Final "Building Bridges"

Final: “Building Bridges”

            It can be challenging for any person to follow their dreams. In the short story “Building Bridges by Andrea Pinkney shows the reader that the determination of a young girl following her dreams. Through the story Pinkney shows determination between Bebe wanting to reach for her goals of becoming an engineer and Mama Lil not letting her. She fights and fights for it, and at the end she gets what she wants.

            In the beginning of the short story, Bebe asks her grandma Mama Lil if she can help rebuild the Brooklyn Bridge but Mama Lil refuses and says the engineering is for men. Bebe will not take no for an answer. One way of showing determination in the short story is when it states “But this is good work, Mama Lil. I’d be employed by the city, by the mayor. Furthermore, this example shows that Bebe is trying to convince her Grandma into allowing her to work on the bridge. Another example is in the text when Mama Lil says, “This damn grease is stubborn”, than Bebe says “You re stubborn”. This example shows the Bebe is going too kept on fighting with Mam Lil until she gets what she wants.

             Next, in the middle of the story Pinkney shows how much more Bebe really cares about the Bridge and engineering. Bebe shows more and more and more determination like for example in the text when it says “I never got tired of looking out at its steel girders and iron cables, at its beautiful crisscross rafters that had started out in somebody’s imagination, had been put to paper , formalized in an engineer’s plans, then woven together, bolt by blot”. This shows that Bebe thinks of the Brooklyn Bridge day and night. In the text it also states “Tonight I draw Belle with her lighted cape. I sketched slowly at first, then faster, my pencil working with speed of my excitement- the thrill that worked me over every time I sketched that Bridge.” This example shows that Bebe really wants to get this job.

            Furthermore, Bebe is trying for the last time to convince Mama Lil the engineering is for her. It’s a goal the she wants to reach. For example, it says, “Mama Lil, I got to find my way. I said slowly.” This shows that Mama Lil wants for Bebe isn’t what she wants. “If that Bridge wasn’t tapping on my soul, I’d go ahead and sweep hair down at Rimley’s.” Andrea Pinkney is showing that if Bebe doesn’t want to work on the bridge she wouldn’t ask but she does and she will not let anything get in the way.

            I feel that with the determination Bebe had she got what she wanted. Throughout the short story she overcame some obstacles, but she reached her goal. When I think of determination I think of doing well and trying your best in school so that when I get older I can somehow fight for what I believe in.