Where Things Come Back
Written by, John Corey Whaley
Project by, Alyssa Mankieiwcz
Charater Analysis
The protagonist in the story "Where things come back" would be the 17 year old named Cullen Winter. He who faces a major upsetting conflict the summer before senior year, that being the vanishment of his younger 15 year old brother Gabriel. Cullen and Gabriel spent a lot of time together, along with there two bestfriends Libby and Lucas. When Gabriel disappears his entire family was left without any answers if he was dead or alive, his family continuously looks for Gabriel with hope he'll be found. Cullen was personally destroyed, dealing with his loss was hard for Cullen. He coped with his brother being gone by wearing his T-shirts and by having the mutual friend of Gabriel and Cullen over daily, he would usually stay the night too. His family has a very persistent attitude towards finding Gabriel and although it was already 10 weeks since he's ben missing they refuse to give up. This is hard on Cullen because now he's starting his senior year without his younger brother. It upsets him he's unable to find him before school begins again but has faith he will see his brother again.
Character Development
The theme of this book would be "meaning of life" because this book "Where things come back" includes the idea of the dream of second chances and things coming back as a main idea in the plot because although in the small town called Lilly Arknasaw, Gabriel goes missing without a trace of evidence, also, a giant woodpecker who was believed to be extinct for more than 10 years appears in the woods right outside of the small town, not too long after Gabriel's disappearance. This sighting becomes major in the town and press and woodpecker experts from all over the U.S. came view the bird. The dream of second chances and things coming back can also be linked with the family of Gabriel never giving up on the search for him and although the book does not give a direct answer if Gabriel comes out alive or not they make it clear they'll not stop looking until he's found. The Lazurus Woodpecker drawing so much attention to his usually stale and boring town gives Cullen more anxiety and makes him feel very unsettled about the fact that his brother is still missing and the attention is pointed in a complete different direction from getting closer to his brother being found. Although, the bird does give the town hope things will come back, like a lot of people usually do that grew up in the town, come back. "If I saw the bird, I wouldn't tell anyone" (Chapter 5, p. 40). says Cullen. This is an example of how Cullen felt towards the birds getting so much attention and dragging it away from his missing brother.
Review (Praise)
Personally I enjoyed this book. I thought the plot development was confusing but when you finally understood it was very powerful and meaningful. This book teaches the reader a lot about life and death and ways to cope with it. I would strongly recommend this book it's defiantly a good lesson.