Sara Erdman King of Shadows Dr. Sherry February 7, 2012 Reader-Response to King of Shadows by Susan Cooper King of Shadows primarily focuses around a young man named Nat Field. Nat Field is a young actor in the Company for Boys that travels to England to perform William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Nat will play the role of Puck. In the beginning of the story the author drops hints that Nat is trying to deal with or face something from his past that troubles him a great deal. Later in the story, after Nat travels back in time four hundred years we discover that Nat has had two tragedies in his life. He had lost his mother when he was very young to cancer and he himself found his own father when his father had committed suicide. Those two events in a young person’s life, like Nat, have a deep impact on them and change them forever. The situation with Nat losing his father and also seeing his father in a state that no child should ever see their parent is something that I can relate to very well. When I was sixteen I had found my own mother in her bed incoherent after having a brain aneurism and a massive heart attack. My mother passed away exactly a week later. When Nat says that the image of his father will never leave his mind, I understand that feeling. After my mother passed away I could not sleep for several weeks without seeing or dreaming about what had happened. Another instance where I can relate to Nat is when someone asks him about his parents and he just wants to avoid the topic altogether. Even now, five years after my mom passed away there are some days that I either do not want to talk about her or just thinking about her makes me cry. Losing a parent or anyone close to you is never easy. Trying to go on with your own life without that person there is probably the hardest thing to do. All you want to do is curl up in your safe warm bed. You hope and pray that it is just a bad dream and everything will go back to normal tomorrow, but it never does. Nat found his comfort in acting and reading works written by Shakespeare. Me? I found comfort in reading fantasy books, like Eragon, Harry Potter series, and stories that took me to worlds that I knew could never be real but they were my escape. Another escape I had was working with my dad and my volleyball coach to better myself as a setter for my high school volleyball team. My dad was there for me as my “cheerleader” and “motivator” while my coach was there yelling at me while I was either running stairs, sprints, or just setting for my teammates. When you lose someone who was close to you escapes are great to help you work through the loss when it is fresh. At some point everyone has to come to the terms that their loved one is truly physically gone. That person will forever be with us or we will always have little pieces of them that might just make us smile when we look at the item. For Nat he had his father’s poems and his memories. I have memories with my mom and other little trinkets that remind me of her every day. Reading King of Shadows and experiencing Nat’s struggle of dealing with the loss of his father reminded me of how far I have come since I lost my mom. Overall King of Shadows can be very relatable to someone who has lost someone close to them or to anyone who is going through a rough patch in their lives. I feel it gives the reader hope that even though things can seem bad and like you have lost everything it will all work out in the end.
King of Shadows
Dr. Sherry
February 7, 2012
Reader-Response to King of Shadows by Susan Cooper
King of Shadows primarily focuses around a young man named Nat Field. Nat Field is a young actor in the Company for Boys that travels to England to perform William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Nat will play the role of Puck. In the beginning of the story the author drops hints that Nat is trying to deal with or face something from his past that troubles him a great deal. Later in the story, after Nat travels back in time four hundred years we discover that Nat has had two tragedies in his life. He had lost his mother when he was very young to cancer and he himself found his own father when his father had committed suicide. Those two events in a young person’s life, like Nat, have a deep impact on them and change them forever.
The situation with Nat losing his father and also seeing his father in a state that no child should ever see their parent is something that I can relate to very well. When I was sixteen I had found my own mother in her bed incoherent after having a brain aneurism and a massive heart attack. My mother passed away exactly a week later. When Nat says that the image of his father will never leave his mind, I understand that feeling. After my mother passed away I could not sleep for several weeks without seeing or dreaming about what had happened. Another instance where I can relate to Nat is when someone asks him about his parents and he just wants to avoid the topic altogether. Even now, five years after my mom passed away there are some days that I either do not want to talk about her or just thinking about her makes me cry.
Losing a parent or anyone close to you is never easy. Trying to go on with your own life without that person there is probably the hardest thing to do. All you want to do is curl up in your safe warm bed. You hope and pray that it is just a bad dream and everything will go back to normal tomorrow, but it never does. Nat found his comfort in acting and reading works written by Shakespeare. Me? I found comfort in reading fantasy books, like Eragon, Harry Potter series, and stories that took me to worlds that I knew could never be real but they were my escape. Another escape I had was working with my dad and my volleyball coach to better myself as a setter for my high school volleyball team. My dad was there for me as my “cheerleader” and “motivator” while my coach was there yelling at me while I was either running stairs, sprints, or just setting for my teammates.
When you lose someone who was close to you escapes are great to help you work through the loss when it is fresh. At some point everyone has to come to the terms that their loved one is truly physically gone. That person will forever be with us or we will always have little pieces of them that might just make us smile when we look at the item. For Nat he had his father’s poems and his memories. I have memories with my mom and other little trinkets that remind me of her every day. Reading King of Shadows and experiencing Nat’s struggle of dealing with the loss of his father reminded me of how far I have come since I lost my mom. Overall King of Shadows can be very relatable to someone who has lost someone close to them or to anyone who is going through a rough patch in their lives. I feel it gives the reader hope that even though things can seem bad and like you have lost everything it will all work out in the end.