Well, I don’t know if it can be said as a ‘same’ situation, but when I was reading the part about the man shooting a flare gun, it made me remind of firecrackers I enjoyed watching with my older brother. It was a summer of 2007, and all of my family members went on a trip to Jeju Island for 4 days. I remember it as one of the most memorable trips since I could visit almost every tourist attraction of Jeju Island in 4 days. Especially, before the night we came back to Daegu, we had a very ‘luxurious’ dinner, I should say. We visited the restaurant shaped like a passenger ship and we could enjoy our dinner, watching spectacular scene of the night of Jeju. After finishing dinner, my parents and grandparents remained longer in the restaurant since their talks continued on. I and my brother started to feel boring and went outside to play on the seashore. While we were walking along the beach, we found that there was stationery nearby. Almost at the same time, both of us thought of a firecracker, and we went straight to the stationery to buy some. We didn’t know how to light up the firecracker, so that it took some time. But in the end, we found how to, and we enjoyed watching fireworks display until my parents and grandparents ended up their long, long conversation.
On page 242, the boy is saying ‘Wow’ after finding out that the flare gun is used for signaling, and that the boy will be able to see the man shooting the flare gun when it gets dark. ‘Wow’ means he’s surprised and expecting something, right? I can’t be sure about this, but maybe the feeling I had would have been similar to the boy’s feeling depicted in the book. In fact, when I was much younger, (I can’t remember exactly… Maybe when I was about 5 or 6 year-old boy) I once was watching other people playing with firecrackers. It was very sudden and accidental. One of the guys who were playing with firecracker did not see me sitting right next to them, and he just shot the firecracker in the direction where I was sitting. Luckily, it didn’t hit me directly, but I had to stay up all night suffering from the chemicals that went into my eyes. Since I had such a bad experience, I actually had some kind of ‘firecracker phobia’. However, when my brother told me to buy one, I became curious about what is going to happen when I, myself, light it.
The boy in the book would have also been a bit scared about flare gun since he saw the man shooting a gun to the stranger he met earlier, and he knew the fact that it’s a dangerous thing. But again when he saw it, he became a bit curious about what would happen if he shots a flare gun. Well, since I thought that my experience was somewhat similar to this situation, I could remind me of that experience.
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haha. what an experience with firecrackers. I used to play with firecrackers when all of my relatives come to enjoy holidays. We would go to someplace very flat and light the firecrackers. I also love watching the fireworks in beaches, especially in Haeundae. haha.
ReplyDeleteYour relating the flaregun with the firework was rather very unique(?) and I liked reading your own experience^^ thank you for sharing your story!
I remember using fire crackers at Sinchun stream :) (You may not know it ofcouse...since it's really small... I think.) But, I remember it was really fun! I especially liked the feeling when I held on to it. I thought it was very creative of you to relate the experience! I never thought of it that way~ ㅎㅎ Thanks to you, I was able to look back at my experience using a fire cracker
ReplyDeleteI more than once had played with firecrackers, too. :) But all those times I were with adults, like Mom and Dad and my relatives. I like watching firecrackers coloring the sky but I'm a bit afraid of it making huge sound and smoke. I actually do not try to touch the firecracker that already went off and cooled. I'm even afraid of holding the small one that burns and sparks a bit and dies out in some seconds. :) I'm a coward actually. hehe. So I could understand the boy when he told the man to shoot the gun.
ReplyDeleteYour personal connections to your own experiences really make the boy's reactions more understandable and human. I'm sorry to hear about the time you got a little burn from the firecracker.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think it was so surprising to the boy that there would be a signal that called people to come find you? Think about it...