Changing Lives

In the beginning of Elephant Run by Roland Smith, Nick the main character in the story is a thirteen year old, who is treated like he is an adult. Most teens feel like they are treated like either adults or three year-olds and are never treated the way they would like to be, but Nick really was treated as an adult. He lived with his mom in London, England and his dad owned a elephant plantation in the middle of a Burmese jungle, after the Japanese attacked London, his mom thought he would be safer with his dad... she was wrong. Nick was very different in the beginning of the book from the end, he didn't only change as an individual but he also changed the lives of everyone else on that plantation. 

Giving that everyone always said that he couldn't handle living on the plantation and actually working for what he got, was hard enough for him to take. But when he got there he was almost crushed by a large timber elephant, and didn't tell anyone. Until close to the end of the book I didn't understand quite why. He didn't want anyone to think that he couldn't handle it out in the middle of the jungle. This reminds me of a time when I was out on a four-wheeler with one of my cousin and got my leg cut on a tree, I had deep cuts in three places on my leg. I didn't want to tell anyone because I thought they were going to tell me that I was to hurt to continue to help with whatever we were doing that day, even though I knew I was hurt and that I shouldn't be helping. That was a bad mistake on my part but I was only seven how was I supposed to know my leg could get infected, and Nick even though he was thirteen didn't know that he had three broken ribs and that riding on the back of an elephant for three days afterwards would make him almost unable to move. His dad told him the first night he got to Burma to watch out for the elephants because they can kill you in many different ways. "...impale you with a tusk, stomp on you with their feet, throw you, bash you against a tree, crush your head in their mouths, do a headstand on your chest..." (40) Nick didn't know what to do, as children and as teens both make bad judgments on what you are and are not supposed to tell someone, when they tell you things not to do and you do them anyway.

Also in the beginning of Elephant Run Nick was just a kid, pale, chubby not much to him. Everyone could tell he wasn't going to last very long on the plantation if he didn't "man up." Japanese soldiers found him in the woods and were going to take over his fathers plantation. They dragged Nick back to the house. He was locked in a room with no food or water and was not aloud to talk to anyone. So he broke out, has any teenager ever not disobeyed their parents or guardians? I know I have and it's not a great feeling to feel on your own. Nick on the other hand was trying to save his father, when he broke out of the house and he also needed food and water. No one understood him and what he was going through in life, no one wanted to help him because they were to afraid but they still thought he wasn't going to survive in the wilderness on his own because he was still a "little kid."

Towards the end of the book Nick changed a lot, he was changing slowly throughout the book but towards the end he turned into a real man. As he was on a quest to save his dad he realized that to save him he would have to risk his own life to save his. He went into the "jail" that his father was in and found out they put him on burial duty because he was sick and if he died hopefully he would just die in one of the holes he was digging. He got help from Japanese soldiers who didn't want to be imprisoning these people who did nothing wrong. They buried his dad alive and left to give Nick just enough time to dig him up and get out of the "jail" before the other soldiers realized what was going on. He grew up a lot after that and figured out that family and friends is really all you need. I don't think a lot of people have realized that yet. Sometimes I think I haven't either and then I realize that people have it a lot worse than me, to the point were they don't even have family. I think every one takes that for granted because when it is just something you have always had once it's gone you realize sometimes you don't always get what you want, and that's what helped Nick grow up so much in the middle of that Burmese jungle.

Along the way to the end of the book he influenced a lot of people, more than I probably even remember. There was a girl, Mya, she was to afraid to live her own life after the Japanese came. She was treated like a puppet on strings, and it wasn't her fault but she let them. Nick helped her cut those strings he told her that she deserved more than this and that she should come with him and her great great grandfather to help save his dad and her brother. She cut those strings and disappeared with Hilltop (great great grandfather) and Nick to save her brother. Another person that he had a lot of influence on was his own father, who acted as if when you are working you can't have any fun. Which was okay with Nick because he got a lot of stuff done. But it was more like a chore to him than actually doing something fun because he made it that way. Nick got him to lighten up and have more fun when he was doing things so that it didn't seem like such a chore. Nick influenced a lot more people in this book in good ways and maybe sometimes bad but he always seemed to have an answer for everything they may not have been logical but they were still answers, and most importantly to the people on the plantation they were the right answers which they hadn't had many of.

All of these things that he did remind me of a character in a different book. Someone whose parents died and moved over 8 times. Someone whose journey influenced a lot of people that maybe their life wasn't so bad. Someone whose journey changed her more than anyone could ever imagine. Violet Baudelaire, from A Series of Unfortunate Events is a character much like Nick. As in Elephant Run Violet got moved when her parents died even though Nick's mom didn't die it was kid of the same situation, it was better for them somewhere else. As Nick wanted to save his dad, Violet wanted to make sure her two younger siblings were safe throughout the whole thing. Also Nick was being chased and was also captured by the Japanese, Violet was being chased by an evil villain, Count Olaf, even though she was not captured they were close to being multiple times throughout their lives. In many ways Nick and Violet are similar and in many ways they are different, but they both shared their wisdom and bravery in life with many people who needed their help. 

Nick didn't only change from the beginning to the end of the book on his own, but he also changed many other people's lives along the way. He realized many things, and didn't care what others thought about him. He knew he could make it in the Burmese jungle and he was determined to, and he did once he grew up and recognized that he needed his family and friends to help him along the way. He needed their support and even though he changed their lives, I don't think he would ever admit that they changed his too.