Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Anthony Mahfood

April 12,2011

Dr Ellis

Understanding Literature

Shane

In the novel Shane, by Jack Schaefer, Shane is the protagonist and he has all the characteristics of a leader. Shane is first seen asking Joe Starrett for water for himself and his horse. This introduction shows that Shane is not afraid of anyone. Also, it shows the audience that Joe Starrett is a generous man because his response to Shane’s question was “take all you want”. Joe invited Shane to stay for dinner and then for the night and eventually breakfast. After breakfast Shane begins to uproot the tree that Joe has been working on for years. Joe begins to help Shane and as a team they are able to uproot it. Because of this Joe realizes that Shane is a good worker and hires him to work with him. Shane at first doesn’t know if he wants the job but he eventually gives in.

It is obvious from early in the novel that Bob really likes Shane and wanted to be just like him Bob is very interested in Shane’s gun. He asks him why he does not carry it around anymore. Shane obviously feels safe around the family because when he first came onto their farm he was always on his toes reaching for his gun at sound of anything loud.

The first thing that came to my mind was the connection between Bob and Shane was the connection between the children that I was mentoring and myself. Bob portrays Shane as being his hero. The moment when he tells his mother that he loves Shane and asks he if it is “ok” if he loves Shane almost as much as he love his father indicates how much Bob cares for Shane. I related this to the when I told my students that I was not coming back. They really looked sad and TJ who never really did work started to work diligently finished all her work that day. This showed me that she cared and appreciated the time I took to come help her and I believe that this was her way of telling me good-bye and thank you. My other student Devon wasn’t very happy and asked me to stay because he liked the way I taught math because I took the time to explain every step. Hearing and seeing these reactions made me feel good about myself and made all those hours worth it because I know that they were appreciated and well spent.

Later on in the novel Shane gets into a fight and this really worries Joe’s wife, Marian, she thinks that it could cause danger to the family but Joe realizes that Shane was just defending himself and the people at the bar could see that. Marian goes and talks to Shane and asks him not to leave although Shane never said he was going to. Marian feels like he is, and wanted to let him know that he was needed around the farm. This also reminded me of mentoring because the first day of mentoring my supervisor said to me that means a lot to faculty and children to have mentors. This also made me realize how important it was to go even on those Mondays when I was tired from the weekend. I wanted to nap, but I knew that the children were there waiting on me and the teacher needed the extra hand so I pushed through my tiredness and put a smile on my face and went to do what I knew was right. In the end it paid off and I am glad that I never missed a Monday.

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