Essay Example on Growing Up: Russell Baker's Difficult Journey to Adulthood

Growing up chronicle written by Russell Baker is an article that purposes to emphasize on his misery challenges encountered while growing up. Section one of the book reveals that among the three children born of Lucy and Benjamin, Baker is the oldest. In his tender age, he lives among his relatives in Virginia - together with her grandmother Ida. The second section of the book unveils how his father dies of diabetes that follows his shift to New Jersey where his wife and brother were living. As the depression deepens, they relocate to Belleville where he lives with other relatives. The desire to have his own homemade Lucy and her family moved to Baltimore where her brother was going to assist them in acquiring the same. The third and final section of the book shows how baker accomplishes to finish high school, university and getting married.

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His life gravitates around various unfavorable instances in the Great Depression-era facing them directly until he gets married. In his writing, he expresses reduced emotionalism despite the deprivations his family is going through to captivate his readers. For instance, his mother has been described with a hand to mouth life status depending on his stepbrother charity for survival while his father who is a stoneworker lives on whiskey. To the extent of his father's death that follows Russels being cared for by an extended family in various childhood locations including Maryland, Baltimore, and New Jersey, he lacks sentimentality which makes his art attractive.

Baker's personality has been featured as straightforward and admirable. Although many of the children during the Great depression period may have gone through the same, his unique approach to such matters in his early childhood time is evidence-based. While recounting her mothers' efforts in ensuring he and her sister Doris could survive the misery, he admires her. Although her mother is more nagging, Baker's overwhelming straightforward personality made him excel in a high school in Baltimore consequently earning admission at the University of Johns Hopkins.

In his writing, Baker can convince his readers of his life experiences that have shaped his future as a journalist. For instance, the emergency of World War II forced him to join the military immediately he attained the age. During serving as a military he acquires the spirit of patriotism which has been his motivating factor towards venturing into the journalism field. With such, readers are strongly persuaded by his efforts to be a journalist. Comparing his life with the life of other normal children in the same period, his character has been portrayed as being unique. To him, all the miseries and material yields at his adolescence - from depression meals all seemed to be normally adequate. Such featured him as a different individual who would have been expected to have a unique lifestyle afterward. Besides, his writing is full of emotive words that quickly draws the attention of the reader. For instance, when describes how he was subjected to the street by her mother to go and hawk at least to cater to the family. It is more convincing to any reader that Baker had to go through challenges especially when learning that he was sent to the street when he was barely eight years.

He grounds his arguments in a sense of humor, truth, and sadness that brings out the logic on evidence pattern. When playing out with colleagues in the pool table, a natural comic sense comes portrayed to be emerging from the life juices. Besides, his personal view of life is grounded on the culture and tradition of extended family in which he acquires an eccentric kinfolk. With that, his uncle who seemed to be always funny was a pillar to Baker's creations.

In the body of evidence, there are logical similarities and differences in patterns of thinking. For instance, after the death of Benjamin, Lucy, Bakers' mother condemns him to a lifetime wailing and gnashing. Consequently, he could spend the most time with her sister clinging together as a way of overcoming the depression. Accordingly, he and her sister had to depend on relatives for depression suppression. In contrast to today's thinking, the loss of a husband by Lucy could be interpreted to an equal traumatic magnitude to the children. As a mother, Lucy could be the one to offer primary care in managing such depression. Instead, she even sent baker at the age of eight to go on and hawk. Currently, the action of sending Baker to hawk could be interpreted as child abuse which follows might follow a serious consequence on the guardian or parent.

His admiration and ambition to help his mother in raising his siblings are logically similar to current thinking. Although Lucy, Baker's mother may have been seen as an irresponsible parent, the life to which they live can be interpreted the other way round. It can be thought that the baker and her sister Doris are being mistreated but what other better option did the mother of three has? Although it does not necessarily mean that it has to be the same, anybody in such a situation is willing to do something that can be beneficial and in such a case, Baker had to do hawking without sentimentalism.

Anyone would do anything for love, similarly, despite being opposed by her mother Baker strongly goes against the wishes of her mother and marries Mimi. With a great similarity, such a challenge today can be addressed with the same approach. Currently, going against the wishes of a guardian or parent especially in matters concerning marriage is common. Logically thinking, there must be clearly defined limits and boundaries between relationships that should never wedge between an individual and his spouse. Therefore, Baker's actions of defiance to her mother's wishes are supported by present reasoning.

Despite the book emphasizing on the challenging life of Baker, it can be well understood just at the end of the novel. His identity has been redefining his career when he joined journalism. His character has been magnified and manifested in his work which has been strongly attributed to family support.

Bibliography

Akpan, Nseabasi, and Abiodun J. Oluwabamide. "The menace of child abuse in Nigeria: A case study of street hawking in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State." Journal of Social Sciences 24, no. 3 (2010): 189-192. Accessed from http://www.krepublishers.com/02-Journals/JSS/JSS-24-0-000-10-Web/JSS-24-3-000-10-Abst-PDF/JSS-24-3-189-10-972-Nseabasi-A/JSS-24-3-189-10-972-Nseabasi-A-Tt.pdf

Baker, Russell. Inventing the truth: The art and craft of memoir. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1998.Lingeman, Richard. Suspiciously like real life: The New York Times. Growing up by Russell Baker. (2020). Accessed from https://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/17/books/suspiciously-like-real-life.html