Ordinary Magic

The story, Ordinary Magic, was written by Malcolm Bosse is about a boy who was born and bred in India. Jeffrey also recognized as “Ganesh” faced a lot of difficulties at a very young age. These difficulties that forced him to be mature included his father’s loss of life, his way of adjusting and bonding with the American culture and when his ancestor home was going to be demolished. Jeffrey’s maturity develop when his father, Mr. Moore, died and he was obliged to manage and handle everything, including paying for his deceased father’s funeral. Since his father’s death, the village people were starting to act towards him as a foreigner and not as one of them. They even told Jeffrey to pay as soon as possible for the house rental and for the funeral. All these happening changed Jeffrey’s life. He learned to be independent and that forced him to learn to be responsible. It shows that Jeffrey was forced to be mature at a very young age due to all his unfortunate happenings. Overtime, Jeffrey’s maturity enhanced when he had to move to America alone to meet his aunt and his way of fitting into to a new environment. Jeffrey did not want to go to America before but he knew he has the responsibility of fulfilling his promise to his father that he will go to America. The children in his new school was making fun of a mantra that Jeffrey taught to one of the girl in the school before, but Jeffrey did not mind it at all. He understood that those kids just did not understand how sacred the mantra was. This means that Jeffrey was mature enough to understand why the kids did not show respect to the sacred mantra and that he was mature enough to take responsibility of keeping his promise to his father. Jeffrey became more mature when he found out that their ancestor’s home was going to get demolished. He had to do everything he could in order to save it. He managed to form the Satyagraha and took full responsibility upon each individual that has decided to join the Satyagraha with him. Jeffrey fought the government through the Satyagraha where all of the members went on a hunger strike until the government have heard their plea. Jeffrey was mature because he learned to stand up for his beliefs and he stood up against the government. Overall, Jeffrey’s adulthood resulted from all of his unfortunate happenings that occurred to his life. Whether those forced him to be mature or not, he certainly was developing maturity throughout the whole story. In the end, Jeffrey’s circumstances that forced him to grow into a maturity person has helped him blend and mix in an Indian culture and an American culture that made him fit in.