Have you ever felt like you belong so well in some place and only in a matter of moments, you felt like a total outsider. In this story “The Metaphor” by Budge Wilson begins with a 13 year old girl named Charlotte who has been thinking of an interesting Metaphor towards her mother. Charlotte is a student in grade 7 at a school in Charlottes Cove. Charlotte is most passionate about literature because of her amazing teacher, Ms.Hancock. She is a very outgoing character who is loved by her students because of her joyful and openly expressiveness who also has a dying love for literature. Charlottes mother on the other hand, also has a large impact on Charlottes life with her calm and collective ways of directing Charlotte to her interests and shaping her into a young responsible and mature woman. Her mother is not the biggest fan of Ms Hancock as she was seen calling her a “brassy creature”.
Ms. Hancock accepted Charlotte for who she was with open arms. However, Charlottes mother did not accept charlotte and made her feel like an outsider. She made her feel alone and like she had no one who loved her. She felt like she didn’t belong. Ms. Hancock made Charlotte feel accepted in her class and she felt comfortable with her. Ms. Hancock would often keep Charlotte after class just to chat and discuss what’s happening in Charlottes life. This made Charlotte feel like she could be herself in that class because Ms. Hancock was always so caring. Charlottes mother on the other hand, was a different story. She made Charlotte feel unimportant and that she is an over dramatic daughter. Charlottes mother has always been very strict and doesn’t like to talk to Charlotte about sensitive topics and that’s just the way she’s always been and because of this, Charlotte has enjoyed the loving and caring of her teacher.
Many events in charlottes life have shaped her to the person she is today and there are also many people who impacted her and her self esteem greatly. Ms. Hancock was so incredibly kind and caring for everyone in her class and would do anything she could to make everyone feel wanted and comfortable. She adjusted her teaching skills to suit the students and the atmosphere of the class but still managed to keep everyone interested in what she was teaching. There were instances where Ms. Hancock would push her students out of their comfort zone when it came to literature but never enough to where they felt uncomfortable. Despite being loved by all her students, Charlottes mother wasn’t the biggest fan. Her mother put other people down and had no regards to the feeling of others and she felt the same way about her daughter. She would talk bad about other people and wouldn’t care for their feelings.
As most people, Charlottes maturity changed as she got older and matured a lot to the person she has become. She became the ‘typical teenager’ and didn’t enjoy school as much and when she realized that Ms. Hancock was teaching her class, she kind of avoided her and strayed away from interacting with each other. Ms. Hancock’s ‘the Metaphor’ project was one that really opened charlottes up and it was something she loved doing. In a classroom environment it’s often hard not to notice someone but in Ms. Hancock’s case, She didn’t notice charlotte until 2 weeks into the school year. Charlottes began to not like talking to Ms. Hancock. She disliked the small talk and conversations and just ultimately wanted to avoid her. Ms. Hancock’s loving, caring and silly nature remained the same since when Charlotte was in grade 7 and that was difficult for Charlotte. Understandably, Charlotte changed and matured as she got older and she changed her likes and dislikes and Ms. Hancock was one of them. Her mother was very not supportive of her and always put her down and gave her responsibilities that she was not capable of doing and treated Charlotte as if she was a grown woman. Her father as well, wasn’t supportive of Charlotte during this time and he told her that her reaction was none sense.
Overall, people can be effected in the way they are viewed by others. It is very important to learn about a person before we chose to judge them. Ms. Hancock was heavily judged by many people but that didn’t effect her. When Ms. Hancock passed away, Charlotte regretted the way she treated Ms. Hancock and she didn’t know how to deal with it. Ms. Hancock and Charlottes mother both had strong influences on Charlotte from the atmospheres they created and to the ways they dressed.