In the beginning the girl Trishia was sitting in the back seat of the car
listening to her mom and brother fight. They were going on there Saturday outing
to a nature forest. While on the trail Trishia had to urinate so she called to
her mom, but her mom was busy arguing with Pete the brother. She ducked off in
the woods to urinate when she saw other people near her. She went further into
the woods and got lost. At first, she wasn’t worried she thought they would
recognize that she was lost and find her. She was smart because she didn’t eat
all of her lunch she rationed it out. That night she took out her Walkman and
listened to the Red Sox game and that was her only line to the world. The next
day she woke up thinking she was in her bed, when she noticed she was in the
woods she started to cry. She ate some of her lunch and started to follow the
creek because she thought it would lead her to people. She was walking up a hill
when she slipped and fell down the hill, and smooshed her lunch and punctured
her water supply. Out of food and water, she was forced to eat berries and drink
from the creek. That night she took out her Walkman and hoped it worked after
her fall, then she listened to the Sox again and heard a news flash about her,
starting to cry she turned off her Walkman. The next night she drank from the
creek and ate some berries, In the night she awoke and threw up her meal all
over her pack, also she had a case of diarrhea and she fell in it. She did get
used to the water and berries so she ate them often. She was starting to
hallucinate so she heard voices telling her she was going to die and that there
was something watching her, also she saw a wasp king after being stung by wasps
when she fell down the hill. After a week, she could barley walk and the search
party was now focused on a prank call saying she had been raped and dumped in
Maine. Suddenly she found a road and started to follow, it didn’t lead to
anything but an empty truck and an old cottage. She was face to face with a bear
and she threw her Walkman at it right when a hunter shot it in the leg, the
hunter rescued her and left her at the hospital. (He could not be known because
he was breaking the law of hunting in the offseason) In the end she was reunited
with her parents after nine days in the woods, she had phenomena in both lungs
and she would be fine. Why I Chose Book? The reason I chose this book is because
I thought it was going to be a baseball book by the title The Girl Who Loved Tom
Gordon. It wasn’t about baseball it was about a girl who was lost in the woods
for nine days and the story of her survival. Also, I chose this book because the
minimum page requirement is 180 pages and this was 220 so wasn’t going to read
a 300-page novel. Reaction To Something I Read The one thing that stands out
that I read is when she started to have her hallucinations and starts to talk to
her idle Tom Gordon (a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox). She asks him questions
and he answers them. Also, she talks to her friend Pepsi and thinks of her
sayings. She sees things like the wasp man with a head of wasps and then he
talks he spits wasps at her. I think this is a good description by Stephen King
of what it would be like to be alone in the woods with no sign of human life for
nine days. Is The Title A Good One? I don’t think the title The Girl Who Loved
Tom Gordon is a good title because sports fans automatically think it will be
about sports. The title is the way it is because the girl loves Tom Gordon and
talks to him while alone in the forest. The title is very misleading with only a
few references to baseball. Some other titles could be Alive or Trapped or maybe
The Girl Who Is Crazy And Talks To Tom Gordon In Her Head. Character Analysis
Patricia Mcfarland is a nine-year-old girl who on a trip with her family gets
lost in the woods. Her family is on the ruins after her parents got divorced.
Her Dad who they moved from is now an alcoholic and her mom keeps getting into
fights with her son Pete. Trishia is a bystander to all of the fighting and she
is the youngest, but knows what is going on. She is smart, lonely, and brave,
and she will prove that to you in the next three paragraphs. She is very street
smart and wise for her age. Most nine-year-olds wouldn’t even come close on
their own in the woods for nine days. She has to ration her food and then fend
for herself. She has to find berries and live of creek water. Most adults
wouldn’t be able to find the berries that wont kill you. She had a Walkman
that she listened to a night when the Red Sox were on and when she listened she
made sure not to fall asleep during the game so the batteries would die and she
would lose her link to society. In addition, when she was face to face with a
bear she didn’t run she just stood there as not to startle the bear. Then she
rubbed mud on her shin so that the bugs wouldn’t be able to eat her alive.
Trishia became very lonely after she was lost for awhile so she started to
imagine things. She imagined that Tom Gordon was walking with her and that her
friend Pepsi was with her. She would talk to Tom and ask him questions about
closing a baseball game and his secrets to success and why he points to the sky
after a win. She also started to see things like the wasp man who had a head of
wasps and spit wasps at her when he talked. The scariest for her was the voice
in her head that told her she was being watched and told her she was going to
die. She was very brave because she was in the woods for nine days without
cracking and going crazy which most of us would. She had to stare down a bear
that was going to kill her and had to bare with the nights in the woods with all
the sounds and animals out there. In all the time, she kept her calm with only
some crying although she heard some helicopters and thinking they gave up on
her. She heard on the radio that the search was now focused on a guy who pranked
called 911 saying that she was lying raped and dead in a garbage can in Maine.
Hearing that would of made a lot of people lose hope. In conclusion, Patricia
Mcfarland is very brave, smart, and lonely. She has to have all three to be able
to survive nine days in the woods. She should have died but she survived with
only two bad lungs, wasp stings, bruises, and cuts. Lastly most of us couldn’t
stand one day like this, but she lasted nine.