Ernie Breaks Essay

329 Words2 Pages
Ernie Breaks is a short story written by Genevieve Scott. It’s about responsibility and expectations, meaning living up to the challenges you are facing, and to accomplish something that you can be considered responsible for. In case you’re not able to measure up to the expectations people expect from you – or just can’t take the responsibility you were supposed to, there is the solution to make others believe that you don’t dash their expectations. Sometimes your efforts and intentions are just not enough, to satisfy the responsibility because it may be too big. This story reflects a typical problem concerning the lack of responsibility and too high expectations for young people. It’s told through the eyes of Cara, the narrator. Cara is a young and insecure girl, who feels a heavy pressure in school and at home. She lives with her mother, and her big brother called Jed. Cara tells us about the passing present of her and Jed. They desperately wanted a dog, but it required too much time – not to talk about responsibilities and chores, their mother said. Therefore, she bought them a turtle called Ernie. They real quickly discovered the joy of their new pet, despite it wasn’t a dog. Ernie had to stay at Jed’s room, but Cara could of course stop by whenever she wanted to cuddle with Ernie. And so she did, unfortunately she discovered a cruel Jed torturing Ernie, by playing around with him and not taking care of Ernie’s futility. Cara got mad, and went straight to Jed’s room, when he left the house. She picked up Ernie to check up on him, but Ernie was at that point so scared and threatening, that it snapped Cara out of sheer self-defense. Cara dropped him on the floor, and accidently he died of the fall. Subsequently, Cara lied about the incident to her mother and Jed, as it was easier than telling the truth about her failing responsibility for
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