Is the End Near?

Now that winter has settled in heat s hard to preserve. Matt, Miranda’s brother, has to learn to ski in case they have to travel across the town, and Miranda has to keep the sun room’s roof without snow so that it doesn’t fall. Mother is recuperating slowly which is still better than not at all. They still haven’t heard from dad.

Water has now run out and they have to turn off their oil furnace and have to use the snow as a water source. Food is also running out which is why the whole family has to ration the food every time more and more in order to survive. Because Jonny is the youngest sibling, they are all trying to make him live the longest and Miranda has to skip meals so that Jonny eats more. Soon Matt also skips meals to help his brother. Even though these are hard times, Miranda is glad that her family is well fed and has survived to this crisis.

Soon it is Christmas and the family is happier than ever. They are eating more food; they have recycled presents and have decorated the whole house. The celebration of this year was an unforgettable one.

But shortly mom, Matt and Jonny get sick with the flu. They are all ill, so Miranda decides to run to the hospital for help. When she arrives she notices that everyone in there is sick and dying (if they aren’t already dead). She sees that Peter, her mother’s boyfriend, is dead. That is when Miranda realizes that there will be no help this time and that she will have to save her family. In the end she does, she cures them all and even though she had to give them three meals a day, they were all much better. Because of the scarcity of food, Miranda decides to go to town and explore to see if there was any food available. Which there is! There is a man that is giving out food and promises to bring her family food every week.

Miranda’s family has survived trough a terrible crisis. But thanks to her, mom, Matt and really every member in the family, they are all alive and together.

Because of this book, I recognized that being under deplorable circumstances, brings humans closer and makes people feel empathy towards each other more than what we are used to every day. This can be shown in the book when Miranda says:

“Right now I’m reading the American Revolution.

The soldiers had a tough time of it at Valley Forge.

My heart bleeds for them” (Pfeffer 276).

This quote shows how felling connections with others who have suffered, or just experienced the same things that you have, make people reach for comfort and feel better when they are exposed to bad conditions or are facing a bad situation. I think that this is a great way to grow as a person because you are learning that there are other people out there feeling the same way as you are and that you are not alone in life. 

In the end, this book made me realize the importance of the small stuff of life. That in the end, is what makes life meaningful and worth living for.

“But today, when I am 17 and warm and well fed, I’m keeping this journal for myself so I can always remember life as we knew it, life as we know it, for a time when I’m no longer in the sunroom” (Pfeffer 337).

Just like Miranda said in the passage above, we have to live in the now, for us, for our family. It doesn’t matter if you live for a diary or for a person, you should live doing what makes you happy. Everyone deserves a life and can use it for whatever they want as long as what you do makes you happy. 

In the end, this was a book that truly has a lesson for everyone to learn. We should all live life and not be afraid to risk it. We should also try to appreciate the little that life has to offer and be grateful for every day we have in this world.   

Saying Goodbye

July is about to end and Miranda finally sees her friend Sammi. She is about to leave town in search of a better life. Everyone knows that leaving town is the best thing to do in this case, but still, Miranda’s family stays. On the other hand, Miranda’s dad and her wife, Lisa, stay in the house for a few days, when they left everyone knew that they will never see each other again; they didn’t know who will survive and who will not. Miranda feels insecure and does not know what the future holds for her and the ones she loves the most.

Cold weather has started to be more present and that means that it is time for school. Again. Because many families have moved out or are sick, there is a lack of students and teachers this year. Miranda is afraid to go to the only high school open but it is the only thing left so she decides to go there. But within a few months the school was closed so she ended up in homeschool.

The town became an insecure place. This is because now there is no police or fireman or anything, just the few people who go out occasionally just to buy things like gas or food. Everyone is on their own.

Life is more boring, there is no electricity or things to do, just Miranda and her thoughts. No one has a purpose for anything or the motivation to accomplish something in life. Miranda starts to feel insecure and alone until she hears from her dad. He had wrote two letters for the family.

Miranda finds a new motivation in life because now she has to be strong for the whole family because her mother had an accident and is in the hospital. She has a sprained ankle, making her weak and incapable of being the support of the family. The good thing about this situation was that because of Peter she got the medical attention she needed and was able to return home safely. 

Natural resources in the Earth have started to disappear, things such as gas or fruits are no longer available. The library has also closed, leaving just the post office and the hospital open. Temperatures have also dropped dramatically forcing Miranda’s family to move downstairs in order to preserve heat.

Megan, one of Miranda’s closest friends, died. This really made Miranda think about the effect of the moon in the world. Everyone was dying and now her friend was one of the victims.

Miranda’s mom hurt her ankle, again. This means that Miranda had to be what holed the family together in such hard times. Mrs. Nesbit, a close member of the family was also seek and had to be well taken care of until she died. Mrs. Nesbit had always been stubborn lady but even in her last moments on Earth she seemed happy, but that is just how life is and the whole family had to adapt to it.

This picture represents how the future is such as
mystery. 

This few chapters have been really eye opening in terms of how fragile life is and how your future can change in just a matter of seconds. This can be shown in the following text when Miranda says:

“I wonder if they imagined the future. I bet they never could have guessed what things would be like today” (Pfeffer 213).

This small section of the book shows how everything we do has an effect in our future. You can call it faith or destiny, but in the end your actions have a big value in the rest of your life. Furthermore, this quote made me realize that life as we know it now may not be the life that we will have in the future. 

As I have said before, this book has taught me the value of appreciating life and what we have right now. One character that throughout the whole book taught me this lesson was Mrs. Nesbit.

“But I hope when I get closer to death, however old I might be, that I can face it with courage and good sense the way Mrs. Nesbit does. I hope that’s a lesson I’ve truly learned” (Pfeffer 234).

The quote above showed me that even in the scariest moment of life you have to face your problems with courage and with your head up. Just like Miranda remembered Mrs. Nesbit I think that it is important to be remembered as someone who will not give up or as someone courageous and happy. I believe that these are two of the most important qualities and I would like to have them. 

A "Normal" Life

This is how I imagine Miranda's world. 

The situation is the Earth is getting worst every time. There is no more real food, just the ones that come in cans or are dehydrated and no electricity, just at certain times of the day. Mosquitos have started to infest the whole world creating incurable diseases that have been more difficult to cure due to the lack of medicine in the planet and number of doctors available. But this hasn’t changed Miranda, because now, she is in love with Dan. He was a friend of Miranda way before the moon situation; they knew each other from swimming team, both of them where great swimmers and enjoyed the sport. Dan soon became a distraction from the terrible situation on Earth, and now he is one of the most important being in Miranda’s life. Another person who made the house feel safer and welcoming was Miranda’s mother boyfriend, Peter. He was a doctor and had easy access to medicine; this was a benefit for the whole family.

Even though Miranda is feeling safer, it doesn’t mean that the world is better. Volcanic eruptions and huge tsunamis have started to damage the Earth. The sky is no longer blue, it’s gray. This is just as small example of how the world is tearing apart and destroying everything with it.

Temperatures have also risen and started a whole new set of chaos. One of them will be the unpredictable thunderstones or hurricanes that slowly make their way into creating a terrible place to live in that people call The Earth.

Miranda’s world is also tearing apart when Dan, her former boyfriend, leaves town, saying goodbye and not knowing if they will ever meet again. 

So far, this book has taught me the importance of appreciating the life I have. This includes family, health, safety and food. While reading I have realized that everyone should be grateful of the life that everyone is given, whether you like or not. This can be shown when Miranda says:

“I wonder if I’ll ever have to decide which is worse, life as we’re living or no life at all” (Pfeffer 119).

When I read this quote I thought about how so many people think that their life is not great or that it doesn’t have any meaning. This quote made me realize that living under bad circumstances is better than not living at all. I think that the right to live by itself is a gift that should not be wasted because once you lose it you can never get it back.

Another lesson that this book has made me keep in mind, is how fast we, humans, can change our minds and not appreciate what we have in the beginning. This is shown in the quote were Miranda states:

“Just yesterday, I’d been wishing thing would cool off, and now that they have, I miss heat so much.” (Pferrer 125).

After reading this, I realized that we don’t appreciate what we have every day. We all think about how things are better or worse for anybody else instead of just focusing in us. We all are so caught up in the idea of being grateful, but do we really mean it? The problem with our society is that we don’t value the things we have in the present. That is why in the future we are so angry, sad and ungrateful. We should all learn to appreciate the small thing in OUR life and no others because that way we will all realize that what we have right now is great.  

Until now, I have really enjoyed this book and I think that all of the lessons and themes that it contains are applicable to one’s daily life, this is why I think that this book is so interesting and great.