Literature - Dear Mr Kilmer (Moral Value)

Using the details from the novel, write about an important moral value that you have learnt. (15 marks)

         The allegory Dear Mr Kilmer from the hands and mind of Anne Schraff brings its readers on an emotional roller coaster, as it explores friendship, love, patriotism and many other quintessential elements a story needs. Based on this novel that I have studied, there is one moral value that no reader of this story fails to interpret. It is none other than standing up to your own principles.

       Anne Schraff has beautifully made this moral value tangible in the protagonist, Richard Knight. Richard though is just a 15-year-old teenager, is mature enough to stand for his right and to be able to juxtapose the good and the bad. One example that shows this moral value in Richard is when Gus oppresses Richard by ill-treating him with nicknames such as 'Small Fry' for failing to shoot a dear. Gus also asks Richard to leave his avocation of poetry in order to fit in with the society. But, Richard does not adhere to his brother's wish as he stands by his principles of killing is vice and poetry is life. 

          This moral value can be further seen when his English teacher announces of signing a card to express regrets on the incident where Hanna, Richard's classmates' tavern gets vandalised. No one in the class signs the card dues to bullies who think Hanna's a 'Dirty Hun'. But, Richard gathers his courage to be the only one to sign the card and gives it himself to the Schumhers. Richard here shows that he is an egalitarian by signing the card to express his regret. 

         

          This value that Richard had harboured at such a young age shows us the importance of standing up to our own principles. If Richard had been gullible, there would not have been camaraderie formed between him and Hanna and also between hi and Joyce Kilmer. The fact that Richard lived by his principles has also helped him distinguish between the right and the wrong. When Richard's father and Gus had asked him to stop poetry, he knew it was wrong to put an end to his joy just because society would not accept him. Thus, standing up to your principles also helps overcome the modus vivendi that the society has set.

         In conclusion, it is important that people should have their own way of life instead of having 'herd' mentality by 'following the crowd'. Anne Schraff has emphatically brought this value in the novel to stop society from deciding what is normal when one has the conscience to do so.

            


WaitWhat pointers : 1. Remember to always write based on the incidents in the novel.
                                 2. Giving three points are sufficient as each point carries 5 marks.