Changed

Authors Note: This is a writing piece explaining two important quotes in the book, Touching Spirit Bear and relating this to me.

I am reading the book, Touching Spirit Bear, by Ben Mikaelsen. A quote that stood out to me in this book was on page 98. Cole says, “Why couldn’t they (the seagulls) wait just a little longer until he had died.” This quote stands out to me because Cole has given up on life. He couldn’t tolerate the pain and suffering anymore, so he wanted to die. This saddens me because I believe that Cole wanted to turn his life around, but first he would need to survive.

I can’t relate this to my life because I have never been in that much pain and suffering that is described in this book. I can relate this to a friend at my old school. He always seemed depressed and down. Sometimes even when he was talking to you, he would say he was waiting for the right time to die. I think that he gave up in life because he had parents who didn’t care and he was lonely. That made our class very scared so we started to hang out with him and talked him out of killing himself.

Another quote that really stands out to me is on page 106. Cole says, “Why do you guys help me?” This is a turning point in his life because he finally found out that people in the world do care about him and will be there for him. In his past, he could never trust anyone, not even his own parents. Now he has come to trust in Garvey and the world. He also wonders why people have helped him when he has been so mean to people in his past. This quote tells us that Cole Matthews is a changed kid.

            I can relate to this quote because I sometimes can be mean and yet people still help me. Also Cole and I don’t like being helped because we think we know everything. The people who usually help me despite my anger are my parents. No matter what I do, they will still help me. Cole and I need to work on being more nice to people by excepting people’s help and learn to let people who know more about things help us. They aren’t trying to hurt us, they are trying to make us better.