21st Century Charlotte

Charlotte would be a young girl around age sixteen attending an all girls private school. One of her female instructors falls in love with a General in the Army and wants to run away with him. She can’t however unless she brings along someone for the officers son to be with. She chooses Charlotte and runs away from the school with her to meet up with the Army men on base in New York City. The ladies are immediately forced into hiding because they aren’t allowed to be living on base with the men unmarried. The officer Joe, whom Mrs. Pillar fell in love with, wants to marry him right away. They are married in the states and he tells her they are leaving for France the day after the wedding.
Once in France Charlotte is supposed to marry the officers’ son, Bill. Bill however has other plans when he meets the lovely young Leah at a party one night in Paris. Bill marries Charlotte to make his father happy and they have four children. Leah however, is Bills mistress and they have three children together as well. When Charlotte finds out about the other children she commits suicide. Bill forces Leah to care for all seven children as her own, while he is away at battle. Leah eventually gives up and commits suicide as well. Bill is left to raise seven children alone.

Charlotte Temple

This was an extremely sad story but unfortunately I don’t think it was uncommon for a young girl of this time to experience these things. I can not imagine leaving my family like that. My dream is to move south and teach down around Virginia. I know it would be very hard to leave my family and friends up here though. I could never just up and move to another country.
This story made me think of all the young girls in “love”. The game of love has been the same way forever. If you look at history ancient kings and queens committed adultery and were married way to young. They faced the same love triangles that today’s young people do. He loves her, she loves his best friend and his best friend loves her best friend. I have to wonder why no one has proposed a way to stop these things from happening.
My family and I believe falling in and out of young “love” is necessary to learn lessons and experience life. You have to have your heart broken a few times before you learn what you want. You have to realize who you are before you can know what kind of person you want to spend the rest of your life with. Charlotte didn’t find out who she really was until it was to late :(

Final Essay Subject

I am not sure what the main focus of my final essay is going to be but I would like to focus on cliques, clichés and stereotypes. It is something I have always struggled to understand. Who decided that you could label someone by the clothes they wear or the music they listen to?? They were sadly mistaken. Adolescents are also judged by the stereotypes that go along with their labels. This is a subject that truly hits home for me.

My high school began in the eighth grade. My first day I met a sophomore who played varsity football and wrestled, a week later we were dating. He was my whole world as you could imagine, he was an eighth grade girls dream. Since Matt was older I became friends with all the upper classman, the football team, the cheerleaders, the wrestlers and wrestlerettes. I immediately became a part of the “popular kids”. With out even knowing I was dragged “heart” first into their world. I became a “preppy cheerleader”. Immediately people assumed I was from a wealthy background and wasn’t very smart, unless it came to shopping. I cared a lot about Matt and my new friends so I did my best to uphold my title as “Hayes Girl”. That was my nickname and what half my clothes said on the back. Matt graduated and was in college when we finally broke up.

Shortly after that people would say things to me like… “I never knew you could ride a horse.” “What do you know about tractors?” “I always thought you were stuck up.” These comments and many others like them really frustrated me. Although I was a “preppy cheerleader” I still grew up on a farm and loved to ride horses, four wheeling and bonfires. My best friends had been my best friends since elementary school they had never changed. We were all in different “cliques” and our still inseparable. People I went to school with my whole life never knew these things about me because they never took the time to see past my label. I wonder if I am guilty of never looking past there’s either????