"All Summer in a Day" Essay Response

You wake up yet again to another rainy day on Venus. But you know it's finally here. The day that the sun will finally creep out from behind the dark clouds, after seven years of staying in it's hiding place. Once at school, you head for the window, to watch this miracle emerge. Your classmates ask you what your doing, but you say nothing, and continue to stare out the window. The questioning continues, so you tell them that the sun will come out today. With doubt in their eyes, they grab you and drag you down the hallway, and down, into a closet. Now you're trapped, isolated from the world, and unable to witness the miracle that was happening without you.

Isolation is something to be feared. If someone chooses to confine themselves from humanity, they will have no one to depend on. But in the short story "All Summer in a Day," Margot, the main character, does such a thing. In the beginning of the story, Margot knows that the sun will be coming out that day. She was born on Earth, and had seen the sun before, but her classmates had not, for they were born there, on Venus. Margot never got along with any of them. She kept to herself, because she was different from the others, and this was the mistake. There’s nothing wrong with being different, but that’s not an excuse not to try. When Margot tells them the sun will be coming out, the children don't believe it, because she wasn’t willing to try to be their friend. This never gave them the inference that she might be telling the truth. Instead, they take the poor child down into a closet, and lock her in, not wanting to hear lies. But little did they know, the sun did come out.

Margot caused this incident herself. Children tend not to like children who shun them, so in a sense, Margot had it coming. Confinement from others is a child's worst nightmare, and this is adequately displayed through Margot by the author. They will miss out on huge opportunities if they choose this lifestyle.

Children today have so much to worry about. Isolating themselves will only cause more problems in the long run. Margot chose this fatal path, and suffered the consequences. We have so much to live for. If we let isolation take us down, we will pay the ultimate price.