Your journey with My Friend the Enemy has come to an end, I hope you enjoyed it. I want you to spend some time reflecting on the book. Think about the characters, the time period, the main events in the story, what did you enjoy most about the book? Was there anything you didn't like about the book? What did you think about the way the story ended? Was there anything you wish would have happened that didn't?
Please use specific details from the story to support your thinking. Be honest about your feelings and thinking, this is your time to reflect on your book.
One thing I enjoyed most about this book was the friendship that developed between Hazel and Sogoji. Hazel started out as a girl who pretended to kill Japanese while playing war. Now Hazel misses a friend that left and the friend was a Japanese boy. I also enjoyed the variety of personalities the characters possessed. For example, Estelle started out as a sweet little girl all bouncy and thought she would stand by her man (JED). I think this because she went to the picnic with Jed, came back from the picnic with Jed, and said goodbye to Jed. But, she ended up looking back at herself saying, “I cheated on my boyfriend and cheated on him for a fake.” I didn’t like the way the story ended because I am so used to tie up endings that don’t keep you hanging. This story (like the hunger games) is a story that ends unhappily. A story like this leaves you saying “THAT CAN’T BE THE END!!!” One thing I know for sure that I wish would have happened is that I wish that JED CAME BACK!!!!!!!! I also would have appreciated if Mrs. Lanski didn’t tell off Sogoji and Sogoji could have lived after war, gone to school, and kept a good friendship with Hazel. I am not saying that Sogoji and Hazel won’t be still friends now I am saying that they now have to have a “long distance friendship.” I hope that a second book comes out! :D
ReplyDeleteBook Citing: My Friend the Enemy By J.B. Cheaney
@ Qutincy - I agree with all that you stated. I too wish that the book had ended in a slightly different manner including all the items you stated above. Good thinking.
DeleteI wish that we could write the ending!
I think that My Friend the Enemy was a GREAT book! It had a lot of dilemmas, that made you think. It had a lot of suspense and happiness, that made you want to read more! Even though this was a wonderful book, I wish that the story would not have ended like it did. It would have been better if we had gotten some other notation of Jed ( alive or....... well,... dead), also, it would have been better if Hazel had stood up for Sogoji (even more than she did) by telling the people in the train station how good,loving, and gentle Sogoji was. Whether they let him stay, or not.The characters in My Friend the Enemy were well thought out. Each character had their own part in the story, and everything fit together well. I liked how J.B. Cheaney made us think ‘Mr. Mayhew’ was one of the most loyal characters in the book at that time when we thought he was good... she really fooled me, just like everyone else in the story! I will have to see if J.B. Cheaney has any more books I can read!
ReplyDeleteAnna - Some wonderful thinking and yes, agreed that we should re-write the ending. However, I think that J.B. Cheaney was being true to this time in our history. WWII was a great strain on many in this world some more than others of course, but it tested our core of what was right and wrong here in the USA. Your grandma and grandpa lived through this history and while it was a time of great patriotism it was a time of burden and fear. My uncle John was a survivor of Pearl Harbor and even that event had our family looking at both sides.
DeleteI think that the true hero in this story was Hazel. She put herself at risk multiple times to help a friend and it was a struggle for her but in the end she had to do what was right in her mind.
The characters,wow I do not like Hazel she is a betrayer a bad friend and she is bossy. I just have to start with her she doesn't really even care about Sogoji she doesn't really have a friendship with him if he did she would be fighting for her friend in the end she would be punching and kicking the guard but she did not so in my opinion/fact she is a total traitor rat!!! For Jed he is just a poor guy with his girlfriend cheating on him and he is probably dead or in a cage but he is just a poor guy just a poor guy plainly he is just a poor guy. Sogoji will be my last person, he is just a poor kid like Jed but he has a poor life his friend (Hazel) is a bad influence and mean ,he is taken away from his family, and he is being discriminated for his race. So he is just a poor old guy. The time period was obviously in WW11(World War 2). The main events in the story were friendship, war,and races. Friendship obviously, war obviously, but races not so much he is a Japanese and most people around him are Americans so that is a race Japanese and Americans. I did not really have any I liked about the book only that it was something to do at home and not get bored but that was it, it was not a good book!!! I HATED how the story ended no happiness no sadness it was boring plain boring. I wished the Japanese attacked them so it was not a normal life as friendship. So overall the story could've been better.
ReplyDelete@matthew. While I respect your OPINION... I do think that Hazel is a good friend because she revealed her true friendship in front of the whole town just to say goodbye to her friend. I do NOT think that Hazel is a bad friend because she tried to give ideas to Sogoji when they thought that they would attack his house. The idea might not have been the greatest, but it was an idea! I wonder why Jed is missing in action. He could be captured, not dead. People roam the battlefields after well a battle (or the big war) to send a letter to the families saying, “Private Matthew Maloney has sadly passed.” or something like that. One thing I liked is how you said the main idea was about friendship. I might have mentioned that the friendship was strong but I might not have noticed that it was one of the MAIN ideas.
ReplyDelete-Quincy
ReplyDelete@Anna I agree that the story should have ended better. I wonder if the author did this for a purpose (Jed being gone). It is kind of a real world situation: a loved one never coming back and staying missing in action for the rest of their life. I also liked the word dilemma! It means a difficult choice between two people. I think it was a hard for Estelle and Jed. Frank and Hazel. Sogoji and Hazel. Last, “Mr.Mayhew” and Estelle. I think that the book was also kind of like a puzzle. The characters were all there. If one was not, there would be no story. I wish there was a sequel too, maybe Jed would come back. Maybe the story would finally have that last piece to the puzzle and we would be more satisfied.
-Quincy