Secrets Kept

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Spoiler Alert!

A Great and Terrible beauty is about Gemma Doyle, a girl who grew up in India but has always wanted to go to school in England, where she is from. When she sees a vision of her mom dying after they fought and finds out that it's true, she moves to Spence, a boarding school for young women. There, she finds a diary from a girl who also had visions. Supposedly, that girl died in a fire, but Gemma finds out that it is her mother. 

One big part of the book is whether a secret should have been kept or not. One of Gemma's friends, Pippa, has epilepsy, but her fiance doesn't know that. She knows that if she tells him, both him and her parents will shun her. In the end, she decides to tell him because she doesn't like him. I think that she did the right thing by telling him. She hated him, and that let her let him go. If she hadn't told him, she would have had a seizure and he wouldn't know what to do. He would probably disown her anyway.

One thing that happened is that Gemma started having visions and she didn't know what to do. I'm not sure if this should've been kept a secret. It helped Gemma understand herself better and challenged her to do what was right, but there are some things that happened that didn't have to happen and wouldn't have if Gemma's mom had helped her with the visions before she died. For example, Pippa wouldn't have died in their spirit world if Gemma knew about the magic of the Runes.

I think that the secret of Gemma's mom being Mary Dowd, the writer of the diary, should have been revealed. Gemma would have known so much more about the Rune and how to deal with them. Her mom thought that she was protecting Gemma, and in the beginning she was, but she should have told her when they were in the spirit world. She could have warned Gemma of Sarah, which would have saved Pippa. There are so many bad things that wouldn't have happened if Gemma knew.

Sometimes, the characters made good choices, but sometimes they didn't. Based on the small amount of evidence I've given, what do you think?

The Drummer Boy of Shiloh

The Drummer Boy of Shiloh

In the short story 'The Drummer Boy of Shiloh' by Ray Bradbury, the main character, a 13ish year old boy called Joby, goes through a lot of internal changes. He starts out scared and doubting his position in the army and ends up brave and ready to go into battle as a drummer boy.

Joby ran away to join the Union army at a young age. He probably wanted to be admired, honored, and important, which he probably wasn't at home. Many people ran away to fight in the Civil War at that age or older because they thought the war would be short and that they wouldn't be harmed plowing a path for victory. They thought that it would bring them glory and fame in their small towns, but many of them ended up dead. Now, Joby is terrified and is regretting joining as he realized that he ran away from home and safety into a scary, dangerous war. He knows that there is a very big possibility that death will claim him, especially with just a drum and two drumsticks to protect him. He knows, unlike many other soldiers, that the war is unpredictable and they aren't granted immortality because of their youth.

When the General spots Joby crying, he goes over and starts talking to him. He tells Joby that it's alright to cry, he did too. He says that Joby can make the soldiers strong and brave going into battle, or he can let them admit defeat. As Joby listens to him, he realizes that he is important. There is still the very real possibility of death, but he realizes that he is needed by the general and running away wasn't completely useless. He knows that he will be respected as the Drummer Boy of Shiloh.

When people realize what the worst that can happen in a situation is, they end up regretting doing whatever got them into that situation. But once they realize that the situation isn't hopeless, they start having hope again, like Joby did.