As the birds were let go, another fish was caught and brought back to the boat. It’s nighttime on the night river, when all of the fish are clumped together in different spots of the river. ‘Magic and the Night River’ by Eve Bunting is a short tragic story that shows the values in life like family are most important.
Grandfather is an old man that loves to fish. Sometimes if he had to, he would go and fish by himself, but most likely he would be fishing with his two grandsons, Yoshi and Masa. The three of them go night fishing and try to catch all the fish they can. On the other hand, Kano the guy that lets them use his boat, wants half the fish they gather during the night. So that very night when all three of them where getting ready to go fishing, Kano said to Yoshi that Grandfather isn’t a very good fisher. Well Kano will regret saying that, because that night they caught a basket full of fish and it more than the normally get. As they realized though, the fish have a life too and they want to live just like us, so at the end of the night they realized that they should let the fish go.
That same night when they were doing really well, all of grandfathers birds where doing very fine. Then at one point in time another boat hit theirs, so that both boats were nudging each other and it took time from their grand fishing night. When they hit that very boat, they had no idea where their cormorants where at all. All of that panic when they hit that other boat made the birds struggle even more. One of the birds fell into the river, another got hung upside down with a cord twisted around its neck. So they let the birds go and Yoshi thought ‘Goodbye birds we will never need you again.’ On grandfather’s boat there was only calmness and nothing else. There was a lot of sadness.
In this short story, the best thing said that could have a lifelong lesson in it, would be the saying by grandfather: ‘Take what it offers us.’ That could mean take what life has to offer or don’t take stuff for granted, because there are people out in this world that aren’t as wealthy as we are or we aren’t as wealthy as others. So if something like having time with grandparents or great grandparents take the time with them and not waste it. When you have a chance to do something and you want to do it, but you decide not to, then some time in your life you may be disappointed in yourself. ‘Take what it offers us’, do stuff that you will enjoy or cherish for the rest of your life.
Next time you want to fish, or have a bird, let it go free back into the water or fly around and let it have a life. Nighttime isn’t always a good time to go fishing, because you can’t see everything that may happen or anything within a good distance of you. When in life and you need something think back to the time when you probably did have a chance to do it but refused to do it.
THE LIE
The lie is getting bigger as it they get closer and closer to the school. All Eli wants to do is slouch in his seat. The scene doesn’t look to pretty when his mother is questioning him about if he thinks he’s going to have fun at this school and saying that he is going to be the 31st guy in his family to go to this high school. The lie doesn’t want to be told to his parents, because all he can think about is how they are going to react when they realize he didn’t get accepted into the school. When Eli, the main character, first got his letter from Whitehill School, he saw that he didn’t get into the school. So he tore the letter up and threw it away, and never let his parents know that he didn’t get into the school. When they were on their way to the school, his mom and dad where wanting to see if he was going to have fun at the school and that he would be away from his parents for awhile and being back only on breaks to visit. The whole time, he was feeling guilty that he was keeping it a secret that he never even got in because he never passed the test he had to take took at the beginning of the year. When his mom wanted to figure out how many Remenzels went to Whitehill High School, his dad was saying that he could be the 31st Remenzel to go to this school.
When they first arrived at the school, they asked to check in and they said that Eli never made it into Whitehill High School. After that, Mr. and Mrs. Remenzels reactions both changed and got very fierce. When they went to check Eli in, Eli stayed in the car just so that he didn’t have to see their reactions when they found out that he never made it into the high school. So when everything got explained to his parents, they did find out that he got the letter and tore it up so that his parents didn’t have to see his grade and that he never made it in, so Eli kept it a secret. Even though Eli didn’t want to tell his parents that he never made it into the high school he should have just let the packet be so that he didn’t have to keep the lie from them and he wouldn’t feel as guilty as he did on the whole way to the school.
The author had this story this way, because when early teens like us, for example, read this, they will learn that it is not a good thing to lie to their parents. When it comes to schooling and education like this, lying isn’t the smartest and greatest thing to do, because that means that his parents have to find him a different school to go to and Eli ruined the pattern of his family going to this school. Another reason that this author put it this way is that it could have happened to him and he wanted other people to know what could happen or that worse could always occur to them. Keeping a big lie like that isn’t a good thing to do, especially in this case, because Eli’s family and himself had to take their time and drive him to the school. So when his parents found out that he didn’t get into the school, their reactions could have been much worse. We are lucky that we weren’t in that case, because not knowing what our parents would do, that wouldn’t a smart move. When the lie is getting bigger and bigger, the secret has turned into a lie, you don’t want your parents to find out that you didn’t get into a really good school. So the lie is getting bigger and bigger as the ride to the school gets longer and longer by keeping the lie and not telling your parents that you never passed the test. The lie gets broken when the school has to tell Eli’s parents that he never got into the school. The reactions he saw where a good punishment that he never told the truth.
