Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Character

Today I was in a seventh grade language arts class. The teacher asked students to reflect on The Outsiders and which character(s) they could or could not relate to. Each student was given some time to jot down the character and the reasons why he or she was or was not able to relate to that character.

A young man spoke up and said, “Ponyboy because we all got stuff in our life to deal with and he does too.”

I was so struck by this statement. He’s right, we relate to characters and their stuff to learn about ourselves and our world. This student, recently from Africa, might not appear to have much in common with some boys from 1960s Oklahoma. But what this student does have (like all of us) is stuff.

Are there books that have taught you a lesson in how to deal with the stuff of life?

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