Andres Vazquez

22 March 2019
Time Writing

In the passage from C.E. Morgan’s novel ​All the Living,​ it describe this one girls, which
was named Aloma, moving experience and the results of having the responsibility of adulthood
at a very young age. Morgan expresses the idea of new life throughout the passage for a young
girl and how living arrangements can affect the totality of the mind. Aloma came from a family
of 9, which inferring that it was difficult to live with that many people in the household, to
moving to a school in rural Appalachia by herself. Morgan describes her first impression of
adulthood with Aloma’s uncle and aunt sending her small gifts to encourage her: “They made
their small familial efforts, they phoned her once a month on Sunday afternoon and sent little
cartoon magazines from their church about crossing a wide river in a phalanx of others reguhees
or about Ruth and her numerous losses.” This demonstrates that the family did not want Aloma
feeling alone while she was at her new school. Knowing that a young girl was by herself, and
growing into a young adult faster than any other girls could cause multiple thoughts to her head.
Morgan is portraying that moving to a far away place from family can affect the way you think
and the actions you produce.
Aloma continues her thinking of adulthood as she continues to live at this school. For
example, Aloma questions how it is to be on your own two feet and she enjoyed the feeling of
experimenting to be away from family: “She wondered what it meant to uncover a man’s feet, to
sleep in his bed, to travel to a far country, to see enemies drown.” Morgan tries to express the
ignorance of a child when living single handedly. She demonstrates this because later in the
passage, Aloma sees how dark it can be living alone and the danger of it. However, Morgan
shows that through ignorance there is learning and a human can learn through experiences.
Morgan also portrays that there is a process that occurs when adulthood hits. First is the
nervousness of moving away, the questioning of new things, and then the reality. Aloma is
nervous to leave her family, wonders about the living condition of being alone, and realizes the
dark reality of adulthood.
Aloma then realizes the darkness of living alone and embraces the dissonance that she
had experience. For instance, living alone was a new experience and Morgan gives imagery and
repetition to describe the place that Aloma was living: “Aloma lived in this dark place, a dark
county in a dark state, and it pressed on her ceaselessly as a girl until she finally realized in a
moment of prescience that someday adulthood would come with its great shuddering release and
she would be free.” This demonstrates the state of adulthood. Adulthood can be a scary and dark
place that could affect the mind. Dark is a repetitive adjective that brings out imager of the place
she was living. However, through darkness Aloma embraces that living alone is something she
wants and something she will take head on: “That was what she wanted. That more than family,
that more than friendship, that more than love… It was always dissonance that she like best.”
Morgan demonstrates the power of woman through this passage because through trial and
hardships, a young girl can push through and face the world head on. This illuminates the text as
a whole because Morgan shows that loneliness can be faced. A human's perspective on life can
change as they become an adult and it up to the person to decide how to deal with responsibility.
Therefore, life can become hard and dark but there is a process of achieving adulthood even if
that means at a young age.