Ernie Breaks
Ernie Breaks
Sometimes expectations are too big to satisfy, even though you try your very best. It would be wrong to raise expectations to a level that cannot be met. You are scared that you might disappoint the people you have closest. Therefore you try to hide yourself and your insufficiency. This is just one of the things Cara deals with in the story, Ernie Breaks, written by Genevieve Scott.
The short story is told through the eyes of Cara. Cara has just finished fourth grade, and her mother wants to reward her for that. Therefore she brings Cara and Caras brother Jed to a pet store. Here they decide to buy a turtle, which Jed and Cara have to share. They call the turtle Ernie. One day when Cara comes home from school, Jed is maltreating Ernie. This makes Cara very sad and she wants to show her mother what Jed had done and show that Ernies tank is very messy. She ends up loosing Ernie, as he falls to the ground and dies.
The characters get described in an indirect way, where the reader has to draw conclusions from the way the characters act and how Cara explains them from her point of view. An example of that is where Jed is described: “He goes in there with his friend Toby everyday after school to play records and ignore me. This means that Jed also doesn’t help me with my math homework like Mom made him promise, so I am terrified that I’ll fail or get moved into retard room”1. This is a good example of the indirect characterization, as this quote shows us that Jed is a brother, who does not worry very much about his sister. Firstly, he ignores her and secondly, he does not help Cara with her math, even though he promised. In addition you can see that Cara is very bad at math and needs help to get better. Throughout the short story Cara gets seen very considerate, especially around Ernie: “[…], if I say anything though, I’m afraid I’ll start to cry”2. The fact that she nearly starts to cry, because Jed and his friend, Toby, are teasing Ernie, means that
Sometimes expectations are too big to satisfy, even though you try your very best. It would be wrong to raise expectations to a level that cannot be met. You are scared that you might disappoint the people you have closest. Therefore you try to hide yourself and your insufficiency. This is just one of the things Cara deals with in the story, Ernie Breaks, written by Genevieve Scott.
The short story is told through the eyes of Cara. Cara has just finished fourth grade, and her mother wants to reward her for that. Therefore she brings Cara and Caras brother Jed to a pet store. Here they decide to buy a turtle, which Jed and Cara have to share. They call the turtle Ernie. One day when Cara comes home from school, Jed is maltreating Ernie. This makes Cara very sad and she wants to show her mother what Jed had done and show that Ernies tank is very messy. She ends up loosing Ernie, as he falls to the ground and dies.
The characters get described in an indirect way, where the reader has to draw conclusions from the way the characters act and how Cara explains them from her point of view. An example of that is where Jed is described: “He goes in there with his friend Toby everyday after school to play records and ignore me. This means that Jed also doesn’t help me with my math homework like Mom made him promise, so I am terrified that I’ll fail or get moved into retard room”1. This is a good example of the indirect characterization, as this quote shows us that Jed is a brother, who does not worry very much about his sister. Firstly, he ignores her and secondly, he does not help Cara with her math, even though he promised. In addition you can see that Cara is very bad at math and needs help to get better. Throughout the short story Cara gets seen very considerate, especially around Ernie: “[…], if I say anything though, I’m afraid I’ll start to cry”2. The fact that she nearly starts to cry, because Jed and his friend, Toby, are teasing Ernie, means that