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Emotional Reaction


At the end of chapter 4, I was feeling despair for Jennings because of all that he had to go through. Upon coming back to the Home of the Angels from the Carpenters, Jennings tells all of the other children of his stay. He goes through the whole tale without shedding a single tear, but later on when he tells his story to the nurse and Sister Frances, he cries. This scene made me so sad because Jennings had subconsciously hid his fear, sadness and loneliness. Uttering his story aloud to people he was not striving to impress made him realize what he had been feeling. After hearing his story, Sister Frances, to the surprise of Jennings, treats him gently: “[Sister Frances] brushed back the hair on my head and left. For a moment she seemed different. A little like Sister Clair”(51). I liked Sister Frances in this part of the chapter because it is shown that she is harsh with the children but she actually does care about them.         
Another bittersweet moment is towards the end of the chapter when Jennings talks about Christmas. Mark tells him that the Home never gets a tree. Also, none of the children ever get presents unless they are with foster parents who get them something. Mark then says he has never gotten a real present. This section made me very upset how some children have not ever received a present or love during the holiday season.  The part that did however make me feel happy is when Jennings tells the children Christmas stories. The children, never having heard those stories before, all crowd around him. Even Butch, the bully of the home, came and listened to the story.
The saddest point in this chapter is the amount of people that left Jennings. First, it was Stacy who was sent home. Next, it was Sister Clair who was transferred to a girl’s school in Queens. The last and perhaps most painful goodbye was when Jennings had to leave Mark. At first, Mark had just looked away and shook Jennings hand, but as Jennings was leaving, he could not hold back his despair and begged Jennings not to leave him: “Don’t leave me! Please don’t leave me!”(61). A sister had to take Mark away just so Jennings could leave. The pain of three friends not to mention his own mother leaving him should not be felt by a child, especially one so young. 



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