Everyone has been discouraged, and gone through hard times. Even when people try to act happy. Your parents could be divorced, or someone close to you could be very sick, or maybe someone close to you has died. Everyone has been through these things. Maybe they were smaller problems, but Katie still knows how you feel. In the story, “Birthday Box” By: Jane Yolen, the protagonist Katie goes through many hardships as a child. She loses hope, and all is lost. Until she understands her mama’s last words, “It’s you.” That’s why the theme of the story is that life is tough.
In the beginning of the story, the first example of the theme life is tough is displayed when the author gives us some background knowledge. Katie’s mom had been in the hospital for a very long time, sick with cancer. She was very fragile and could die at any
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Her parents were separated at the time, so she was stressed out about that, while her mom was sick with cancer. She explains that that she felt empty and angry, and she was terribly mean to her stepbrothers, stepmother, and father. Although this type of action is very understandable, it doesn’t make it right for her to act horribly towards her father’s family. This evidence illustrates the theme life is tough, because right after her mother died, she had to go move in with her father, which probably reminded her of her parents divorce.
In conclusion, the story, “Birthday Box” By: Jane Yolen is a story about hardships, and revolves around the theme that life is tough. Katie did through many hard times, but finally in the end she understood the deeper meaning of her mama’s words. She now knew that her mother was telling her that she was the box. Beautiful and sturdy on the outside, and she needed to fill herself-the box- up with memories on the inside. That’s when Katie began to write and read once