Author’s note: This piece was about two characters that
change within the story, and I tried to make sure that I added transitions in
between my paragraphs.
In the book Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen the
character Cole went through an event to change his whole life and personality.
Cole had an abusive father which had a huge impact on his personality. He was
an angry, unforgiving, uncaring person and he was unwilling to change. Throughout
the story Cole changed a lot, even though in the beginning he didn’t want
to.
Therefore one day Cole took his violence to far and he beat
up a student named Peter on the school sidewalk. Peter suffered from head
trauma, speech problems, and had many nightmares about the beating Cole did to
him. Cole was caught from the circle justice and either had the choice to go to
jail or had to go to an island to heal his criminal ways. Which he choose the
island, in the beginning Cole did not take it seriously and he was not willing
to change. Cole attempted to escape the island but he was caught by the rising
tide and was not able to escape. Then Cole returns to the island and came across the touching spirit bear and tried
to take his angry out by stabbing the bear with a knife. The bear was unfazed
and attacked Cole, he broke his hip and arm as well as knocking Cole out.
However Cole was taking to a nurse to heal from his injuries,
and he finds out that his mother now was open to press charges against the
father. Cole was now anxious he wanted to start his healing progress again, but
the circle justice said to him that he already used his chance. It started to
show that Cole was willing to change he wanted to become a better person. The circle justice decided that they would
give him one more chance, and this time Cole knew he had to work harder. When
Cole got to the island he had to build his own shelter and he did many actives
to release his anger. Once Cole was starting to change and starting to gain
forgiveness and starting to think of others not just his self a man named Edwin
that is part of the circle justice tells him that Peter is doing worse. Cole felt bad, he knew that he had to do
something to make their relationship better. Therefore Cole invited Peter to
the island to let him know what he is doing at the peaceful island, and Peter
starting to understand how to forgive Cole.
In addition this book relates to The Haunting by Joan
Lowery because both of the characters were selfish in the beginning and then
they became to realize it isn’t always about them. In The Haunting the main character Lia
inherited a old, creepy, haunted house in Graymoss. Her parents were always
thinking about adopting young children that didn’t have a home or parents and
this was the perfect opportunity. Although Lia didn’t want to move away from
her best friend so she wanted to prove to her parents that it was haunted.
After visiting the Barker Home for Children Lia started to realize why her
parents wanted to do this, the kids looked unhappy and unloved. Now all Lia wanted to do is get the ghost out
of the house so that they could live there with the kids, and the night that
she went she figured it out and kicked the ghost. These two stories both relate
because the characters both tried to push things away and were unwilling to do
something different, although at the end both of the characters both ending up
doing something for another person which helped both of the characters.
Overall in these two books both of the characters changed throughout
the story, and they learned something within their situations. In Cole’s
situation he learned that he shouldn’t just be angry at people that innocent
and didn’t do anything to him. With Lia situation she learned that she
shouldn’t ruin someone else’s dream especially since their dreams are trying to
help others. Both of these characters personality changed, and they both helped
someone out. Many people that read these books would be able to tell that the
characters change in a very good way.
