The Christmas Sweater Post #1

"The Christmas Sweater" by Glenn Beck (pages 1-60)

SUMMARY

The main character of this book, The Christmas Sweater, is a twelve year old boy named Eddie. It is winter and Christmas day is coming soon. The story starts out by describing Eddie's problems in his family. The main problem is that his family is trying to move on from the death of the man of the family. Which left a huge burden. There was once a warm Christmas, but now since Eddie's dad has past away, it just reminds them that someone is missing. Also, he feels like he's left with no father and no money. Mary, Eddie's mom, is now a widow who's trying to hold up the financial issues in the family. They can't have things that they use to have when Eddie's dad is still alive. According to Eddie, the most important thing to the family right now is money. When his dad was still living, the most important thing was to spend family time together. Eddie is hoping to have a red Huffy bike with a black banana seat for Christmas, even when he knows that money is tight.

QUOTE

"Most times we're so focused on what we think we want that we can't appreciate how happy we already are," she continued. "It's only when we forget about our problems and help others forget theirs that we realize how good we really have it" (Beck 52).

REACTION

The author begins the book by showing Eddie's prayer. Which is really interesting because it tells what the main character is thinking in the moment. Also, he only talks about his mother in the prayer and how he deserves a bike for Christmas. However, he never mentioned about his father. The author immediately makes the reader question why Eddie didn't mention his father in the prayer. Not only has the author gives out a feeling that there's no presence of the father, he also adds in meaningful flashbacks him. Eddie's father in the flashbacks describes what kind of person he was. This is really important because it gives the reader a sense of pain that Eddie is feeling. The quotation connects to the story because Eddie's mom is helping Eddie understand what he's experiencing and he should realize that he doesn't need the things that he wants.