Fall From Innocence

“Fall from Innocence.” It is the subtitle for The Body. Stephen King used a wonderful double meaning expression. The story takes place in fall, as the boys go out for an adventure. Another meaning is the departure from innocence, indicating that the novella is a coming-of-age story. The “innocence” likely represents the pre-maturity of the boys, and departure means becoming mature. Four characters appear in the story, and I would like to focus on Gordon Lachance.

           Gordon, well-known as Gordie, is the narrator of The Body. He is speaking in an adult’s point of view as he is tracing back his memories to when he was twelve years old. The moment Gordie is describing is basically the turning point of his life, as he goes through the journey. Gordie is a normal yet different boy. His elder brother Dennis died in a car accident. After the accident, Gordie’s parents, who were more affectionate of Dennis, became more ignorant and indifferent towards Gordie. Gordie is somewhat upset, but he tries to understand his parents. Mostly, Gordie receives comfort from his best friend, Chris Chambers. Chris and Gordie share the similarity of having imperfect parents. Chris’s father is usually drunk and beats up Chris. Chris is seen to be smart, but no one truly cares about him. However, Gordie and Chris care for each other. Both share friendship as they understand each other and try to be help for each other. As they think about each other, both become more thoughtful than ever, growing up.

           Seeing the dead body of Ray Brower gives sense to Gordie about what real death is. Gordie expresses as "The kid was can't, don't, won't, never, shouldn't, wouldn't, could'nt." The kid just met death when he was trying to pick up berries. Here, Gordie seems to understand something. Later, in adulthood, Gordon realizes the truth of departure. "Friends come in and out of your life like busboys in a restaurant, did you ever notice that?" As meeting is sudden, departure is also sudden, and one can't do anything about it. Same with death. Gordon phrases as "Some people drown, that's all. It's not fair, but it happens." Death has no reason, and it is not fair to everyone, but it happens. Death is something natural, and as Gordie understands that, he becomes more mature than ever.

           Probably, the point where Gordon becomes mature is when the boys face Ace Merrill. They started their journey for fame to become heroes, but they end up respecting dead Ray Brower. With the braveness coming from respect, Gordie and Chris fights off Ace Merrill. The turning point is later acknowledged by the adult Gordon, a period of "fall from innocence."

Reflective Essay: Vibrating the Strings

     One thing I like about Korean Minjok Leadership Academy (KMLA) is that it gives me different opportunities. Unlike other high schools, the school encourages different extracurricular activities. Opportunity was one of the strengths of KMLA written for admission and now I know that it is true. Through KMLA's winter program, I regained my skiing skills, which I neglected for about 4 years. Through art class, playing with Photoshop once again became my interest. There are many other new opportunities given to me, and they were all delightful. But to pick the one that I am most happy about, it is being able to play my violin again.

     To speak my life history, I started fiddling with violin from about 8 years old. Piano came before, but the ability to move all ten fingers at once seemed to be absent from me. Violin soon became my hobby, and I played it for five years. This might be a short time period for violin manias, but for an inconsistent person like me, the period was long. Also, the reason I had to quit was because of my busy middle school life, which upset me. That time, I believed that I could start playing violin whenever I wanted to, and regain my hobby again. Sadly, this thought came from ignorance of my poor musical talents. Two years later, I forgot to tune my violin, let alone playing it. Due to my musical atrophy, I did not touch my violin again until I went into KMLA.

     Before going to KMLA, I heard about two distinct orchestras: KMLA Orchestra and Minjok Orchestra. Suddenly, I felt this strong desire to play my violin again. However, after opening my violin case, I was soon very upset at my fingers which did not move according to my own will. Worse, I even forgot how to comprehend the musical scores. Dumbfounded, all that was left for me was practice. Through practice, skill improved slowly and gradually, but I was still happy. Actually, for the past years, I was sad that I did not have any musical instruments that I could play properly. Even though I was clumsy, being able to play the violin made me smile.

     What started as a desire to go into an orchestra tuned into enjoying playing again. Eventually, I went into the KMLA Orchestra, where we learned several pieces. Practicing those pieces, I enjoyed being able to create sound once more with the violin. I frequently made mistakes, so I tried hard to cover them with practice. On top of that, what motivated me for practicing was probably the fact that I did not wanted to make mistakes that will ruin the whole song of harmony. My brain told me that ruining will mean humiliation, and I certainly did not want to get humiliated.

           The orchestra was preparing for the school’s concert, which definitely excited me. Years have passed since I last played for the public. I wanted to do well. There were practices every first self-study period and during lunch time. The practices felt tiresome, but when actually practicing, the worries were gone and I felt some sort of catharsis. Practices passed, and the concert day had come. After a deep breath, the show started. Our song went quite well without any serious problems. The concert was thrilling as the audience clapped. Once again, I felt the feeling that I felt years ago: enjoyment.

     From the day I picked up my musical friend, I never regretted about playing violin again. It gave me more pleasure than I expected and returned me a hobby. Now, I do not feel upset about not being able to play musical instruments. Instead, I feel happy about regaining one of my lost skills. I cannot say that I am fluent, but I can say that I truly enjoy vibrating the strings.

The Body: A Preview of First 30 Pages

     When I first encountered the title The Body, it actually gave me shivers. I have heard before that Stephen King actually like gore scenes. Finding out that 1408 is also one of Stephen King's works made my suspicions grow about the novella. 'What did the author want to talk with a corpse?' This thought prevailed in my head. However, after reading first several pages, impressions changed.
     The front part of the novel reminded me of my own childhood, even though the boys' childhoods are not similar with mine. The characters are Gordon Lachance, Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp, and Vern Tessio. They are pictured as having normal playtime similar to ordinary boys, but they have some sadness inside. Gordon is ignored by his parents due to the death of his older brother, Dennis. Chris is always beaten up by his father, and even though he is smart, no one would care. Teddy's father is a war veteran with psychological problem. Teddy got his ear burnt in the stove by his father, who went to the asylum. Vern has an older brother named Billy, who is part of a gang. My parents are kind to me, and I do not have sisters or brothers, so those parts were not similar. However, I was amazed at their positivity, which allowed me to relate my childhood.

     Even though the boys have sadness, they are not gloomy at all. They play like ordinary boys, having fun altogether. The boys seem to get closer, because they understand each other. The tree house is their place of communication. Gordon, Chris, Teddy, and Vern are true friends to themselves. Since I was very young, I admired of having a tree house myself. The tree house seemed like a perfect private place where friends can share their secrets. In Korea, there is no adequate place for tree houses, since most people live in cities including me. Instead, my friends and I played in parks and playgrounds. While comparing my childhood life, I somewhat envied the boys’ free life.

           Moreover, I liked the unusual adventure that they were headed into finding a dead body. From here, I got the idea that maybe this novel is not a gore one, but about the exotic adventure of the boys. I liked adventures too, but it was very limited. For instance, it was usually about exploring the hole in the school fence or adventuring a graveyard in the park. Apparently, the novel adventure instantly grabbed my attention as I imagined what kind of trip lay ahead of the boys.

           What started as a suspicion changed to interest as I compared my childhood with what is told in the novel. Soon, I was imagining myself in the tree house, thinking of an journey to find the body of Ray Brower. I hope to read to the end of the novel and find about the future of these four boys.

A Step Into Advertising

        On every April, there is an official Day of Science in most Korean schools. My middle school was no exception and we had the scientific festival every year. The point of the festival is to bloom your scientific creativity through different means. During my elementary years, I did the imaginary drawing and earned few prizes. But, as they grades went by, I did not practice my water coloring skills and lost interest in watercolor paintings. So, what I set my eyes on was science related advertisements.

         Actually, I chose to do the advertisement at that day of the festival, so I did not have a current idea. I decided to just create an advertisement with whatever popped first into my mind: electric-powered magnetic levitation car. I sketched the overall appearance of the advertisement straight out from my imagination. The description said that the floor of the car is made out of superconductor with wheels replaced with pipes that shoot ions. The freely moving ions will spread out through the superconductor creating magnetic flows that will levitate the car body. I tried to make the description believable as much. Then, I cut out my transparent plastic covering, aluminum foil, and sponge for brushes. The cut-out parts were pasted to the advertisement to act as a "see-for-yourself" sample. In my advertisement, they became newly engineered materials: tempered polymer glass for window panes, high density polymerized titanium for the car body. The product of my creativity earned me a second place.