Three Little Words, RRE #4 – MODEL OF A STRONG ESSAY

“I sipped my soda and wondered if Dorothy felt this way when she dumped the bucket of water on the Wicked Witch of the West and watched her archnemesis melt” (Rhodes- Courter 285).

Due to the love and help of Phil and Gay, Ashley has finally found a way of life that is steady, enjoyable, and almost normal. In this final reading of Three Little Words, Ashley is truly beginning to trust her new parents, so she is finally ready to step up and face Mrs. Moss in order to attempt to bring her to justice. That is exactly what she is doing when she says she can watch “her archnemesis melt.” Before she is able to face this haunting figure of her past, she must come to terms with her new family, and it is surprising to see just how successful she is becoming. “…I was busy balancing the workload from several honors classes, drama rehearsals, and varsity basketball practice” (265-266). This is amazing that things are going so well for her after all she has had to deal with. Normally, children that become orphans and have such a difficult childhood seem to no longer care about school or many other things, and they thus have trouble succeeding later in life. Not only is Ashley a phenomenal student, but she participates in extra-curricular activities, and she is apparently very good at them. She made varsity basketball her freshman year, which is a huge accomplishment, and now she even has to fit dealing with the justice system and Mrs. Moss into her busy schedule.
Ashley does not merely have to deal with these things, however, because she chooses to do them. She wants to make Mrs. Moss pay for the grief, pain, and fear she has instilled within her and many other children. Now that she has a home, Ashley feels like she can finally step up and take action against this wicked witch and this corrupt social system that puts children into the hands of monsters like the Mosses and the Pottses. How could workers knowingly send a child to stay with someone who has molested other youngsters? Once she is out of the system, she becomes very considerate of those who are still in it as she says, “Who will Mandy and those other kids have?”(256) Ashley knows what it feels like to not have a home, so she understands how tough it can be. It is time to stop lying dormant, and it is time to become active on such important issues that are in dire need of fixing. “I will continue to speak out about the importance of getting children into permanent homes more quickly” (289). With much help from Gay, Ashley is able to speak out against Mrs. Moss whom she had been so terrified of before. Now, she has the strength and support to do it.
Not only is my main quote important to the plot that is going on around this part, but it also has powerful word choice. Ashley calls Mrs. Moss her archnemesis because, to her, she stands for all that is evil and the reason for many foster children’s suffering. Also, this sentence brings back the theme of fairy tales. She never had any true love to fit into her life, so Ashley gets many of her dreams and messages from the Disney movies she watches. Thus, they are fit into the book at various points, including this reference to The Wizard of Oz.
Works Cited
Rhodes-Courter, Ashley. Three Little Words. New York: Simon & Schuster Publishing,
2008.