Thursday, February 12, 2009

Character Changes






In the beginning of the year we read "Rules" by Cynthia Lord together. In this story, the main character Catherine struggles with responsibility and has conflict with her situation...and her self....in dealing with her little brother who has autism.
As we go through the story, Catherine struggles with her concept of herself, wanting her own life and balancing that with wanting and needing to take care of her little brother. At the end of the story, she has grown more confident in herself and her choices of friends. An example of this is her friendship with Jason. She hides this friendship and even sometimes turns away from the relationship at times. At the end, she realizes that Jason is an important part of her life, no matter his disability, and sticks up for that friendship. She puts aside her worries about what others think. She also realizes that her brother is ok, even if he is not taken care of by herself every second of the day.
We talked during our class discussions often about how she was changing, what she was struggling with, and at the end how she overcame many of her fears and problems. Many of her struggles were her character versus herself, although some were her character versus the situation.
Discussion point for today:
1. How have you seen your main character struggle so far in your story? What is his or her main conflict or need? Are there more than one, and if so, do they connect in some way?
2. How have you seen your character grow or change? (give examples from the book to support your claims)

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ms. Simon's the main character in my book Charlie's raven has struggled allot to do his first challenge getting pinecone of the roof but eventually he does but then he has to do his second challenge getting Mr.Spender to not kill the ravens Charlie really struggle on that but in the end he very sad because his closest freaind Blue Sky. So Charlie has to go through allot in this book.
Sincerely,
Dean Hatt

Anonymous said...

Woah,yeah!
OK,I think the biggest change in Ruben's ailing soul(I'M EXAGGERATING,I CAN'T STRESS THAT ENOUGH.)
is that he isn't Jeddy's forever best friend anymore.Which is really too bad.I mean,they made a great team.And it really changes you to lose a friend.So,well,yeah, they make up,but their not best friends forever or anything.Too bad....
-Emilie

Anonymous said...

Dear Mrs.Simonds,
The main character in the book that I was reading is Charmain. The conflict in the book would be character vs. situation. She is sucked into a quest along with Sophie, Twinkle, the King, and Prince Ludovic (the Lubockin). She learns that she needs to find the Elfgift, something that will protect the king.
In the begginning of the book, there is a lot of foreshadowing. You don't realize this until you get into the action towards the end of the book. Charmain is frustrated that all of these things were happening but they just slipped by her.
I think that Charmain changes in that she realizes that sometimes people show up in your life to help, and not just annoy you. Like Peter, for instance. When he shows up, Charmain is so annoyed and she thinks that she doesn't need him.
But without Peter,Charmain would never meet the Witch of Maltibino, who tells Charmain why everything is happening. And she would never find her way to the Kobolds, who show who really is stealing the king's money.
So Charmain definetly changes her thoughts about Peter by the end of the book.
-Elle

Anonymous said...

Yes. Rob has struggled in my book.The problem is that once Rob trust Sistine toshow her the tiger, she thinks it is cruel to keep it in a cage and wants to let it free. Rob promised Beachamp he would not release it. Rob changes because I think now he is not so afraid to show his feelings, like at the end of the stories Rob see's something happen......... I CAN"T TELL!!!!!!!!
Emma

Anonymous said...

In the book the black duck the main character ruben struggles when Jeddy and him have a fight and they stop being frieds. Ruben and jeddy have been friends for years and now they don't even talk to each other
-Justin

Anonymous said...

Hi, i've have seen charlie struggle allot in the begging of the story because pinecone is being a pain by being on Charlies roof . So Mr.spinder was being anoying so he wanted to Kill the raven's because they cawwwwwwwinggggggggggg so much he wanted to kill them with his gun (scarey) .
- Katie
p.s. hope you like it .!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

In walk two moons Sal struggles with Mrs.Cadaver. She also struggles with Pheebe Sals a pack mule to Pheebe. Sal just fallows pheebe a lot. Well not a lot but when her mother disapears. When she struggles with Marget Cadaver sal is trying to avod her. Soon she many become her mother. Sal thinks that Mrs.cadaver is mruder (She's not!) because she was very violnt with a bush. Her husbun is deid and Sal has know idea how he died. So sal thinks that Mrs.Cadaver killed him.

- Carly

Anonymous said...

In the book The Tiger Rising Rob the main character loses his mom and then moves to florida he tells himself that he will never talk about his mother and also has a problem about bulles Norton and Billy Threemonger. Rob changes in this book because he talks about his mother and disrespects his father.
-Mason

Anonymous said...

In my group black duck my maine charecter Ruben struggles with losing his best friend Jeddy. They were best friends until they found the dead body on the beach then there friendship fell apart.Jeddy ended up leaving town when he got older.
Marina

Anonymous said...

In my book Rob has my problem.(I looked at the comments i guess it was the book that we read in groups)Rob has a problem, he has a friend named sistine she is his friend so he wants to show her the tiger, but beuchamp is trusting Rob take care of it. When Rob shows sistine the tiger she gets very mad that the tiger is locked up in the cage and she thinks it is cruel. As Emma said SOMETHING HAPPENS IN THE END.....

-Mason