You Are Yourself, No Matter What

Authors Note: You can't be anyone else so why do people try to? I don't know, yet I do know it isn't right. I also don't know why everyone is never happy,just look around and count how many people are smiling right now. Even in the holocaust our hero is happy 75% of the time.

Rain drops pitter-patter on the helmets of construction workers building the infamous wall surrounding the lowest-of-the-low ghetto. Ongoing parades of miserable Jewish families tread on the path with old red wagons holding personal belongings where their journey ends inside the wall, never to be seen again. Welcome to Warsaw, Poland home of the notorious ghetto full of Jews and gypsies. Even though the situation is dark our character Misha is very positive. He has been called many names ranging from Jack to Stopthief to Poppynoodle, he has been Jewish and he has been a gypsy, yet no matter what event affected him he still stayed himself. What Jerry Spinelli is portraying is you are yourself, and only yourself, no matter what.

On the other hand of being yourself, don’t let anyone state you should be like someone else. Let everyone know you are you; Misha didn’t care what everyone else thought, he stayed himself. He had wishes never to become true, like us, yet we all stayed ourselves. He always kept a positive attitude and good things happened, also like people in real life.

In addition to keeping a good mind-set, the best thing to do when a tragic event has happened is keep a positive attitude. Misha lost many friends including Janina who was as close as a sister to him; he also lost his right ear and his wife. Misha still kept a positive attitude. He cheated death many times and many other people have too, and through the whole scenario Misha stayed himself, isn’t that amazing?

It is amazing in the circumstances he was in; it is especially amazing since it was WWII. Jerry Spinelli did a fantastic job on showing how Misha stayed himself and even though he was a little bit too naive he still had a positive attitude through it all. Misha taught us all a lesson: never to be down in the dumps and to never be someone else, because you are unique and no one should alter that. You are yourself, and only yourself, no matter what, you are always yourself no matter what happens, no matter what name, and no matter what event.