Quarter 4: Outside Reading #2

“I’d rather die, she felt like shouting at him. But she didn’t. She said nothing. What could she say? What would matter to him? Certainly not her feelings… He wouldn’t hear her words. She doubted he’d hear her silence, either”(Brashares 113). The first time Lena’s dad walked into the art class she was taking, he freaked out because of the nude model. He forbid her to go back to the class, but Lena’s love for this class and the art took over her and made a deal with the teacher of the class and as long as Lena stayed after and cleaned up, she wouldn’t have to pay for the class. Since Lena’s dad told her that she could no longer go to this class, she had to lie to her family and say that she had the dinner shift at the restaurant where she works so then she could go to the class. One day when Lena came home, her dad started yelling again. It turns out that he went to the restaurant to go and see her, and since she was at the class, he did not see her at the restaurant. After a silent dinner, Lena and her dad started talking, and he declared that he will not pay for her to go to the Rhone Island School of Art anymore because he does not agree with what he thinks art is doing with her mind and he also thinks that art is not a good future. He would rather have her go to a regular university. That college was all she was looking forward too, and she absolutely does not want to go to a normal university, she wants to draw. She is so angry by what her father says, but being the shy and reserved and well respecting Lena, she doesn’t say anything. That is the situation in which my quote comes from. I can really relate to this situation, even though the arguments with my parents are not as important as which college to go to. There has been many instances in my life when I feel like I can express myself to my parents when they are punishing me.