotte Temple

While reading this book I found myself filled with a lot saddnes for Charlotte. So far I'm enjoying reading even though in the begining there were parts I was confused, but later I was able to catch up with it and found it enjoyable. As a reader I really like that while I was reading the book, I could totally feel all the emotions that Charlotte was going. I was able to feel a lot empathy for her and what she going through. At times there were parts which I thought the author exxagerated a lot in some situation. However, that did not stop me from having all these emotions while reading it. At time I thought the exxageration was pretty entertaining. When reading more of the book I was shocked how my feelings toward Montaville began to switch. At first I was against Montaville and what kind person. All I could think was how dare does he do something like that to Charlotte. Just when I had my mind set on how horrible of a person he was, I read more of the book and I began to understand the situation he was in. Even though I was starting to see that he wasn’t as horrible of a person as I thought, I still do not agree with how he left charlotte by herself. I know he felt inlove with another women and I also believe in marrying the one you love, but that was not excuse to leave Charlotte. Somehow I feel like he rushed falling for Julia and he never gave a chance to Charlotte to see what kind woman she was going to become. Reading Charlotte situation made think of how till these days there so many girls who are still going through situation like hers. Especially, young and naïve girls that let men take advantage of them and bring them to America, while making them believe they would take care of them and never do. I personally know few women who experienced situations like these and reading this book made me think of them.

When I think about what I want to write on my essay I have so many ideas, but I don’t know which one I want to pick. I feel like when it comes to a topic about adolescence, the topic is pretty wide and there are so many things to talk about.

One of the thing I want to talk about is accepting society or rejecting. With this topic I want to touch on how for many teenagers in this society has so much pressure in trying to fit in. I think so many teenagers try to put on this image which is accepted by everyone else and it is so rare to hear about the ones who choose to be themselves.

The other topic I want to touch on is the topic on the sexual pressure the society puts on teenagers. I feel like sex these days has become a common topic for many teenagers and a subject that is no longer taboo. I think that the media is a exposing more sexual image in firm, T.V and magazine. With the media there is a portrayal of the ideal image of beautiful woman which I think puts a lot pressure on teenagers to try to look or have that certain image. For example, a woman has to have a sex appeal; they need to have a certain body shape, body weight, and more. The types of women that are showed in the media with the sexual appeal to them are more likely to be idolized by these young girls.

I like these two topics and I’m not sure which one to pick. However, I feel like more strongly with the second topic which I think I will be try to find more information on.

As I read this book and the author description of an American teenager, I found it hard for me to relate to most of the characteristics the author uses in the book. The reason might be the fact that I was not born in America nor do I have a family member who was raised here, to whom I can relate the book to. It also might be the fact that I never went to a public high school to experience the whole American teenager life. Even though I was not able to relate to some description of an American teenager in the book, I was able to relate to some part of it.

One of the parts that caught my eyes in which I was able to see a similarity to my life or culture was the part where one Irish mother seemed to worry about her daughter’s behavior changing. She worried about her coming at two O’clock and also what other folks will think (186). The worry of children changing and adopting to different culture is something I see a lot among my family and family’s friends. I remember before I came to the U.S. and until this day, every time I talk to my grandmother the thing she tells me the most is to never forget where I came from. To always act like a lady and never become a different person than what I was raised to be. Just like the early immigrants in the U.S. who feared changes in their children I’ve seen a lot similar fears in my family and family’s friends. For example, in my country (Rwanda) whether you are a man or woman you can live with your parents until you ready to marry or get married. Most time if you live with your parents you are likely to go with their rules. That’s why many parents found it difficult when they move here and their kids start to adapt to the new culture. The fear that many parents has with their kids and having their kids turn into the type of teenagers Hine describes in the book. For example, they don’t want to see their kids going out late, smoking, drinking, having sex, and more. I’ve seen many cases where parents took their kids back to Africa because they feel like this could help their kids change and become better. However, in the end I believe that the behaviors of a child is not always about where you raised them but how you raised the.