The Midwife’s Apprentice, by Karen Cushman, was a book we read in English Language Arts. The novel follows the journey of a 12-year-old girl named Alyce who has no hopes, dreams, or even a place in the world. She soon settles into a village where she becomes the apprentice of Jane Sharp the midwife. Throughout the story, we witness Alyce’s growth and transformation into a confident, skillful, and compassionate young woman whose passion is in midwifery.
Firstly Alyce develops a great deal of confidence throughout the book. One of the areas of growth Alyce had was confidence. In the beginning, she was often bullied by other children, but one day she had enough when they were tampering with her companion, Purr the cat. She threw some nuts at
…show more content…
At the beginning of the book, she is mainly focused on her survival and doesn’t care much about the people around her. As she started to build meaningful relationships she got people and a cat to care for. Purr the cat was her first companion, she would bring him cheese and talk to him every single day, she even saved him from drowning. This clearly shows her compassion for Purr as she would constantly look after him. Another example where Alyce showed compassion was when she and Will were helping Tanzy the cow give birth. She learned to make soothing sounds and that was the first time she sang. She also petted the cow which reflected how she would treat the mother as she would be much nicer to the mother than Jane which portrays her expanding compassion and care for others. Lastly, at the end of the story, she takes care of Edward who reminds Alyce of her previous self. She made sure he had a place to stay and water and food to drink and eat. Near the end of the story, she also went back to the manor to check up on him. This shows how much her compassion increased for others as she didn’t have to, but she cared for him so much that she went to check on him. To sum up these actions indicate her flourishing compassion and care for