2) What is one HIS HUSKIES that you think is an important aspect of character development? How have you developed under that HUSKIES? How does your book promote character development through this HUSKIES?
One HUSKY that Where Things Come Back promotes is becoming Knowledgeable Thinkers. By reading a book that deals with a certain issue, the reader is exposed to it and can learn to gradually view it critically and analyze it. One of the issues addressed in the book is the reappearance of a certain type of woodpecker, called the Lazarus woodpecker, that was believed to have gone extinct years ago. This takes place in a small town in Arkansas called Lily, and this seemingly small incident is all the townspeople can talk about. Being a small town rather void of excitement, such small instances are heavily covered by the media, which can have both positive and negative consequences. Looking at these consequences illustrated in the book can help readers become cognizant of similar problems seen in real life. Some people in town view this sudden reappearance of the Lazarus as a windfall, as the town’s tourism industry is suddenly booming. Whereas before, the name of the town would have sounded foreign even in the state of Arkansas, but with the woodpecker incident, Lily is fondly known to be the home of the Lazarus woodpecker. A negative consequence is that all the buzz about the Lazarus woodpecker is overshadowing other important issues such as the missing brother of the protagonist, Cullen, and the car accident that took the life of a local high school graduate. This is the reason Cullen begins to loathe the events held by his town celebrating the woodpecker, as he is constantly aware that more important things at hand need to be dealt with. This is also what leads Cullen to upbraid Lucas, his best friend, when the latter suggests that Cullen and him run in the Woodpecker Relay hosted by his town. Lucas’s attempts to try to get his mind off his missing brother are unsuccessful, as the hype surrounding the Lazarus woodpecker is exactly why Cullen feels embittered. This situation helps readers understand that an happening that is celebrated by many may not be the source of joy for many others. This highlights the importance of becoming critical, knowledgeable thinkers who are capable of viewing situations from different viewpoints.
3) What is a second HIS HUSKIES that you think is an important aspect of character development? How have you developed under that HUSKIES? How does your book promote character development through this HUSKIES?
One of the criteria for effective communicators was knowing how to express oneself through the arts. Deciphering exactly what the author wanted to convey through Where Things Come Back helps in shaping readers become able to get across important ideas themselves as well. From the title of the book to the ending of the story, the theme of hope is prevalent in this book. Yet it is far from a happy, carefree story. The author depicts Cullen, a seventeen-year-old boy, torn apart by the disappearance of his younger brother, who also hates the world because of the way the people in his town deal with this incident. Whether hope can be justified or not is only unveiled at the end of the book, where there is a strong possibility that Cullen is reunited with his missing brother. However, the events that lead up to the climax strongly seem to suggest the futility in hope. For one, the sighting of the Lazarus woodpecker that the whole town of Lily, Arkansas was so obsessed about turned out to be a mistake. Many people in Lily, who had found solace in believing that at least the Lazarus woodpecker had liked the town enough to make a return to it, are disappointed when they are faced with reality. Their symbol of hope had been crushed. Likewise, Cullen’s unsuccessful romance is another example of crushed hope. Cullen realizes that he had only been in love with the idea of the girl he was so determined to be with, not her, when she leaves him for her convalescent ex-boyfriend. These events point towards the pointlessness of hoping for things, but if read with more care and analyzed closer, the book ultimately does give reasons for us to justify hope.
In this way, learning how to detect possible themes and messages in this book, even though the surface-level story line may suggest different things, can helps us form better understandings of literature. Our understanding of how writers can use books to convey ideas is essential in becoming effective communicators who can use different modes to express our own ideas ourselves.
4) What is a third HIS HUSKIES that you think is an important aspect of character development? How have you developed under that HUSKIES? How does your book promote character development through this HUSKIES?
To be a socially and personally responsible individual who can choose their actions wisely to help themselves and others, looking at exemplar individuals who exhibit these positive characteristics is crucial. In Where Things Come Back, examples of individuals who are able to or are learning to cope with certain issues and with one another are present. Analyzing their struggles they have with this can help readers realize their own shortcomings when it comes to social situations. Recognizing personal faults is also key in becoming a more socially responsible individual.
Cullen, the protagonist, is keenly aware of his personal shortcomings. He points out his cynicism as a flaw, though his furtive attempts to justify it due to the unfortunate situation he finds himself in is also evident. As the story is narrated in first person, Cullen’s despair concerning his missing brother is very clearly seen from time to time. However, he tries effectively to mask his negative outlook on life when dealing with other who are suffering with him. For example, he takes it upon himself to be there for his aunt Julia, who has lost her son due to an overdose and her father by an accident. He is evidently skilled at comforting her, as he himself tells of the many ways the townspeople try to deal with the loss of Cullen’s brother and how only a few succeed at really making him feel even slightly better. His capability to comfort others exists because he himself has suffered a large degree of loss as well. Even though as readers, we have not experienced the losses the characters have, learning what they have gone through and getting insight into how they feel helps us become more aware of our own actions when it comes to dealing with others. The power of empathy is an important message to take away from this book. When faced with difficult situations ourselves, or when in need to provide for someone who is faced with hardships, recalling the actions of the characters in the book and what outcomes they had is key in become socially aware individuals ourselves.
5) How did your book change your perspective? What did you understand before reading your book? How did that change?
Cullen, the protagonist, describes life in his hometown as "living in a land that time forgot"(Whaley 9). This can be taken as both a good thing and a bad thing, but in this case Cullen detests the way life in his hometown, Lily, Arkansas, is structured, because of a number of reasons. One is because in his town, a majority of the adults seem to deem it inevitable to return to Lily even if their initial aspirations included moving out of Lily to an entirely new city or even state. Even the college graduates, who had studied in hopes of leaving Lily behind, are described to have somehow wound up back in Lily, living next to the same neighbors they've known since birth. Cullen does not want to be trapped in this cycle, as he has experienced the downsides of small town life, especially with the incident of his lost brother. He could not go through a single day without people from his town approaching him “and express[ing] their ‘deepest regrets’ and shit like that"(Whaley 99), which he quickly began to grow sick of, because he was constantly reminded of a tragedy he did not want to have dwell in his mind. Moreover, Culled felt embittered that even though a majority of the townsfolk was aware of the incident with his brother, the town newspaper insisted on putting on its front cover information about the Lazarus woodpecker. Week after week, pictures and articles of the woodpecker covered the first few pages of the newspaper.
Contrasting Cullen’s negative experience in a small with what I heard about small town life from my dad helped widen my perspective. Also from a small town in Arkansas himself, my dad would tell me stories of his childhood that sounded happy and carefree. Living in an insulated environment helped him become more cognizant of the importance of communication, as he was surrounded by familiar faces all the time. Although he expressed his desire to move out of town once he graduated from high school, he seems to be fond of the memories he made during his childhood. Comparing Cullen’s negative experiences and my dad’s good ones has broadened my perspective, as I am becoming aware that stances on a certain issue are not limited to one viewpoint, but can vary.
6) Why are stereotypes bad? How did your book challenge a stereotype?
The author’s attitude towards stereotypes is expressed in a rather unusual way in Where Things Come Back. Typically, books present ideas obliquely, refraining from stating them explicitly for the readers to understand. Rather, they rely on certain situations in the story that help suggest a certain theme, which is reinforced by the outcome of the story. John Corey Whaley, through this book, presents the issue of the wrongness of stereotypes in unique ways. At the very beginning of the book, the protagonist, Cullen, explicitly displays his dislike for stereotypes, by making fun of those, including himself, who choose the easy option of categorizing people based upon their first impressions.
Cullen’s revilement of his best friend who relies on a stereotype also shows the errors in stereotyping. Lucas, Cullen’s friend, interrogates Cullen’s next door neighbor Fulton whose naturally queer demeanor makes Lucas suspicious of his involvement in the disappearance of Cullen’s brother, Gabriel. The encounter is not fruitful, with no additional clues being found. Fulton is presumably left feeling hurt from Lucas’s accusations, even though the latter quickly gave his apologies. Lucas’s belaboring of Fulton could have been avoided if Lucas had refrained from relying on preconceived ideas about Fulton, which were all based not on facts but on first impressions. This scene demonstrates that this type of distorted and biased thinking can prove to be dangerous, resulting in not only hurt feelings but in some cases unfavorable consequences.
Stereotypes are often very closely associated with looks. One’s physical appearance determines race, and clothing their social status. The author’s choice to refrain from describing the physical appearances of one of the main characters in the book, Cullen’s brother Gabriel, shows the uselessness of judging a person by how they look, and therefore teaching people not to rely on stereotypes. By the time the author describes how Gabriel looks, readers could not care less, since they have already formed emotional attachments to Gabriel through his actions and words instead of by how he looks. This book seems to be saying that it is important not to dismiss the idea of relinquishing stereotypes as quixotic, and encourages readers to form opinions of people only after getting to know them on a deeper level.
7) What are the top 1-3 issues in the world today? What issues did your book illuminate (shed light on)?
One of the major issues of the world today is the use of media to report current events. Many media outlets through newspapers, radio, television, and the internet are biased, and are often accused of reporting distorted facts to readers, listeners and viewers. The motive for the media outlets to do this may be social or political reasons, or even solely personal as well. Regardless of the motives, reporting true facts to the general public is an obligation that the media cannot overlook. With rapid globalization and increased ease and speed of access to many modes of media, even furtive attempts to distort the truth are often detected. However, this may not be the case in all media outlets, especially in less-known ones. In this book, Cullen, the protagonist, expresses his disdain for the local newspaper station which chooses to print articles about the Lazareth woodpecker which has made a recent comeback to the small town of Lily, Arkansas. This small bird is made into a big deal only because through its appearance, many bird-watchers and environmentalists are starting to visit Lily, leading to a newly booming travel industry. The face of John Barling, the man credited for spotting the Lazareth woodpecker, covers the front pages of the newspapers, though he is said by one individual to be "the most egotistical, maniacal, and power-hungry man"(Whaley 45) one could ever meet. Cullen is embittered by the newspaper station’s focus on the woodpecker, as it overshadows issues that he deems are far more important, such as the disappearance of his young brother.
Religious fanaticism is another prominent theme in this book. Gabriel being held hostage could have been avoided had his kidnapper, a young man called Cabot, not formed an unhealthy obsession with religious texts which he relied on heavily to guide the course of his life. His theories on religion and life replaced his reality, which lead to his subsequent dangerous actions. Instances of religious fanaticism is seen today in the news, through radical religious groups terrorizing innocent civilians. Although the religion and mode of terrorism is different, the motives driving these troubled individuals seem to mirror one another in real life and in this novel.
Short story
John had received his first camera when he was only seven. It was a hand-me-down one with chipped edges, but John could not care less, as long as the camera worked. He would snap photos of the swing hanging from the tree in the garden, of his stuffed animals, of his dog Charlie, and of his mother’s back as she hung up fresh clothes on the laundry line in the yard. At first both his parents loved the photos he took. They would smile and nod as John pointed out and described each of the photos he took, which were spread out all over the kitchen table. In fact, his mother never stopped loving his photos. The same couldn’t be said for his father, though. As he entered high school, John grew increasingly weary of his father, as he would feel a disapproving gaze every time he was caught working on a project for his photography club instead of his history paper or his algebra assignment. When John announced that he would be majoring in photography in college, John’s father started to lecture him in a patronizing manner, advising him to pick a major that would lead to “a more lucrative career”. John didn’t listen. Photography was his passion, and he wasn’t going to let a few words from his father scare him into changing his mind. John’s determination cost him his father’s trust, and the two now rarely spoke.
Now out of college, John was struggling to make a name for himself as a freelance photographer. He had decided to put up a couple of his best works up on a wall outside in the city, where a small overhang protected the photos from rain. John would sometimes watch from a nearby coffee shop to see who would stop by and admire his photos. One day, John was sitting near the window in the coffee shop, thinking about his father, wondering if there was any way John could mend things up with him. As John looked out the window with a sigh, he saw a small middle aged woman stop by in front of his photos, stick a piece of paper next to one of the photos, and quickly walk away. John recognized the woman, as she would frequently come to his little “gallery” and take a long time admiring his photos. Curious, John exited the coffee shop and walked over and took a look at the note. It read:
“This one really speaks to me. Your pictures give me hope. Thank you.”
The photograph she was referring to was one taken not so far from where the photos were displayed, next to a park that overlooked a plaza with a fountain in the middle. The picture was of a soft sun peeking through the trees in an early summer morning. John did not understand what about the picture had spoken to her, but he knew that that was besides the point. He had made someone smile with his photos. He could take a picture that evoked a strong feeling in another person. It was for these moments that John wandered around looking for the best angle to snap a photo with, and he could not keep from smiling as he held the note in his hand.
The notes did not stop. At first they were from the same middle aged lady, but once he had left her notes up on display, other people started to write their feedback on pieces of paper and stick them up next to John’s photos as well. John felt a growing sense of accomplishment, and with it, hope as well. What would his father say if he saw these notes? That he had touched lives through his works? John decided to invite his father to see his makeshift gallery.
The car ride there was nothing short of awkward, as both John and his father sat tensely in the car, not speaking much. When they arrived, they quickly dispersed, John’s father making a beeline for the photos while John stood a few feet away. John glanced nervously at his father, trying to gauge a reaction from the latter. As John’s father came across the notes that were taped next to his photos, his expression softened. He began asking John about his photos; what they meant, where they were taken, how they were taken. John’s recognized the glint in his son’s eyes he had when he was discussing photography. It had been a long time since he’d seen it himself, and he had missed it.
Later in the evening, John pulled up in front of his parent’s house to drop his father off. As his father turned to get out of the car, he seemed to be lost in thought. Then, he turned around slowly, looked at John, and said, “I’m proud of you, son”. With that, he got out of the car, raised a hand as a wave, and started walking towards the house. John sat there, watching his father’s back until he closed the door behind him in the house. He smiled to himself, assured that things would become better between him and his father. He thanked the lady who had first written him a message internally. His photograph had given her hope, and it return, her note had somehow given him hope-- hope to start afresh his relationship with his father.