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Jason Jae Sung Lee Professor H English 114A September 9, 2013 Word Count: 462

Covert message encoded of The Messenger (Her Early Years) by Sarah Fran Wisby Summary of The Messenger (Her Early Years) by Sarah Fran Wisby is a short poem that can be encoded into many different perspectives. It uses a lot of symbolism and the transition of her life separated into 4 different segments of her life. The K-5, 6-8, high school, and college. The poem isnt really clear about the sex if the main character is a male or a female. The transformation about of a small young innocent child to a rebellious child and in the end the character regrets. Characters trying to glue the pieces of glass shards that she broke but it only shows that the broken glass she tries to glue together will not be the same again even if the character glued everything back together. In her life of a K-5, it explained the young innocence of a child just being a mail deliverer within the teacher and the parent. Story wasnt really clear about what the message was about but she seemed like a trouble child or she was one of the students that needs attention. It starts transitioning by changing the season to winter. Winter and snow symbols the idea of transition and change. Its the characters maturing from the innocence and snow is white and white resembles the color of innocence. In high school the innocence breaks and the apex of the trouble

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filled child. A runaway child to Paris, 50 centimes which is equivalent to less than a dollar, and dying hair to snow white. Snow and white resembles the purity, but the covert message of the reason why the character dyed their hair is because it shows that they still have the pure and innocent side in them. It clearly shows that the character is not a bad person and actually has good inside them in the next transition of the segment. College is the next and the last segment of the characters life. It begins with the falling in love with a female warden like figure. The character starts to reflect on the image that they see. A leafless tree that is right outside the window can relate to the character the most. A stranded tree that has no leaf and just branches is just a mirror reflection of themself. The character decided to write letters to everyone the character still cared about. Just like the tree, the character is stranded and left alone. A very tragic ending. The character had an epiphany and decided to turn their life around to its right path but the character has gone too far to come turn around. This was a really great story and the symbolism used in many places in this short story helped me to understand the message that the writer was giving me.

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Works Cited Wisby, Sarah Fran. The Messenger (Her Early Years).Viva Loss. San Francisco: Small Desk Press, 2008. Print. Page 44-46.