Reading Journal - The Body - the first 30 pages

The beautiful legacy of The Body is the very first paragraph that describes the precious words which were buried deeply in our heart, and when those were; those also were elusive and unseen. I think almost people are not aware of the fact that the most things are the hardest things to say. I was about to cry when I read this paragraph, just like I got consolation of figuring out why the world looked so sad. Words diminish and shrinks the limitless light, unable to catch, by turning the facts into no more than living size. Even if everyone reads this paragraph, the secret will stay locked within not for want of a teller but for want of an understanding ear.

I grew up and I am still growing. The age of 17 approaches me more like a little girl than an adult, who doesn’t know how high one can jump and how harsh the wave of the world is. The power of 17 comes out from the fact that 17 doesn’t know and begins to open the eyes. They get hurts a lot by storm of worries, hardships, and mistakes- as adults express the 17, an age of storm and gale. I love the age 17, but actually it’s hard to love the truth that you’re at the age 17. Even the age-12 going on 13- was much lower than 17 in The Body, I somehow felt circulation or situation of apprehension that overlaps with me in some way- which I’ll get sure by the end of this story.

With intense individuality, the 4 main characters start a journey of finding the dead body; a journey to fall from innocence and get near to the corruption as turning to 13. They crashed out to the shallowness of the society from their own world of small house up in the elm tree that divided them from themselves and the world outside. When we are at the age of 12 or 13, we all have a world for just our childhood, sharing only with the close friends. No one can understand the small world, and the members in there feel strong solidarity that makes them feel like they can survive on an uninhabited island if they’ve got each other. I discovered this relationship among them as thick as their unconscious anger toward their family. However, the construction of world out of friendship might add more sorrow when turning into an attacker from a defender of the gross world. The deeper you get obsessed of, the harder you try to get out.

I’ve read until the short story told by Gordy during their journey. The story is getting more excited and complicated. Stephen King slowly reveals the characters with impact of each line they say. They behave exactly like innocent teenage boys; they joke dirty, play naughty, and think uniquely. I want to keep an eye on them and reveal how they reach the end of the story with conclusion. I want to see the reflection of myself through the story and get comfort of my age 17.

I still see some coincidence with the story The shawshank as I keep moving sentence by sentence. The code of American culture which was Rita Hayworth or Raquel Welch in Shawshank, in The Body, it is the songs to reveal the cultural code of the generation. The seasonal background, summer, provokes curiosity how the author will draw autumn from summer, similar with Shawshank pulled the sense of spring from different seasonal background, just by the story itself. I’ll keep reading and see how my emotion changed with the first 30pages reading journal.