Son: Week of 12/9/13

Pages: 311-394
Prompt: Describe a character that you would like to meet (which doesn’t mean that you

think you would like the character, but that you think the character would be

interesting). List 4 questions that you would ask.

     I think that a character I would like to meet would be Claire. I would like to meet her because she has gone through so much throughout her life, and I think it would be interesting to hear her story directly from her, nobody else retelling it! I wonder so many things about her, and I think that if I had to choose, there would actually be four main questions I would ask her (not just because the prompt says to list four questions.) I kind of wish Claire could like literally come to life so I could ask her these questions, but I think it would also be cool to ask Lois Lowry, the Author, and see what she would say if she were Claire. I mean, she did create Claire, so I think it would be interesting if I could ask Lowry these questions, I really do wonder what she would say!

     The first question I would ask Claire would be, what was it like switching from your community, to elsewhere? Was it scary for you? What was it like seeing color for the first time? I know from the story that Claire did not like birds at first because she was afraid of them, but I wonder if there were any other animals that she was also really afraid of in elsewhere. They never really talked about having real, live animals in their community, so I'm sure all of the animals were very new for her! I also wonder if she missed her family once she left. She seemed to be ok for the most part, but then again she had already been away from her family for quite some time since she had received her job, and I'm sure that the drive to find her son was stronger than the drive to see or be reunited with her family. From how she describes them, they didn't seem like they had been close since before she left for her job, so she was probably ok. So, that's the first main thing I would ask, what was it like switching from your community to elsewhere? 

     The second question I would ask would be what was it like to go through all of that intense training to be able to climb the ledge? I'm a dancer, and I know what it's like to push myself to the limit, whether it's while I'm dancing, or while we're doing stamina exercises. We have to do 1,000 jump ropes every class, but I'm sure it's not as tough as what Claire had to do! She had to carry sacks of rocks up and down hills and small mountains, and I think that would be extremely difficult! I don't know how anyone would be able to push themselves to do exercise of that extent, I would probably be too lazy to even attempt that feat, let alone do it enough where it became easy for me. So, I would definitely ask Claire what her training was like to be able to climb the ledge.

     The third question I would ask Claire would be, what was it like when the Trademaster turned you into an old lady? I mean, did it feel like your body was going through a transformation? Did you begin to feel the effects right away? Were you expecting what actually happened, or did you expect the Trademaster to simply take away your nice skin, and make it wrinkly? Were you disappointed that all the strengthening you did to your young body was now gone and you had become weak? Were you expecting it all to ware off in a couple of days? Did you ever even expect the Trademaster to come up with that kind of trade for you? I mean turning into an old lady all of a sudden through magic is pretty questionable, and I'm sure if I'm wondering these many things, Claire was probably wondering 1,000 more things! So, I would definitely ask Claire what it was like when the Trademaster turned her into an old lady/took away her youth away from her.

     The fourth and final question I would ask Claire would be, what was it like, seeing Gabe for the first time in so many years? Were you shocked at how much he'd grown? Were you ecstatic that all of your training and traveling had paid off? Were you scared to approach him, because you were afraid he wouldn't believe that you were his mother? Did you feel overjoyed when you saw how much he had matured? Were you nervous that you would never be as close to him as you had been in your old community? Were you feeling all of these things as you saw him for the first time? I am definitely interested in what Claire's answer would be to this question! So, those were the four questions that I would ask Claire if I got the chance, and why I would like to meet her if I got the chance!