Response to Robert

            The story was about an old man named Dean who is writing an account of his memories to help him remember things because he is losing them in his old age. He tells a story about the Manor he worked on and the little boy who lived there. The boy, Adrian, had a really bad relationship with his father. His mother was also dying and Dean thought that maybe the father was being so hard on Adrian because he was angry that his wife was dying. One day Adrian confronted Dean and told him everything that his father had said earlier. Adrian went on to tell Dean that he was just going to kill himself and instead of talking him out of it, Dean told him to do it, which seemed to bring Adrian back to his senses a little. Adrian goes on to tell Dean a story about him and his mother. In the end, the mother dies and the story kind of ends with Adrian crying.

            Even though the narrator of the story was Dean, it still felt like the main character was Adrian because he is the one who seems to change. I take it from the last few words of the story that Adrian’s change is growing from a boy to a man.

            I thought the way the story was told was really interesting. We are hearing from someone who was there when the change happened, but he is an outsider watching it happen.

            The main thing in the story is that I wanted more. I wanted to see interaction between Adrian and his father the most because that seemed to be the relationship that was pushing him to grow up. I also wanted to know more about Adrian’s relationship with his mother because in the end we see he is heavily impacted by her death, but we really don’t see them interact, therefore it doesn’t affect us as much as it could if we’d seen the two interact. I also wanted to see more of Adrian talking to Dean because they seem to be friends, kind of. At least I assumed so because otherwise why would Adrian tell Dean he was going to kill himself. So, I kind of wanted to see how that friendship stared.