Reading Response #4 SHINE

Evy Rahmey 802   11/20/14

Reading Response #4 Shine

Some people live their lives with a frown on their face and the belief that everything is worthless. Other explore the world optimistically and make the best out of what they have. The book Shine, by Lauren Myracle is about a sixteen year old girl named Cat who lives in a small town of North Carolina called Black Creek. Her views on the world have dramatically shifted, and now she's just lost. Cat's former best friend, Patrick, who is gay, was just attacked by an unknown subject and strung to a gas nozzle because of his homosexuality. While unconscious at the gas station, Patrick was discovered and brought to the hospital, leaving all of Black Creek wondering who attacked him and what his physical and mental states are looking like. When Cat found out about the situation, she was determined to find out who ambushed Patrick, and she visits many people to find where they were during the attack. Throughout Shine, we get to know Cat as a curious, nervous, and lonely person who misses her past. We see how she takes on her life asking many questions. By getting to know Cat as a character, we see that people may not instantaneously know what they miss until they realized the impact it had on them.

In the eighth grade, Cat felt she had bad vibes around her all the time, so she stopped being friends with all of her friends, and she let her former happy go lucky personality go. Cat thought that isolating herself would help, but it didn't. However, three years later, it is evident that Cat longs to have her friends back and be that happy go lucky girl. For example, after finding out about Patricks attack, Cat realizes how much she misses spending time with Patrick and having picnics in their special hideout. “Today, all I saw was  an endless blue sky shimmering above the trees at the edge of Patrick’s yard. I pressed the back of my head against the house. My fingers found the grass, and at its roots, the cool soil. I would have been content to sit here for hours, but I needed to get up.” Here, it shows how much Cat misses Patrick and how she regrets parting form him. Additionally, this shows Cat misses her childhood in general because she used to go to Patrick’s house when she was little, and it was like a second home to her. She misses the days when she was happier and she spent time with Patrick, and she especially misses them now because of Patrick being close to death, and her wanting to go back to those careless days.

In the process of letting go her relationship with her friends, the way Cat interacts with her brother dramatically changes as well. Cat brother, Christian, protected Cat and told her what was right and what was wrong. For instance, three years ago, when Christian walked in on his friend, Tommy, sexually harassing Cat, he decided to destroy something that really mattered to Tommy. “Male voices washed over me: Tommy’s furious; Beef’s sympathetic, but not overly so; my brother’s just plain flat. Shaking, I stood and buttoned my shorts. I  moved silently to the edge of the window, where I crossed my arms tight and took it in. Pieces of chrome. A fender blown several feet away when the gas tank exploded. The rubber grip of the accelerator. The smoldering remains of the smokehouse blanketing the bones of Tommy’s BMW. ‘Told you not to park there,’ Christian said.” This quote shows that though Christian took a different approach at protecting her sister, he still destroyed the motorcycle because he wanted to protect her. Three years ago, their relationship was very strong and they were close siblings. Looking back on those days, Cat misses Beef and wants their close relationship back. “In the months to come, in the moments of loneliness so deep it hurt to breathe, I tried to put aside my fury and betrayal and humiliation and forgive him. That’s how much I missed him.” Then, when Cat and her friend, Jason, were going to find Beef, Christian came again to the rescue. Though they were not as close anymore, Christian still took a brotherly role by helping her sister, which he hadn’t done for a while because they hardly interacted. When Cat and Christian found Beef, who was really high, with Robert, Cat eleven year old friend, Cat climbed up to help Robert while Christian hid from view. After Cat saved Robert from Beef, Beef began shooting at them, but Christian put a stop to that. “Behind Beef, I saw Christian wrestling to get the gun. he was arguing with him, and his voice seemed to alternate from loud to not loud as it bounced off the rock.” Here, were are shown the protective and caring Christian who will save his sister and look out for her. Additionally, Cat realizes how much she missed Christian and she is thrilled to have him back as a loyal and close brother.

By looking at Cat’s behaviors both in the past and in the present, we can see that Cat wants things to be like how they were when she was a child. Cat wants her friends back, especially Patrick, and she wants her bond with her brother to be strong again. The feeling of missing someone or something is a very powerful feeling that takes over an individual. We can see this by the way Cat stays at Patricks while she should be at church. People today miss many others and it is difficult coping with the feeling. Cat doesn’t realize what she misses until it’s late, and we don’t realize what we miss until it’s too  late either.