Cipher in the Snow” is a short story in which Jean Mizer, the author, displays a heartbreaking story about the death of a lonely withdrawn teenager. Cliff Evans, Jean Mizer’s main character experiences being ridiculed by classmates, invisible to teachers, and mistreated at home. Then, on the way to school Cliff asks to get off the bus and collapses in the snow and dies. The Principal asks to the school’s math teacher to tell his parents and write the obituary, but he doesn’t even remember him even though he was listed as Cliff’s favorite teacher. Which makes the math teacher wonder if he didn’t die from a broken heart and that everyone was responsible in some way. In Mizer’s film Cliff Evans represents children who come from broken homes and become literally lost without positive guidance and a feeling of being loved. Cliff Evans, who following his parent’s divorce becomes withdrawn. Cliff was doing well in school until the time his parents divorced. Cliff went from being intellectual to being described as slow and not able to communicate well verbally. Teachers starting labeling him as “dumb” and a “slow learner” and he carried this with him affecting his already fragile state. In the story Cliff did not have a feeling of being worthy therefore, he was unable to see …show more content…
Adler and Russel F. Proctor, in their book “Looking Out Looking In,” states that “Social scientists use the metaphor of a mirror to identify the process of reflected appraisal: the fact the each of us develops a self-concept that reflects the way we believe others see us. In other words, we are likely to feel less valuable, lovable, and capable to the degree that others have communicated ego-busting signals: and we will probably feel good about ourselves to the degree that others affirm our value” (41). No one Cliff had contact with treated him like he was important or loved, because of the way he was treated by those around him he felt less valued and unworthy and basically