Discussion Of The Main Themes In The Short Story Ernie Breaks
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One of the main themes in the short story Ernie breaks is growing up. Cara does not want to be perceived as a child, but she is not like an adult. Cara follows Jed, her brother. She tries to be cool like Jed is. She is still a child and therefore she needs someone to look up to.
Therefore, the theme also is role model. Cara looks up to her mother. Her mother buys cigarettes without being seen by one from the quit4life group. She smokes when no one sees her. Cara writes an apology letter to Valerie, and she writes it just for her selves. Therefore, her teacher would like it, and not because Cara wants to be friends with Valerie.
Cara is the first person narrator in the short story. It is Cara´s point of view and therefore the reader only gets to know about Cara´s understanding and views. Cara is a 10-year-old girl and has just finished 4th grade. She cares about others opinion on her. For example when her brother talks about students that have special needs. “Jed calls it the retard room” and therefore, Cara does not want to be moved into the retard room: “I am terrified that I´ll fail or get moved into the retard room”. Cara is also aware of her mother´s mood when they are in the fish place: “a deal always makes Mom in a better mood”. Cara cares about her mom’s mood even…show more content… They often play which each other. Since they got a turtle, Ernie, they spend a lot of time together with Ernie. However, their relationship changes very much when they get back to school again. Jed starts spending more time with his friends than Cara. Therefore, their relationship changes and there becomes a distance between Cara and Jed. Jed does not want Cara to inter his room anymore. After Ernie is dead, Cara lets Jed believe that he killed Ernie, even though Cara killed the turtle. Cara´s behavior indicates the distance between her brother and her. Cara does not think that Jed is cool anyway and he was mean with his treatment of