I. INTRODUCTION
A Summer to Die is the first book of Lois Lowry. It is all about Meg and her sister Molly Chalmers. Mr. Chalmers, their Dad, is an English professor and currently making his book due in a year. Lydia Chalmers, their Mom, is a housewife loves to make quilt. Their parents have decided to move to a quiet place where his father can finish his book. In there, Meg and Molly have to share room. Jealousness and bitterness are normal between sisters especially Meg because her sister is more beautiful than her having a blonde, curl hair and long eyelashes.
Lois Lowry was born March 20, 1937, in Honolulu, Hawaii to parents Robert and Katherine (Landis) Hammersberg. Initially, Lois' parents named her "Sena" for her Norwegian grandmother but upon hearing this, her grandmother telegraphed and instructed Lois' parents that the child should have an American name. Her parents chose the names Lois and Ann, which were the names of her father's sisters.
Lois Lowry was born March 20, 1937, in Honolulu, Hawaii to parents Robert and Katherine (Landis) Hammersberg. Initially, Lois' parents named her "Sena" for her Norwegian grandmother but upon hearing this, her grandmother telegraphed and instructed Lois' parents that the child should have an American name. Her parents chose the names Lois and Ann, which were the names of her father's sisters.
Lowry was born the middle of three children. She had an older sister, Helen, and a younger brother Jon. Helen, three years older than Lois, died in 1962 at the age of 28. This experience informed Lowry's first book A Summer to Die which is about a young girl who tragically loses her older sister.
II. SUMMARY OF THE CONTENT
It begins between the struggles of two sisters. As it progresses, we begin to see that Molly, the older sister, has some type of illness. At first, she is suffering from nosebleeds that seemingly have developed from a cold. In time, these regress and she seems to be improving. However, as the story persists, she continues to have different ailments. Her health becomes fragile and she is eventually sent away, basically to die in a hospital. The book does not focus only on Molly and Meg’s relationship. There are other important characters, such as Meg’s newly made friends, Will, Maria, and Ben and the main theme does involve a complete circling of life. Near the end of the story, Meg witnesses the miracle of childbirth when Ben and Maria have a baby. The part of the story pertaining to Meg and Molly was the part that I identified with mainly.
Thirteen-year-old Meg tells the story of the summer of her fifteen-year-old sister’s death. One night Molly awakens covered with blood, Meg calls their parents, and Molly goes to the hospital where she remains for weeks, undergoing tests. It takes Meg a long time to let herself realize how bad it is, even after the magnitude of the illness is visible on Molly’s ravaged body.
Much of the medical detail in the hospital scenes makes clear how advanced the disease is, but Meg masks her growing fear with disgust, projecting her fear onto doctors she decides must be using Molly for experiments and exaggerating the seriousness of her condition. Unable to open herself to an empathy that would require both an unusual act of imagination and courage to face grief, Meg focuses on the bizarre visible effects of Molly’s illness and on her own altered daily life. Her oddly "selfish" perspective, understood as a self-protective strategy, makes complete sense.
In the midst of the slow progress of Molly’s leukemia, Meg develops friendships with an old man and a young couple expecting a baby. Both contacts help normalize her world, provide her with "reality checks" and give her a quality of attention her parents can’t manage at the time. After the baby is born, Meg gains a new perspective on the precarious miracle of life and finds the courage to go to the hospital to see Molly, now in the final stages of the disease. Meg and her parents are emotionally reunited in their loss, and in the final chapter Meg reflects on the paradox of healing that doesn’t cover over loss, but allows life to be good again in different terms.
II. SUMMARY OF THE CONTENT
It begins between the struggles of two sisters. As it progresses, we begin to see that Molly, the older sister, has some type of illness. At first, she is suffering from nosebleeds that seemingly have developed from a cold. In time, these regress and she seems to be improving. However, as the story persists, she continues to have different ailments. Her health becomes fragile and she is eventually sent away, basically to die in a hospital. The book does not focus only on Molly and Meg’s relationship. There are other important characters, such as Meg’s newly made friends, Will, Maria, and Ben and the main theme does involve a complete circling of life. Near the end of the story, Meg witnesses the miracle of childbirth when Ben and Maria have a baby. The part of the story pertaining to Meg and Molly was the part that I identified with mainly.
Thirteen-year-old Meg tells the story of the summer of her fifteen-year-old sister’s death. One night Molly awakens covered with blood, Meg calls their parents, and Molly goes to the hospital where she remains for weeks, undergoing tests. It takes Meg a long time to let herself realize how bad it is, even after the magnitude of the illness is visible on Molly’s ravaged body.
Much of the medical detail in the hospital scenes makes clear how advanced the disease is, but Meg masks her growing fear with disgust, projecting her fear onto doctors she decides must be using Molly for experiments and exaggerating the seriousness of her condition. Unable to open herself to an empathy that would require both an unusual act of imagination and courage to face grief, Meg focuses on the bizarre visible effects of Molly’s illness and on her own altered daily life. Her oddly "selfish" perspective, understood as a self-protective strategy, makes complete sense.
In the midst of the slow progress of Molly’s leukemia, Meg develops friendships with an old man and a young couple expecting a baby. Both contacts help normalize her world, provide her with "reality checks" and give her a quality of attention her parents can’t manage at the time. After the baby is born, Meg gains a new perspective on the precarious miracle of life and finds the courage to go to the hospital to see Molly, now in the final stages of the disease. Meg and her parents are emotionally reunited in their loss, and in the final chapter Meg reflects on the paradox of healing that doesn’t cover over loss, but allows life to be good again in different terms.
III. ANALYSIS OF TEXT
Lois Lowry has a simple but full of sense novel. Base on my research, it is a true-to-life story though she makes it fiction. Indeed her sister also died from a disease but not the one written on the book.
The sisters were sharing room but instead of being close to each other, the chalk Molly had drawn is a boundary between them.
Meg was very jealous of Molly. But when Molly spent a long time in the hospital, the jealousy turns to love. Meg was missing Molly. She missed every time they fight.
Molly likes to draw brides, flowers, and babies. She wanted to have at least six babies when she has her own family. But it’ll never come. Her desire of having a baby was obvious when she was very excited to see the baby of Ben and Maria maybe because she know that her dream will not come true and it will never because of her disease.
IV. EVALUATION OF THE TEXT
Lois Lowry has a simple but full of sense novel. Base on my research, it is a true-to-life story though she makes it fiction. Indeed her sister also died from a disease but not the one written on the book.
The sisters were sharing room but instead of being close to each other, the chalk Molly had drawn is a boundary between them.
Meg was very jealous of Molly. But when Molly spent a long time in the hospital, the jealousy turns to love. Meg was missing Molly. She missed every time they fight.
Molly likes to draw brides, flowers, and babies. She wanted to have at least six babies when she has her own family. But it’ll never come. Her desire of having a baby was obvious when she was very excited to see the baby of Ben and Maria maybe because she know that her dream will not come true and it will never because of her disease.
IV. EVALUATION OF THE TEXT
“How can you learn if you don’t take risks?”
This was a line given by Will. It is another saying of ‘learning by experience’. Taking risks is a game that you are not sure if you’ll win or not. But if you lose the game, you’ll have the idea not to do the way yo did on last and you’ll be better.
“Better to know what your enemy is before you confront it.”
A line from Ben Brady. He was talking about the disease Molly got. It was Molly’s mortal enemy that ended her life.
For me, it is still possible if Molly had only known her disease earlier. They can still have time to prevent the virus from spreading throughout her body.
Diomdelia B. Vergara
IV – Sir Isaac Newton
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