Feelings of Loneliness:

An Essay Based on To Kill A Mockingbird

By Cassie Seidel

Pine Point School.

English Class

11/29/10

              It was dark outside, and my parents were gone. I was all alone. Thoughts of abandonment went through my head as I wait for something to happen, just like Dill in To Kill A Mockingbird. A raven flies overhead. I can’t do anything about it. I sit and think, but all I am doing is waiting for the feeling to go away.

             (TS) Dill, a poor outcast, feels extremely lonely for many different reasons. (SD) Dill feels alienated from his old colleague Jem. (CM1) Jem said that children, including Dill, couldn’t, “Hold something in their mind about a little while” (CM2) When Dill heard this, he probably felt that Jem had changed, and Jem didn’t care about him anymore. (SD) He also feels split apart from his parents. (CM1) One reason is that he knows they don’t have any affection for him. (CM2) He, “was asked what he wanted and they expected him to play with it.” (CM2) He also didn’t know what to do because his parents were always “busy.” He was bounced from home to home. (CM3) Dill is now a grimy, hungry runaway because he has been deserted. (CS) These were terrible times that Dill went through. 

            (TS) Although I am not nearly as lonely as Dill, I still feel terribly lonesome at times. (SD1) I sometimes feel that the only one who cares, is me. (CM1) For example, if I am having a bad day, no one is there to give me a tissue or reassure me that everything is going to be okay. (CM2) Also, if I see a beggar on the street and a lot of people just walking by, I feel guilty because I have so much. (CM3)I walk by with everyone else, apart from the world. (SD2) I also feel abandoned when I am actually alone. (SD1) For example, when I was at home once and my parents weren't around, there was a huge thunderstorm. (CM2) I had to hide behind the couch to protect myself just in case a window broke. (CM3) I was horrified, and didn't know if I was going to see tomorrow. (CS) Being lonesome is a frightening and terrible thing that we all must go through to grow.

          Although we all feel abandoned at some point in our lives, the feeling always subsides to a feeling of happiness. My parents will come back, and Dill will see his friends again. Waiting may seem extremely devastating, but all will be better in the end. If you just wait, you will see that joy and happiness will come to you. 

Self Assessment

          In essays, I most often  have punctuation errors. I don't know the difference between a compound sentence and a comma splice. In this essay, I feel that I used many good F.A.S.T. words. One weak point in this essay is clarity. Some of my chuncks don't go with the rest of the paragraph. I would give myself a B/B- for this essay.