In “Hanging Fire” The fourteen year old is seeing life in the now, but questions what would happen if she died, before he could do any of the things she wants and needs to do. She thinks about all that needs to be done, but states that she states she has nothing she wants to do. Which makes me believe that all she does do is not for herself, but to impress those around her, and fit in so to speak. The fact that she is fourteen thinking about death so often is worrisome to me, why would a fourteen need to think about death so much. Why would she be worrying about all that needed to be done, if it wasn’t what she wanted in the first place? Are they things she feels should be done, or things that someone has put in her head have to be done? She is also very repetitive with the fact that her mothers’ door is always closed, which makes me believe her mother is not around a lot.

In From “The Diary of An Almost-Four Year-Old” The child is questioning what will happen when she gets her fake eye, what will she see, what will she miss? I don’t feel she thought about death imparticularly, but about the lives of others, such as the nine month old. She is not old enough to understand why she was the victim, why she suffered? She the baby didn’t know any better, why is a almost four year old in the middle of shootings and soldiers, and why are soldiers shooting her in the first place? It reminds me of war times, and the fact that children actually go through these things saddens me greatly. She imagines about how her life will be with the new eye, how her view of things will change. She imagines it to be strange, I think she fears not being able to see everything the same way everyone else does, she isn’t sure how her life will be affected by it.

The one has had a near death experience while the other one thinks about what would happen if she were to die. They both seem to be in hard situations in life, stressed, and not really sure what to think about the world around them. The fourteen year old expresses her feelings on growing up by explaining her room is too small and she needs to learn to dance by the next party. She hates her braces, which will benefit her one day, but she going through the changes of puberty does not understand how. The child on the other hand isn’t thinking about growing up, but about the now in her life, and how bad things are in the world she is living in. Both girls are going through changes in life, both not having any control over it at all. Neither of them chose their fate, and neither of them fully understand what is going on, they have questions that cannot be answered to satisfy them. The one thing they are both sure of is that it is not fair.