Authors note: I was working really hard to self edit and peer edit this essay. Please look for my use of foreshadowing, and my a-b transition.
It was a cloudy day, I never liked those days, they always lead to embarrassment. My mom drove me to Brookfield Mall, and as we were walking from store to store my mom sees this kid I like from school and yells, “Hey, there’s that cute boy you like, um, what’s his name, oh Xavier”. My face turned red like a ripe tomato! Lesson learned, don’t ever go to the mall with your mom, go to the mall with your friends! In the book Dream of Night the parents of Shiloh learn that Shiloh really doesn’t want to be seen with them, no matter how hard they try.
In the book when Shiloh was a young girl she was taken from her parents and from there on in her life she has resisted her foster parents just like teenage kids do to their parents. Although the situations are very different, the resistant kid always comes back to their parents for guidance, or in a time of need. Shiloh’s situation is dreadful but she just makes it worse by resisting the loving parents who try to take her in.
Nevertheless, Shiloh still finds something to make her happy in what she considers to be a dump of a place. When I read this book, it reminded me of a movie I saw just the other day, called “Free Willy.” The main character of this story is Willy, a big, old, stubborn whale that is at a carnival, but not performing. No trainer can get the whale to do tricks, not even a pro trainer, but this kid Jessie who is 12 comes along and starts training the whale. It’s like Jessie has some special training power. Jessie is just like Shiloh; both had foster parents at a young age, were taken into lovely homes, resisted the parents and fell in love with an animal that had harshness in their hearts until the kids came along.
Why would a teen age girl go to the mall with her mom instead of her friends? The fact of the matter is, she wouldn’t. Sometime kids don’t even realize how much we truly need our parents, until we really need them the most.
