Being, or at least, FEELING trapped can feel strange and lonely, and in Michael Northrop’s book, “Trapped,” that feeling is exactly what is portrayed, and while the setting of the novel takes place in a school, perhaps the feeling the book expresses is an analogy for the schooling system itself. My first example of this is when the school begins to collapse, and the kids freak out, similarly to the real world where, where kids get buried with work (snow) and begin to collapse, (y’know, just like how stress builds up and eventually makes kids collapse). This is further supported by dialogue, as on page 166, it states, “...I knew I wasn’t dreaming or imagining it, because we all heard it.” Perhaps referring to how every kid is trapped in the system of school? Stretching it, I know, but it’s something to think about nevertheless. It’s up to anyone to interpret a deeper meaning within the book. And the snow piling up, literally making the school about to cave in is a great example of a metaphor for actual school. …show more content…
It’s not that crazy to assume the snow is a metaphor for something like work, trapping us, preventing us from escaping, or perhaps even SOMEONE higher on the hierarchy of the schooling system, barricading students, leaving them hopeless, wondering when it will just end. This is further described in the text when on page 73, it states, “People were walking up to the glass and standing next to it. They were trying to measure its height based on their own.” Throughout the book, the kids keep tryin and wondering when the snow will stop staring out the window, hoping for a miracle, just like how students in the real world try to count away the hours, days, years, until school finally ends, having their mind block out times when it keeps dragging