Revised Reading Response

(Revised) Reading Response: 

The Kid by Sapphire

By Taitu Fedenko 812

      Have you ever wanted to hold onto something? Something that you couldn’t hold onto anymore? In the book The Kid by Sapphire the main character, Abdul, doesn't want to let go his mother, Precious, after her death. Based off of the evidence so far I can clearly see that Abdul isn't ready to say goodbye to his mother and I can, for obvious reasons, understand why. Overall, I think that Abdul holds on to his mother as a way to grieve because he isn’t ready to let her go.     

One way that I have seen Abdul not accepting his mother's death is that he is constantly thinking about the moments he once shared with her. Throughout the book so far there are moments where the author cuts to a flashback of when Precious was still alive. These moments represent thoughts and memories of Abdul's that link back to his mom. For example, on page seven there is a quote that says "You ever gonna leave me, mommy? Well, I can't really say, baby. What I can say is, I never wanna leave you." This is one example of a moment where Abdul randomly reminds himself of a memory shared with his mother and begins to dwell on the death of his Precious. This shows me that Abdul is dwelling on Precious's death because he knows how much his mother loved him. These memories remind Abdul of how his mom was fighting death itself to be with him. I think that makes it much harder for him to move on; knowing that she wanted to to be there to love him.

    

Another example that shows how Abdul isn't letting go of his mom is on page 17. Here, it says "She could just jump up laughing and climb out of the casket hollering, Psyched you out! Pysched you out! Then grab my hand and say,The fun is over. I don't have time for all this foolishness!" Here, Abdul is even missing the serious side of his mom. I think that this shows me how he doesn't want to let  go of the fun times, but also the more serious times with his mom. Abdul isn’t trying to accept that his mom is gone. For instance, he tries to convince himself that his mom is just going to wake up and everything will be back to normal. I think that Abdul would be happy just to hug his om one more time no matter how strict she was with him, he doesn’t want to let go of any part of her. He just wants his mom back. This quote also shows me he wants to live in an alternate reality instead of realizing his mother isn't coming back and that it's not a prank. He doesn't seem to see that life goes on even though it will never be the same as it once was. What Abdul really needs is to open his eyes and face the facts no matter how painful they may be.

Overall, while reading the book The Kid by Sapphire Abdul doesn't want to accept reality and face the facts: his mother, Precious, isn't coming back. He has shown me this through his denial and through his overall outlook on the death of his mom. This story so far has made me think about how I might react in a situation like Abdul's. Would I accept the reality? Would I, too, be in denial? We all want to hold onto something. Reading the book The Kid by Sapphire has made me wonder “what do I hold onto?” and “what can I let go of?”