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Shell By Cynthia Rylant

574 Words3 Pages

“Shells” by Cynthia Rylant is a realistic fiction short story about a boy named Michael who has to live with his Aunt Esther after his parents die. In the beginning, Michael is sad and grieves his parents. He has to live with his Aunt Esther because she was the only one who would take him. Soon, Michael buys a pet hermit crab to keep him company. His aunt tries to get closer to Michael by trying to have something in common with him. In the end, Michael stops hating his Aunt Esther and finds some things about her that remind him of his mom. This story shows that Michael was going through grief and has changed a lot. In the beginning, Michael felt lonely and hates his Aunt. Michael and his Aunt Esther don’t get along and don’t have a lot of things in common. Michael misses his parents and even though he tries to deny it, he hates his Aunt Esther. His Aunt Esther tries to make him happy, but claims he punishes her. Michael and Esther had an argument and Esther claimed that Michael hated her so Michael got mad and ran outside. In paragraph 20, he admits to himself that he does hate Esther. “ He didn’t want to, but he hated her. And he didn’t know what to do except lie about it.” This proves that Michael doesn’t just randomly hate his Aunt Esther but is probably going …show more content…

His Aunt Esther tries to get close to Michael through something he likes. She uses his hermit crab Sluggo. Michael begins to like his Aunt after this. For example, in paragraph 49, Michael and his Aunt Esther go to the pet store to get a friend for Sluggo. At the pet store Michael makes a small connection with his Aunt. He began seeing her freaking out over the hermit crabs and noticed that they had something in common. He couldn’t even believe what he was seeing. The author says “Michael pretended not to know her well.” This, combined with the other evidence show that Michael begins to like his Aunt a little bit, but doesn’t want people to

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