Life As We Knew It Journal Prompt 1

Tenuta, Nicole

English IV

Morrell

December 5, 2012

Life As We Knew It

Journal

At the very end of the novel, Miranda displays a very selfless act, much different than how she has acted previously in the story. In situations like the chocolate chip incident, Miranda was being terribly selfish. At this point, she has matured and realized the reality of her family’s situation. Miranda decides to venture out into the blistering cold and make her way into town in search of food for her starving family. She completely disregards her own saftey with means to save her loved ones. By putting her life at risk, she is even essentially doing her family a favor. She is sparing them the pain of watching her die.

Miranda even says in the novel that she does not want her mother to see her die. She feels that it would be better if she were to just leave and never come back so no one would know what really happened, even though it would be obvious she had died on her journey. However, there would always be hope that maybe, by some chance, she could have lived and she is still out there. I guess Miranda feels like that is a better way to go than in the same room as her family. A mother shouldn’t see her own child die.

I think this was a selfless act on Mirandas part in two ways. The fact that she would rather face the freezing storm and die alone that have her family see her die is very selfless. Also, the main reason she left the house in the first place, she is risking her life to go find food for her starving family, no matter how weak she is from malnutrition. She is giving her life in attempt to save her family. She also realizes, they are going to die either way, if she makes the trip or not, there will still be no food and they will starve to death.

I think it is very big of Miranda to say “I’ll be the one to let myself die just so you all can have a slight chance of surviving.” We, of course, come to find out later that she makes it and does, in fact, save her family. Regardless, it is a very noble thing to do. To get up and leave the comfort and warmth of the fire, to journey out into the cold snow on a possibly hopeless mission, Miranda showed her selflessness. She knew it could have been the last time she ever saw her family or the last time they ever saw her and she didn’t shed a tear. She knew it was for the good of the family to have a possibility for food and to not see their beloved sister and daughter die in front of them.

I think the entire novel leading up to this particular event was a learning experience for Miranda to realize that there are bigger things in life than yourself.