IRead Journal Prompt #6 for Life as We Knew It

Kellie Krim                                                                                                                              Krim1

12-5-12

English IV

Ms. Morrell

                                                     Life as We Knew It

            The role of women in this novel is pretty much stay inside and clean or pick up kindling’s. While Matt and Jon go outside and chop trees up for firewood. Miranda and her mother’s job are to clean the house, wash clothes and make the meals.

            The main character Miranda tries to do other things instead of cleaning and cooking. She wants to go down to the library and stop at the post office to see if there’s any letters from her dad, grandma, or her friends to see if they were okay. Her brother Matt found out that people were being kidnapped and so he doesn’t want Miranda or their mother to leave the house without him or Jon. “There were guys on Main Street. Ryan and another guy were holding a gun. Two guys were removing the plywood off the storefronts. Then one of them would break the pane glass and go and steal stuff from the store (page175-176). This statement is from Miranda when she was heading back from the post office and she saw these guys there stealing stuff and she thought that it wasn’t safe to be by herself anymore.

            Since the world is coming to an end people are acting differently. They will do anything to survive so Matt and Jon want to make sure that nothing will happen to Miranda and their mom so they want them to be extra careful. They decide to go to the post office and chop the trees they don’t want Miranda or their mom to get hurt.

            A example where Miranda proves them wrong is when Matt left to go to the to the post office to check to see if there were any letter from their dad they began to have a snow storm and Miranda, Jon and their mom thought something bad happened to Matt because hasn’t came back for awhile. So Miranda told her mom that her and Jon can take turns to go out and look for him and so she agreed to that and let her do it.

            In the novel the author treats women as if they are important. She makes them important because if they weren’t there then Jon would have no idea on what to get at the grocery store that will last long like his mother did. Matt was at school so he wouldn’t be able to help Jon if his mom or Miranda weren’t there. The women are also important because without them the other characters wouldn’t have a clean house or clean clothes and also they would have dinner. Throughout the story the mom makes up the rules about food because she wants it all to last forever how long they can make it last for.

            The women in this novel are strong because they want to help the other family members as much as they can. Their mom is very strong because she eats a little every day but starves herself a lot also so she can give more food to her children. Miranda is strong because she wants to help as much as she can and when her brother was stuck in the snow storm she was brave enough to go out there and look for him.