"My Name Is Finn" by Julieanne Swiatczak
- Scott
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"My Name Is Finn" by Julieanne Swiatczak
What do you think of this story? What do you like most about it?
I really love the placement of this story. The ending of the story itself acts as a cool ending to the whole book.
The most poignant scene for me is not the ending, however. It is when the bullied, battered, emotional boy is finding peace making out with his girlfriend and then—BAM!--his awful parents are right there ruining everything in unimaginable ways. I would have loved to learn more about the parents and why they were so nasty. For instance, one possible cool backstory might be that the grandfather (husband to the overly wise grandmother) was himself abusive and that anger and vengefulness over that is what drove the previously-abused parent to also become a monster. Seeing this pattern happen would explain both the grandmother's wisdom and one of Finn's parent's abusiveness. On the other hand, maybe the author meant to leave things like that out (or even meant to leave those easy-to-get-to-explanations open) because the main key of her story is of a boy who blames himself.
What do you think?
"Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco." Virgil, The Aeneid
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A couple of questions occurred to me while I read the book. Is there a real Finn? When I think about his character, he's very real and he's a survivor which made his suicide all the more tragic.
Why didn't Maggie call the cops or someone to help him? We don't know why she stopped pounding on the door. It was almost like she'd resigned herself to the fact that her brother was going to kill himself and gave up.
This story could have been a lot longer but I understand the word limit.
It was quite good and I was taken in at the very beginning. There were a few errors in it with the editing but it didn't take away from the reading experience.
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
~~
"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost
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This story was sad yet meaningful, and I loved the way it incorporated that stuff about the hot coal. The only thing I didn't like about it was that the dad wasn't charged with reckless vehicular homicide or DUI, or whatever. I often wonder if one reason we have a justice system is so that people won't have as strong a need to desire or seek out revenge in the first place...?
Gee, I'd probably want to off myself too if I were Finn.
I agree with Scott that this was the perfect story to end the set. It tied all the themes in together.
The part about Finn feeling like everything was his fault was very relatable. Not just his GF's death, but his parents being alcoholics, etc. I could grasp his self-hatred.
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