In everyone’s life they had someone who heavily influenced them into who they are today, whether they know it or not. The characters that are in the essay are from the short stories “long long after school” by Franny Graham and “a teachers rewards” by Robert Phillips. In each story there is a character that had teachers who formed what they became later in life. Wes in “Long Long After School” is heavily influenced by his school teacher Ms. Trethway. She taught him kindness when he was unruly and that there is beauty in places you wouldn’t think one would normally find it. Most of all she made him feel wanted among many people who didn’t like him because of his skin colour, she effected him in a significant way so this changed him for life. Raybe was also effected by his schoolteacher for life but in a negative way. She taught him pain and hatred by the way she acted and made him feel worthless throughout his life. She didn’t treat him equally to all the other kids in class, this stuck with him. Whether it is a random act of kindness while walking to work one day or a huge act of help another can have huge effects on someone even if the person doing the act doesn’t think it is much. These stories bring to light that a very common influencer of ones life are the ones who teach them when they’re young and figuring out how the world works.

From what we see in the short story written by Franny Graham, the character Wes’ whole persona is based off what Ms. Trethway did for him. When Wes is first talked about it is mentioned that he can quote any book on a whim and this is the first thing relating back to Ms. Trethway. In the story when Wes is hospitalized she brings him books to read, this sparked his love for books. Another big defining thing is that Wes is a loner, from what we see in the book he doesn’t seem to have anyone else in his life just like Trethway. He must have seen that she didn’t need anyone else in her life and she was still so beautiful so I doubt he minds being alone much, he wants to be like her in that aspect. The last one is she was so kind to him and he seems to want to repay this kindness onwards by being the caretaker of the town. Ms. Trethway influenced him so much that his whole life is defined by what she was like to him when she was around.

This is also very apparent in the character of Raybe in “a teachers rewards” by Robert Phillips, everything we know about the character is in some way connected to his teacher. Raybe tells his teacher that because of the way she treated him he felt horrible about himself and this eventually led him to jail. The character of Raybe is a powder keg that is ready to go off at any time and the story tells us this is all because of how he was treated by his elementary school teacher.

Since both of these characters are so influenced by who taught them at a young age they’re very similar. It does not seem like the two are so similar but that is because each was influenced so differently. Even with them seeming so different the characters are very similar in the way they were written. Each character is defined by their childhood experiences in the story and they act depending on how they experienced life. The Authors could have had experiences close to this and wanted to portray to others the influences of life.

People are largely effected by what others do to them and are even more influenced by what happens when they’re young. These stories are just a means to show how someone can be so effected, the negative with Raybe and the positive with Wes. Let these stories be a vessel to send you a message, a message that you most likely will change someone else’s life some time in yours and you may not even know it. Make sure that it is a positive change, show someone kindness and think about yourself less because you don’t know how much it could mean to another. Who knows, maybe by changing someone’s life they can come back and do the same for you, negative or positive.