Novel Response #2

The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee

In the book The Piano Teacher, Claire tells the reader that she feels like a different person when she is around Will.

-What things in the story contributed to her feeling different?
-What in your life could make you feel like a different person? Would this be in a good or bad way?
-What in society contributes to people feeling different from whom they really are?

Claire feels like she is different when she is around Will because she is finally given the opportunity to feel that way. When she was in England, her mother wanted her to be and act a certain way. When Claire came to Hong Kong, she no longer had her mother to say such things, so then she had the freedom to be who she wanted. Even though she had this freedom, she didn’t quite know how to use it until Will came along. He showed her that she could act as she wanted when she was around him, and that she could be open with him and say things she never would have said to Martin (her husband). Claire felt like she was a new person with Will. A person she had wanted to become, but had never really had the chance.

Some people in my life make me feel like a different person. I feel different when I am at church then when I am at school. At school, I feel like everyone is watching me and making sure that I am acting a certain way. If I don’t, suddenly everyone is talking about me. I am not free to be myself at school for this reason. Everyone is excepting me to be a certain person, which is usually not who I really am. At church though, everyone knows me and we are all very close, just like a family. I know that at church no one is going to judge me for my actions and therefore, I am free to be me.

In today’s society, people like to be the same because it’s what the media says is “right”. People wear what is advertised because it’s “cool”. What the media says is not always who people are. People do what other people do because they want to fit in. More often then not, people are afraid to stand out. No one wants to be known as “the weird girl”, but that’s what we label each other if they are different from us. The strong people in the world are the people who dare to be different and who will stand up for what they believe instead of following the “in crowd”. In our world, we must learn to accept everyone because everyone is different. If everyone is exactly the same, what good will that do? We all do not think or act or look the same, we have been told by other people how to think and act and look. Once we have the opportunity to be different, we will take it, but not before then because we have not been told to so. We are all scared of what others will think of us, but once we let go of that, other people will look up to us.