I'M Not Scared

633 Words3 Pages
The protagonist Michele changes throughout chapter 1 and 2. Explain. Niccola Ammaniti’s I’m not scared, narrated by nine year old Michele Amitrano is a coming of age story. Throughout chapters one and two, Michele develops into a more mature person due to his loss of innocence, his fears are altered and family loyalty is challenged. For the duration of chapter one and two, Michele experiences loss of innocence. The text begins off with Michele and his friends roaming Acqua Traverse. They are depicted as being completely carefree and living the simple life as this illustrates the obvious emphasis of their innocence. Michele’s curiosity leads him to discover a boy in a hole. Michele’s initial thought, was that the boy was being kept a prisoner by the monsters in the stories he read, stating: ‘What if I arrived and found witches or an ogre there?’p64. His vivid imagination illustrates his innocence and interpretation of the real world. This depicts how scared Michele is of the “witches”, “ogres” and “monsters”. He eventually learns that these do not exist due to what his father said: “its men [he] should be afraid of, not monsters” p49. This statement about monsters and men made by Michele’s father is very ironic as his father is the “monster” who kidnaps Fillipo and hides him into a hole, not the “monsters” in his make-believe stories. As the two chapters progress, Michele experiences a change in his innocence. Michele alters his fears throughout chapter one and two. At first, Michele is frightened when he sees Fillipo’s leg and due to this instinct, he runs away: “I felt my ears boil, my head and arms hang heavy. I was going to pass out”p28. Michele is so frightened of the boy; it leads the reader into thinking he would never dare go there again, though as the text progresses into chapter two, he decides to go to see the “dead” body again. Michele says: “I’m not
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