The Pain Of Jack In Sky By Langston Hughes

This fictional book has a plot of a young boy, ‘Jack’ who is learning poetry. At the beginning of the book, he is unconfident- the author links this to his learning of poetry. Jack begins to reads famous poems and then comments on them in the chapters of this book. Jack begins to copy some of the techniques used in famous poems, and he leaves entries of his work in the book. As we read these entries we learn that Jack has suffered mourning. And towards the end of the book, Jack is no longer grieving and is no longer self-conscious of himself writing poetry. This book has an unusual style compared to most of this genre. This book reflects the subject with its poetry layout- helping to make the ideas in that entry short and to the point.

Towards the beginning, we acknowledge the narrator's pain for the loss of his dog. We know that the narrator's dog was killed in a car crash and that is explained in a style of poetry. As readers recognise the narrator's pain and how he gradually becomes able to celebrate his dog ‘Sky’ as he was! The author allows us to appreciate the pain of Jack by writing in a diary style. This supports the reader in the feeling for ‘Sky’ because Jack refers to the reader as if we were his English teacher. This allows us to be very sympathetic towards the narrator and the dog – making the book easy to

We know from what Jack says, that he is guided through poetry, by his English teacher, who is the main influence on Jack. As Jack takes an interest in poetry we are led to believe that Jack writes to Mr Walter Dean Myer’s. This famous poet visits Jacks school leaving a lasting impression on Jack and his poetry. Jack begins to write poems that are inspired by Mr Walton Dean Myer’s about the loss of his Dog. In one particular entry, we recognise how important to Jack Mr WDM is, ‘I don’t want to do anything to upset him.’ This quote is from when Jack is still unconfident about his poetry writing! Jack’s confidence blossoms towards the end of the book when he realises just how therapeutic poem writing can be! Jack uses more devices in his poem entries and copies styles used in famous poems, for example ‘THE RED WHEELBARROW’. This structure of his poems Is copied from famous poets as well because in his poem entries he writes in a certain structure which emphasises certain words. In the entries he writes all in poems they become interesting because of the