The Metaphor Essay
Imagine feeling like you belong more at school but feel the complete opposite at your own home. The Short story “The Metaphor” is written by Budge Wilson. The story is about a girl named Charlotte who grows through her middle school experiences and learns from all the people in her life. Charlotte has many different people in her life that help her find her sense of belonging. Charlotte’s self-esteem is impacted extremely by the people around her. Charlotte’s maturity and personality alters severely through her years in middle school.
Ms. Hancock made Charlotte feel accepted and welcoming, on the other hand Charlotte’s mother does not give Charlotte that warm sense of belonging. Ms. Hancock makes Charlotte feel like she belongs during class and lets her know that her opinions matter. When Charlotte read her metaphors about her mother to the class, Ms. Hancock kept Charlotte after class to see how she was doing and even asked if Charlotte wanted to talk. “Charlotte may I see you for a moment before you go.” Although Charlotte’s metaphors were quite unusual, Ms. Hancock made it seem like it was very ordinary. Charlottes mother makes her feel like her feelings are not very important. “I’ll have to ask you to stop this nonsense, you are disturbing the tenor of our home.” Charlottes mother doesn’t care about Charlottes emotional breakdown when she finds out Ms. Hancock is dead. Charlottes mother cares about the order and cleanliness of her household more than she cares about Charlottes emotional experiences she is having at high school.
The people in Charlottes life impacted her self-esteem incredibly. Ms. Hancock who was Charlotte’s English teacher, was very kind and made everyone around her feel welcome. She adjusted to Charlotte’s unique class and made Charlotte and her class come out of their comfort zone with literature. “so miss Hancock could survive, even to flourish in our unique, sheltered environment.” Instead of having a negative approach at the class, she had a different way of seeing the group of students. Ms. Hancock embraced them positively. Although, Charlotte’s mother was the opposite of embracing the differences of other people. Charlotte’s Mother put other people and charlotte down. She would talk about how ugly Ms. Hancock was. “In a bad taste, said Charlottes mother” as she was talking about how orange Ms. Hancock’s hair was. Charlotte’s mother was setting a very bad example for Charlotte, instead of pointing out other people’s imperfections she should embrace them.
Charlotte’s maturity had altered very much in her years of middle school. When Charlotte first found out Ms. Hancock was teaching her grade 10 English class, Charlotte avoided her for a while. It was two weeks into the class that Ms. Hancock finally recognized Charlotte. Charlotte used to enjoy collaborating and sharing idea’s in Ms. Hancock’s grade seven English class. Charlotte has changed very much with Ms. Hancock and did not like small talk with her. “go ahead charlotte, don’t let me keep you.” When Ms. Hancock wanted to catch up with Charlotte, there was a very big awkwardness that had formed between them now. Charlotte’s mother treated her as if she was a grown woman with many responsibilities. Charlotte’s Mother told her father to leave her alone and let her breakdown solve itself. Charlotte’s Mother told Charlotte that what she was doing was nonsense. Charlottes mother was very uptight and dint understand what her daughter was going through. When Ms. Hancock died, Charlotte thought it was her fault and not one of her parents talked her into comfort.
In conclusion, there have been many people in charlotte’s life who have shaped her into the girl she has become. Charlotte’s self-esteem and sense of belonging was impacted greatly on the different people in her life. Charlotte’s optimism and motivation to learn was no longer existent in the end of the story. Charlotte, however did learn a valuable lesson of taking people for granted as she did to Ms. Hancock.