I am currently reading the heart-wrenching story, A Summer to Die by Lois Lowry. This book is from the perspective of Meg who's telling the story of when her older sister Molly got sick, very sick. Meg looked up to Molly, in her eyes Molly is flawless. Meg, thinks of herself as the opposite of her big sister, ugly. When Meg, Molly and her parents have to move to another house, Meg has trouble fitting in. on the other hand, Molly has two friends, and a week later she has a boyfriend. Later that month, Meg bonds with an elderly man who has the interest of photography, who once had a wife (the love of his life) was named Meg too. One day Molly has a nose bleed, one that's bigger than usual, no one was worried because the doctor said that nose bleeds are common in the winter. Just when Molly thought her nose bleeds were over, she was wrong. Meg woke up one night to see her sister drenched in blood, her white sheets were now red. She ran to go get her parents and Molly ended up saying in the hospital for the next few months. Meg was furious because she thought that it was just a nose bleed, but it was something much more. Symptoms kept arising and the doctors kept Molly in the hospital, Meg was baffled yet mad. Her father soon told meg that her sister has leukemia, and then her hair started to fall out. The story was just beginning...
In this book, Meg is quite young to fully understand her sisters condition. In her mind its all still just a big, stupid nose bleed that everyone is making a huge deal about. Then the news that Meg finally understands changes her life. "I knew then what they hadn't wanted to tell me, and they knew that i knew, that Molly wouldn't be coming home again, that Molly was going to die. Dad sighed. ' It's called Acute Myelogenous leukemia". (lowry,118) In this passage, we now realize what is killing Molly. It's terrible for a family to have to go through this, especially with their daughter, at such a young age. However, they could now put a name to this horrible disease. This was a huge turning point in the book because Meg was no longer Meg, her parents were no longer her parents. They were all different people, trapped in an enviorment enclosed with a wall of fear, their was no escaping the sadness. Towards the end of the book, Molly passes away. Meg's family learns to remember the good times with Molly. This was a really hard time in the book and its shows you how to grieve and the move along, but not forgetting what happened.
A theme that I found that was a major part in this book, was death. This theme is happening in the world everyday, whether its suicidal, accidental, or natural disaster and/or even terrorism. So many people in the world die each day, 151,600. It's tragic and in almost everyone of our lives we experience it. Us as humans must experience this feeling of loss and tragedy and we must learn to cope with it.
All in all, this book taught me to not take things for granted, because they may not be there in the future. I felt a very strong connection and relation to this book, when both of my grandmothers passed away, it was a tough time but it actually just made me stronger. This book also had a few illustrations at the beginning of chapters which made the book. I felt as if I were Meg, the tone of the book was well written and made me think.
I liked how in the beginning of your response you said what the book was about before you stated your critical thinking question. I thought it was a good and different approach on the introduction. I also like how you sort of made the last sentence of the introduction as a cliff hanger. Good job!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed how you said, "this book taught me to not take things for granted." It really tied your post together. You had a great retell of the book, and strong, powerful arguments or, simply, "points." It is clear you used your critical thinking question to closely analyze, connect, and relate to this story. Great response!
ReplyDeleteThis was a great response! You did a wonderful job starting with an intriguing intro, followed by strong supporting details to your critical thinking question, and wrapping it all up with a conclusion that left me thinking. You also did a great job connecting back to you, as well as the real world. Your tone also kept me interested. All in all, this was a very solid response.
ReplyDeletethe first thing I thought when I read this was great vocabulary! words like "Heart-wrenching," make your response sound very formal and professional. On top of that, you had strong details and i could tell how you connected it to your critical thinking question. Great work!
ReplyDelete