Missing Leo

           Sometimes when someone that is significant in your life dies, you miss them more than ever. And when your doing something that the person would've been doing you those feelings usually come back and it just doesn't feel right. In the book Leo and the Lesser Lion, Mary misses her brother Leo and she loves when people mention him. The book says, "And Sister Louise was nice to me in class, but not too nice. Nobody even mentioned Leo, which was the only thing that felt wrong." This can be hard on a person and I can feel her pain.

Roadblocks

                During the book "Leo and the Lesser Lion" Bayliss (main character) has to deal with some very challenging roadblocks. One example of a roadblock she had to deal with is the death of her brother (Leo). Chapter 9 states, "Because I knew just saying his name would upset Daddy and bring back that look to my mother's eyes. I tried to find a word to describe the look-If Leo were here, I thought, he'd be able to tell me-but I couldn't come up with one on my own that came close." In addition the book also states, "This is the second thing I remember: feeling really scared. Really scared. And looking up at my mother and saying, "Leo." She was holding my hand, and I felt her jerk when she heard his name. That's when somebody started screaming. It was a raw, heartbreaking sound like nothing I'd ever heard before. Then Mother was bending over me, whispering, "Hush, now, hush, sugar," and I realized the screams were coming from me." In the chapters before this on Leo goes out for a swim and drowns. Bayliss tries to save him but falls short of her goal and fractures a bone in her spine. This is a huge roadblock because she could possibly end up paralyzed and then she lost her brother on top of that. This stops her normal station in life and now she has to find a way to put her life back on track.

Dreadful Experience

In the book The Life and The Death of Martin Luther King Jr., Martin has dreadful experiences in life partially because he was a black man that lived in the Jim Crow south most of his life and partially because he was the face of the Civil Rights Movement. In Martin's childhood he tried to commit suicide because he felt responsible for the death of his grandmother. The book states,"One time when their parents were out of the house A.D. slid down the stair banister and collided so sharply with the grandmother that he knocked her unconscious. Martin, blaming himself for not watching his younger more carefully, tried to kill himself by jumping out of an upstairs window." This can be a very harmful, and traumatizing situation in life. There are a lot of people that attempt suicide worldwide and are unsuccessful. But I personally believe that this shaped Martin Luther King Jr. for the better because after the unsuccessful suicide attempt he now respected life and found that everybody has a reason to live a life. If there was no Martin Luther King Jr. would there be a successful Civil Rights Movement?