Coming Out of the Shadows: a Look Into an Individual's Attempt to Stay Strong in the Wake of Vulnerability in Alison Lohans’s “the Michelle I Know”.

The story “The Michelle I Know,” by Alison Lohans, relates how Michelle tries to battle the fear of Leukemia. Readers learn that even though there are ups and downs in life, people can still have strength to keep going and to never give up. This story, though relatively simple, allows readers to understand how Michelle really feels deep down in her heart. As the character’s emotions are portrayed, readers start to understand Michelle and the conflict that she has to experience. These conflicts and experience made Michelle strong and shaped her to who she is now. Character description was used as well, especially for the comparison between Michelle and Claude. The author uses conflict of man verses self, character development such as character’s emotions and character descriptions, to demonstrate how in tough time people should never give up, no matter how hard the obstacle is.
There are many emotions a character can acknowledge; however Michelle experienced negative emotions, such as being pessimistic and disappointed, throughout the story. The author has created the character of Michelle’s personalities very pessimistic. "Probably she was turning into a turnip. Or some kind of squash." (Page 17) Since Michelle had Leukemia, she was always down and negative about herself. She felt that she was ugly no matter how many times people have told her that she was not. She felt that she would still die even though she tried her best to survive. However, when she noticed that there were other people who still cared for her, she would cheer up and try her best to face the truth of reality. So that her loved ones would not be sad and think that she just allows for her death to come. As the course of events goes in the story, Michelle's emotions constantly changes because she learns many new things from observing people. Each time she sees a different person, her emotions would change from one feeling to another because different people have different ways in overcoming...