From these chapters, I want to share some points that are worthy sharing to you.
“But it’s more than just a scratch. It’s a punch in the stomach and a slap in the face. It’s a knife in my back because you would rather believe some made-up rumor than what you know knew to be true.”
I personally thought it was a successful description that used imaginable action and feeling to describe the abstract hurt. The author used scratch, punch, slap and knife to describe different degree of harm to make readers be able to imagine them in their mind. If the author just wrote “it makes me so painful that you…,” the effects must be smaller and readers would feel hard to relate themselves with how hurt it was to be misunderstood intentionally by those who actually knew the truth.
On the other chapter, the author used “driving along a bumpy road and losing
control of the steering wheel, tossing you off the road” to describe the
moment that Hannah realized what the world really was. She lost control of everything
in her life and no one understood her; not to mention, stood by her side and
supported her. Following with “Yet no
matter how tightly you grip the wheel, no matter how hard you try to drive straight,
something keeps jerking you to the side.” This visualized how disappointed and
helpless Hannah was. Though how hard you tried, the reality just kicked you and
your effort away easily. I thought it was another great description to express
feeling.
Besides, there was a specific chapter that
I could feel and relate to most. On cassette 2: side B, Hannah revealed that one
of her classmates, Tyler Down, stared through her bedroom window at night when
she was alone and expected to see some secrets of her. And Hannah didn’t have
any idea that she was watched by someone. Tyler must have prepared to do that,
so he chose the day that Hannah’s parents weren’t at home. But what was he
thinking to be a peeping Tom. When reading to this, I stayed and lived alone in
my rented apartment at almost mid-night. With a window upper behind my head,
the feeling of being scared suddenly swallowed me down. I couldn’t imagine if
this happened on me, what could I do? Should I call someone for help? Should I
pretend nothing happen and call the police in the bathroom? Or should I let
he/she who stared me knew I noticed that and warned them? I had no idea.
There was another paragraph that inspired
me since I would like to be a teacher in the future. One of Hannah’s teacher,
Mr. Bradley, created an activity to let students concern about each other while
other teachers cared about students’ grades more than their mental condition
and their relationships. This activity encouraged them to write notes to others
in order to show your concern which may be too embarrassed to tell face in
face. In my opinion, it was an interesting and helpful activity for students to
learn to keep their eyes on people and things around them. It reminded me an
activity, “little angel” that I had attended in the elementary school. In the activity,
there were two characters, little angel and master. Little angel should unconsciously
take care of the master, and master needed to guess who his/her little angel
was. Each participant would be the little angel and the master at the same time
but to different person. Both these two activities, encouraging students to be concerned
about others, were good for kids mental growth which I thought was even more
important than the numbers on the paper. If one day, I become a teacher, I will
conduct this kind activities on my students to make them learn from each other!
Hello Tina! It's Quinn, the person who read the same book as you but read it ten times slowly. I couldn't finish the whole sharing you made because there are some spoilers that I just saw by the name Tyler lol. I'm also aware of the technics that the Author used in this book. It's just soooo good, isn't it? Besides from the feelings. He also describe object very specifically. Like "cupped hands" or "mesmerizing lips". It's just so new to me that how these word can be used to describe these things. You must felt the same, right?
ReplyDeleteAnd you can definitely learn something from it being a teacher. You can surely take something from it. I'm happy that you were inspired by it, and wish all the best for you for you future career and dream.
Hello, Tina!
ReplyDeleteFirst, I would like to tell you how I appreciate the passages you wrote down in this blog. Through your descriptions, I can truly feel “how you felt at that time,” for example, one of the descriptions is that “the feeling of being scared suddenly swallowed me down.” Your emotions and the appearance of your living environment immediately emerge in my mind. In short, the scene comes to life because of your well-written expressions.
Secondly, it is wonderful that you put yourself in Hannah’s shoes to ask yourself, if you were her, what would you do? How would you react? I admire how deeply you have dug into this story.
Thirdly, as you mentioned that Hannah’s teacher, Mr. Bradley, cared much about his students’ mental state, not just about academic performance, it occurred to me that from my perspective, a lot of teachers indeed ignore students’ mental problems. They often demand high scores, higher scores, and the highest scores. It is as if students don’t get one hundred scores, they will be punished by cutting down on the salary. However, are the grades really more important than the mental health? I suppose my answer will be “no.” Thus, because I had actually such a bad experience, I realize how precious a student-oriented teacher is. Last but not least, hope you will become such a nice and considerate teacher as Mr. Bradley! :)