TOW #9 - The Boy Who Was Brave By Scarlett Lewis

"Jesse was a first grader with an ever-ready grin whom God had given a warrior's heart." Source: Reader's Digest

            In her writing, Scarlett Lewis gives her personal account of how her son Jesse bravely helped other kids escape before dying in the hands of a gunman. Her last morning with her son was pretty typical: Scarlett playfully waked Jesse up, then Jesse's father Neil took him to school as Scarlett went to work. All hell broke loose when she received a call while working. Two calls. Then another. They all told Scarlett one thing: there was a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary - Jesse's school. The Lewis family quickly reached the school and learned that Jesse was dead from the shooting. Apparently, Jesse was at his teacher's side when she was hiding the children in different areas of the classroom before the gunman came in and shot the teacher. Jesse, his head wounded from a bullet fragment, bravely faced the gunman as he yelled to his classmates to run while the gunman was either fixing his gun or reloading, ultimately saving nine first graders before the killer took aim at the hero. Scarlett recalls that she was not surprised at all to learn that her son did such a heroic act, because Jesse was a kid "whom God had given a warrior's heart" (Lewis). Through writing this, Lewis intends to commemorate her dead son and other victims of the Sandy Hook Shooting with the audience who remember the tragic event. She also wanted to share how she and other parents felt when they realized their kids were dead, and she does this by using similes and metaphors such as in the sentence "Reality hit me like a kick in the stomach. My gut twisted into knots so painful that my knees jerked to my chest and I rolled into the fetal position" (Lewis). I believe that she did an excellent job of describing the pain she felt, but also her pride of her son by appealing to pathos. I could really relate to her feelings throughout the writing.