Drug addicts are often misunderstood, or rather given a single story that people can not look past. In Jacqueline Woodson’s Beneath a Meth Moon, Laurel Daneau is living a normal life that she enjoys very much. Her normal life changes when Hurricane Katrina comes to the coast of Louisiana; where Laurel lives. Her mother and grandmother died due to Hurricane Katrina’s harsh conditions. She now has some PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) to water and rain. Because of her house being ripped apart, Laurel moves to a small town, Galilee, and is the lead cheerleader. She falls in love with the basketball team’s co-captain: T-Boom. He offers her a strange substance she has never seen before, and her life will change forever. The story is being told from Laurel’s point of view, so as readers we get a chance to see what she is feeling and what she thinks. The author wants us to know how hard it can be for young addicts after they have already started drugs, and how anyone can fall into the trap of drugs. In Beneath a Meth Moon it is very evident what Woodson wants her readers to see. Through having the story be told through the point of view of Laurel, Woodson is trying to create empathy for the character. She is trying to show the struggles kids have when peer pressure is upon them to try things that are extremely unhealthy. Also, Woodson wants her readers to see how hard it is for kids to get back off drugs after they have started. I was personally surprised in seeing how an innocent girl with a great family background gets caught on drugs. After her mother and grandmother die, she feels as if nothing can get her to feel good like T-Boom and drugs do. I noticed that the author, Jacqueline Woodson, is very passionate about what she is writing, and that only makes the characters more alive, the situations feel so much more real, the pain feel real, and every word she puts down meaningful and purposeful. In reading this beautiful piece of literature I become much more thoughtful not only toward drug addicts themselves, but all people with a rough background. Those people are not gifted as to get guidance and help along in life. They are sometimes on their own, but they can not always be blamed for that. This book will help me to become a better person through many, many ways. Obviously, however, something that has definitely changed me for the better is now being more understanding of kids with rough backgrounds, especially drug addicts. Anyone can truly get caught into those very bad habits, no matter if your parents are very strict or if you do not even have any parents. I also now understand how tough it is to get out of drugs now, too. I am now different because of this book. The book has changed my compassion toward others, especially those from rough backgrounds. I used to sort of wave these people off, but now I can understand the struggle, especially because it is told through Laurel’s point of view. “I felt like I was holding up the whole world and there was no water anywhere, no roads in front and behind me filled with empty land and tore-up houses.” -Laurel in Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woods By Elijah M.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorSTenth grade students at Decorah High School share how they're reading outside of their own experiences and how it has changed them. Categories
All
Archives
November 2022
|