Sample Answer Dear Mr Kilmer

Write about an event that shown you the important of making a responsible decision.

The novel that I have studied for Form Five is Dear Mr. Kilmer by Anne Schraff. There was an event that shown us the important of making a responsible decision in life. First and foremost, the main character of this novel is Richard Knight. He has a friend named Hannah, which is a Germans. Richard was the person who made a responsible decision. Based on this novel, there was an event where Richard had decided to quit his role as a Doughboy after he knew that Hannah had declined to be Lady Liberty. Richard made the decision for reasons. School began and Mrs. Hansen, the English teacher announced that the class would be putting on a patriotic programme to help sell Liberty Bonds to help raise money for the war. The programme had a special part as one of the female students would be chosen to play Lady Liberty. The girl would be chosen based on an essay entitled “How We Can Help The War Effort Right Here In Turtle Lake “The boy with the best essay would play the part of Doughboy and wear a khaki uniform. Richard decided to write about exchanging letters with the soldiers. A few days later, Richard was announced as the boy with the best essay. Hannah had won the role of Lady Liberty. The class was shocked. Hannah then read her essay to the class. When Hannah finished, Richard was the only student who applauded. He realized that other students wanted to clap for Hannah, but they were too afraid. The next day, many students and parents were angry about Hannah’s selection as Lady Liberty. Hannah realized that the class was unhappy with the decision. So, she had declined the role of Lady Liberty and the news had been announced by Mrs. Hansen. When Richard knew about the news, he protested because Hannah had won fairly. Hannah was upset that her essay about peace had made people angry instead. Although Richard respected Hannah’s decision, he too decided to quit his role as Doughboy. Mrs. Hansen accepted their decisions. Richard declined the role as Doughboy after he knew that Hannah declined her role as Lady Liberty because of his own reasons. He wanted to show his support towards Hannah and took care of their friendship. Richard did not want his classmates to hate Hannah. He wanted his classmates to be happy and be friend with Hannah. He felt that he must take the responsibility to make sure his classmates did not have any misunderstanding. So, this event proved us about the important of making a responsible decision. As teenagers, we should think rationally and be brave to make a good decision even if it might be risky to us. We have to be more mature and think the

best way for everyone’s happiness. For example, if there is any problem in our class, we have to take the responsibility to make them at peace. In this novel, Richard declined the role of Doughboy to show his support towards Hannah. I hope that everyone who read this novel will be able to see all the moral values that the writer put in.

“ Family support family ” The novel that I have studied for Form Five is Dear Mr. Kilmer by Anne Schraff. There are a few character is Richard’s family based on this novel such as Pa, Gus, Richard and Angie. From this story, we can see that family supports family. First and foremost, Pa is the one who shows family supports family. The story began with Pa, Gus and Richard were out hunting for a deer in the wood early in the morning. Pa hoped that Richard will shoot his first deer. Richard aimed at the deer but missed the shot on purpose. Gus raised his rifle to shoot but Pa stopped him. Pa asked Richard privately why he did not shoot the deer. Richard responded that he did not want to kill such a fine and wild animal. He also feel sad if he kill the deer. Pa understood Richard and was not mad at him. But, he also explained that death was a part of life. From this situation we can see that Pa shows his support towards Richard by not scolding him because he missed his target to kill the deer. Other than that, Pa started to understand why Richard loves to write poem even he is the one who did not agree when Richard write poem at first. As evidence, Richard started to know about poetry from his English teacher, Mrs. Hansen. One morning during the English class, Mrs. Hansen began the class by reading a poem titled Trees which was written by Joyce Kilmer. Joyce Kilmer is a famous poet, who worked at The New York Times newspaper. Now, he is a volunteered soldier and in war. Richard was amazed by how the poem could be so simple but yet have such a profound message. He then borrowed the poetry book from Mrs. Hansen. He also found the address of Kilmer’s workplace and wrote it down. Starting from that moment, Richard keep exchanged a letter with Mr. Kilmer. He also wrote poem in his letter to Joyce Kilmer. From the exchanging letter, Richard learnt and polished his poem to become a better one. After Mr. Kilmer had been killed in the war, Richard had published his poem in The Turtle Lake Weekly, the local community newspaper. Because of that, Richard became a famous poet. Starting from that moment, Pa understands why Richard loves to write poem. He enjoys Richard’s poem, often giving advice or suggestions. This tells us that Pa shows his supports towards his son, Richard. In addition, Angie, the youngest family member’s of Richard always did the house chores since the mother had passed away. She took the responsibility to take care of the family by preparing them the meal.

As teenagers, we must support our siblings to chase their ambition. We should not demote them by telling things like they are not very good at it. Instead we should help them improve their skill for their ambition. For example, if our sister wants to be a novelist, we should not condemn their writing or grammar. Instead, we should tell their mistake nicely and give them advice to improve their masterpiece. This is just like Pa did to support Richard on being a poet. Pa comment his son‘s poem and advice him so his poem is high quality before sending it to the Turtle Lake Daily newspaper. This taught us more on family supports family. Last but not least, I hope that everyone who read this novel will be able to see all the moral values that the writer put into the novel.