Candace Gay Memorial Awards

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Third-Prize Essays

Wednesday
Thoughts by Ellen Foster
Christina Magyar
Canfield High School

I’ve been doing a lot of growing lately, so much in fact that my new mama’s liable to throw a fit on the account of all the clothes I’ve been going through. But I’ve been growing inside, too, just lying up here in my room, thinking about things until I’m sure I’ll just about burst out of my skin out of thinking so much. Mostly, though, I’ve been thinking about what’s right and wrong and how I measure up to other folks, which is what I plan on doing ‘til supper’s ready.

Most people, I feel, are under the impression that values and such are just plum born into you from your daddy and your mama’s mama and so on, but I know that ain’t entirely right ‘cause, well, the only thing I ever got from my parents was my mama’s looks and my daddy’s eyes (at least according to my mama’s mama). So if you ask me, you have to discover and live through things to learn  what’s right and wrong and values and such, like Jeanne and Kenny did.

I’ve gone through some tough times myself, but it’s always comforting to know that I’m not the only one and that someone else has had similar problems. Take Jeanne Wakatsuki, of Farewell to Manzanar, for example. Here’s this brave Japanese American girl who was discriminated against and outcast (sorta like me)and who was forced to find her way to acceptance in the “all-American” world, which is what I was looking for and tried to find it with Aunt Betsy, Nadine, Dora, and the others. Just like Jeanne, I started trying to be someone I was not, and Jeanne started going against family rules and Japanese feminine values, which her family upheld in order to be accepted in the eyes of her peers. But Jeanne finally stopped running from the Japanese face in the mirror and started looking inside of herself and realized that acceptance wasn’t everything when she said, “Now she [her mother] wanted for me the same thing I thought I wanted. Acceptance. . . another means for survival” (179). Jeanne finally realized the importance of herself, and I finally found out that I’d never be anyone but old Ellen, and pretty soon we both started having things go right.

Now Kenny Watson from The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, I reckon, went through some real hard times, too, from his lazy eye to his getting beat up to his witnessing his church getting blown up and almost losing his sister Joey. And frankly, I just don’t know how a body would get over something like that, excepting I’ve had three people die on me, so I’d consider us about even. But I guess what really got me is the fact that there really are mean, rotten, low-down men who would do a thing like blowin’ up God’s house with all those little kids in there; it makes me think of my daddy and what he used to do when he was drunk. And then I think of both my daddy and my mama’s mama, and I’ve come to realize that they lived the same, just like those Birmingham men, “. . . they just let hate eat them up and turn them into monsters” (200). I think about how Kenny must’ve felt, and I wonder what kind of morals those men had, and then I know that they were crazy. How could anyone do something like that just on account of someone’s skin? So I try to imagine doing something bad to Starletta, but I just can’t. And then I shudder, “. . . but I am never scared” (2).

So here I am, lying on my bed, thinking about how much other folks have gone through and how I know that I’m lucky to have this room, my bed, and my new mama, and all. I think about how things have changed in my life, and I wonder if I’d be the same Ellen if things would have gone differently.

As I’m remembering all the good things happening to me now, parts of my past come sneaking in my mind, like flat bats, and I start remembering how bad things used to be and the evil things, like killing my father, not standing up for my mother, and thinking I was better than Starletta just ‘cause I’m white and she’s black. And then I get angry, and I question why God made my daddy, and then I know my daddy “was a mistake for a person” (49). I wonder why I had to be his Ellen, and I guess it was the punishment I had to pay for all the good things I have now. At least, that’s what I think.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and I’ve come up with two conclusions about folks. One, everyone is different and has different values and such, but everyone should be treated equal. And two, there’s just no good reason why “. . . God let him [my daddy] and the rest [my mama’s mama and folks who discriminate against others on account of their appearance] slip through” (48). To tell you the truth, I don’t think I’ll ever understand this, even when I become as old as my mama’s mama was,  so I’ll stop, and I thank the Lord for making me half right.
 
 

Thursday
Loyalty
Harish Amirthalingam
Howland High School

Individuals may choose to make a certain decision for several different reasons. They may choose to do so for reasons of practicality, efficiency, or simply personal benefit. However, certain decisions are made on the criterion of morality, and this criterion is based on an individual’s personal ethos. His or her ethos is continually changing, especially in the adolescent years as values and beliefs are influenced by many factors, including media, friends and family, and literature. Because of this, teenagers especially struggle to make “right” decisions.

In this year’s English Festival books, many characters are in a position of choosing between what they feel is right or wrong. They may be under certain circumstances that create disadvantages in any choice they make, and choosing the best one may be a difficult task. Or they may be in a situation in which either choice is advantageous. Specifically, this essay will focus on the value of loyalty that is inherent in White’s Belle Prater’s Boy and James and Christopher Collier’s My Brother Sam Is Dead.

My Brother Sam Is Dead, set during the Revolutionary period of the United States, takes the reader into the home of a family that eventually develops an internal conflict of morals. The conflict occurs with Sam Meeker’s father, a loyalist, when Sam chooses to become a soldier in the American Revolutionary Army. At first, his father doesn’t take his decision too seriously; however, as the war progresses and it intensifies, their personal beliefs come between them to the point where Sam’s father kicks him out. However, the key character when one examines the value of loyalty becomes Tim, Sam’s brother. Tim eventually gets into a compromising situation between his brother and father. He has a deep love for both, and the question becomes whether he can support either his brother or father.

Toward the end of the plot, Tim illustrates his loyalty to Sam when he tries everything in his power to prevent Sam from being killed, including putting his own life in jeopardy for a wrongful charge of stealing cattle. When his mother asks, “Going to get yourself killed, son?,” he responds, “I’m going to save my brother” (201), proving that his life is not of intrinsic worth. A similar loyalty is displayed to his father in a rather ironic manner. “Stand back, Sam, or I’ll shoot you in the stomach” (55) shows that he loves his father so much that, in that incident, he is willing to shoot his brother. In short, Sam is loyal to both his brother and father, and he never takes a personal stance on whether the Revolution is right or wrong, but rather he takes a stance on the lives of his family.

When Woodrow moves next door to Gypsy, in  Belle Prater’s Boy, the two begin to build a very close relationship. As they become close, Woodrow responds to Gypsy with a loyalty and friendship. They talk about their tragedies, and they use each other for emotional support. When they talk about Gypsy’s father and Woodrow’s mother, they tell each other their stories of their parents’ disappearances. However, as they become best of friends, their stories become more personal, and Gypsy finally learns the truth of how her father left. With no one else to really talk to, she turns to her best friend, Woodrow, and as Woodrow always does, he consoles her. On the other hand, while many individuals have come up with a theory for Woodrow’s mother’s disappearance, Woodrow has his own version that he tells Gypsy. But soon after telling his theory, he begins to feel a sense of false truth. Both finally realize that their parents left because “Their pain was bigger than their love” (195), and it becomes evident that they are trying to remain loyal to their false sense of truths, as well as to each other. After clearing up these issues of truth, they develop a greater sense of loyalty to each other.

In comparison, both novels involve characters who must make decisions that affect other individuals. In My Brother Sam Is Dead, Tim never takes a stance in supporting his father or brother but chooses to support both. In Belle Prater’s Boy, Gypsy and Woodrow try to support their false truths as well as one another. The issue of loyalty plays a major role in both these novels, and even though Tim, Woodrow, and Gypsy do not find their beliefs at first, they search and eventually find them.

Friday
The Morals of Mortals
Melody Joachim
Boardman Center Middle School

Should I continue with my friends and possibly endanger their lives, or do I split up and risk getting captured by the Tripods? Should I join my brother in war and possibly be fighting against my father? These are the questions characters must ask themselves in this year’s English Festival books. Of course, people face minor problems daily, but it is not what choices people have: It is how they solve their problems that matters. The main characters in White Mountains and My Brother Sam Is Dead are two boys whose problems stood out. Their challenges, values, and actions astonished me and caused me to analyze further their personalities and beliefs.

The first boy I considered closely was Will Parker from White Mountains. He is a logical, quick thinker, even in pressured circumstances; using his wits, Will escapes from the boat dock and the tavern. Even living as somewhat of a loner, he fights desperately for his friends’ rights. Because of Will’s actions in challenging the Tripods’ power and decisions on his journey, I determined he values freedom and friends, and he is intrigued by the past. However, unlike most young men, he does not seem to value family; he runs away from home without much worry and never mentions it again. Through his actions and words, Will demonstrates his morals.

I inferred Will Parker’s beliefs through his behavior in tough situations. Leaving his home and risking his life to be free prove how strongly he strives to be free and to think freely. Will’s curiosity in his past is displayed when he scours the town looking for artifacts of “the ancients.” Also, his ultimate care for friendship is shown when he offers to divert the Tripods from his friends to give them a chance to escape. Will knows the evil machines will find him, cap him, and then search for his partners. Thus, his generous sacrifice is refused by Beanpole and Henry, his pals. Will graciously demonstrates his beliefs via his coping with choices.

The second character I found fascinating was Tim Meeker, the lead role in My Brother Sam Is Dead; he is an unsure, obedient, quiet boy, torn by the Revolutionary War. Tim is able to cope with things he cannot change, but he does not enjoy making difficult decisions. As a religious boy, Tim tries to follow every commandment. “Do not lie, boast, steal, covet,” and so on are the high goals he sets for himself.

These are his main standards, but he seems to have trouble following all of them, especially toward the end of the novel. He scolds Sam for being prideful and boasting, portraying family as another of his values. He hates hearing his father and brother fight; he just wants everyone to be together and cheery. But, of course, this does not happen most of the time. Though he loves his older brother dearly, he had been taught his whole life that adults are always correct. At one point, Tim considers his brother’s taking the family’s only rifle, and he decides Sam chose incorrectly. Yet, several other times, he envies Sam for getting all the glory at war while Tim stays home and works. Tim’s activities and choices also illustrate his morals.

The two characters, Will and Tim, have many traits and views in common. Both young boys, about the same age, want certain rights from their leaders, be it the Tripods or the British. Will and Tim feel trapped and left out very often in the stories: Will’s friends exclude him, and Tim is left at home with his mother after his father dies. Similarly, both boys attempt to sacrifice themselves for what they deem important. Will treasures his friends and wants to save their lives. Tim devotes all his time to helping his mother at the tavern and tries to rescue both his father and brother. Both young men go through a definite change in maturity throughout the story; they grow wiser and, by the end, have come to new understandings. A final similarity in the plot is that even the ending is harsh, and the reader knows there are more hardships to come.

However similar these boys may be, their opinions and values do differ. White Mountains occurs in the future when our civilization has ended and a new one has begun. On the other hand, My Brother Sam Is Dead takes place over two hundred years ago, during the Revolutionary War. A second difference is that Will makes a long journey while Tim must stay confined at the tavern in Redding. The two boys’ family views differ, too. Will doesn’t think twice about leaving his family, but Tim cares more about his family and staying together than almost anything else. Since Will is on his own, basically, he appears to be more self-centered than Tim, who always thinks of others first. One final difference is that Will’s choices are more sudden, which forces him to be a quick thinker. But Tim’s main topic, war, drags on throughout the whole book.

All of the books on this year’s booklist portray characters’ moral and ethical codes, but Will Parker and Tim Meeker seemed to have values that matched mine the best. I agree with and understand both points of view; I see why friends, history, and freedom would be so significant to Will, but at the same time, Tim’s family and religious values make perfect sense in his situations. These English Festival books gave wonderful examples of dilemmas a person faces and how his or her moral values affect the life decisions made. I enjoyed reading, studying, and analyzing the books’ characters and the choices made by the characters in the 1999 English Festival booklist.

Festival of Writing 1999 Home Page