Preview
When I Found You by Catherine Ryan Hyde is a novel about a middle-aged man who finds an abandoned infant in the woods. He wants desperately to keep this little boy after the doctor tells him he survives, but the baby's mother's mother wants him. When Nat reaches
his teens, his misbehavior causes his grandmother to send him to Nathan McCann, the man who rescued him, and Nathan takes on a mentoring and paternal, role in the young man’s life. This narrative explores how one young man’s life is shaped by the adults who surround him. It is a heartwarming account of the bond between an abandoned baby named Nat and the man who saved his life.
his teens, his misbehavior causes his grandmother to send him to Nathan McCann, the man who rescued him, and Nathan takes on a mentoring and paternal, role in the young man’s life. This narrative explores how one young man’s life is shaped by the adults who surround him. It is a heartwarming account of the bond between an abandoned baby named Nat and the man who saved his life.
Christ Figure?
He Will Not Wash His Hands of YouSeptember 25th, 1975
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The term "He will not wash his hands of you" can have a biblical interpretation. Many quotes in the bible have the same meaning of how God will never forsake or abandon you. In this sense, Nathan McCann can be interpreted as a Christ figure according to Thomas Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Nathan McCann does not abandon Nat for whatever reason. Nat is very difficult to like for the most part in the beginning. He is so angry and defensive. He has reason to be. Just look at his entrance to the world. But he just keeps lashing out, over and over again. Luckily, he does have a softer side, and it shows up just often enough that I didn't wash my hands of him. He's not someone who learns his lessons easily. He does everything the hardest way possible, making his own life more difficult than it has to be.Even when he gets into major trouble and get thrown into prison, Nathan is always there for him and constantly visiting him. Nat has never had that kind of a paternal influence in his life so in this sense Nathan becomes Nat's dad. The quote from the bible below is from Deuteronomy 31:8. The picture is of a forest and a tree by which light is shining most probably like the one where Nathan McCann found little Nat Bates hidden away.
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The Fight That Ended A Career
March 8th, 1980
On the night of March 8th, 1980, one fight ruined his entire career and life. From a big blow to his head, Nat becomes mentally challenged: speech difficulties, motor-skill difficulties, seizures. This is the climax of the book because it means that Nat can never box again and it is the end of his boxing career that he tried desperately his whole life to make happen. This brain injury causes him to lose his wife that he adores so much because he thinks he is a cripple and sounds like a retard. And even after Carol assures Nat that she loves him despite his injury, he wants her to leave because he does not want her to see him like this, so out of shape and not strong. Nat then admits to Nathan that he just realized he will not be able to make the doctors eat their words. Nat struggles moving forward but finally after many years, starts doing what Little Manny did for him and becomes a coach. Even though it was hard for him not to be jealous
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The Perfect Literary Disease: Cancer
January 3rd, 1990
On January 3, 1990, Nat sprints down the hospital hallway, impatient to find Nathan. He cannot believe how unkempt and helpless Nathan looks since he looked fine when they had lunch six days ago. Nathan did not tell Nat about his surgery because he did not want to worry him, plus he was hoping they would remove all the cancer so he could tell Nat he was better; unfortunately, the cancer was everywhere so they could not remove it, and though chemo and radiation was an option, they would only double the month or so that Nathan has left. Nat does not know what to say, so he asks how to help Nathan. Nathan wants to go home. The disease was cancer so he knew he was going to die and relatively when. If it were a quick passing disease, he wouldn’t have been able to make the arrangements, and the story wouldn’t have worked obviously. The fact that he had cancer let the viewers realize that you can’t have a grip on everything. Nobody asks for cancer and you can’t necessarily prevent it. You have to live your life to the fullest because you don’t know when you are going to go. That is the message that the writer was trying to get across and cancer was the perfect disease for the plot because it allowed time for the husband to make plans. It also made the viewers totally unaware of what was going to happen since cancer is such an unexpected disease.
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You Found Me
Lyrics:
Is this a dream? If it is Please don't wake me from this high I'd become comfortably numb Until you opened up my eyes To what it's like When everything's right I can't believe You found me When no one else was lookin' How did you know just where I would be? Yeah, you broke through All of my confusion The ups and the downs And you still didn't leave I guess that you saw what nobody could see You found me You found me So, here we are That's pretty far When you think of where we've been No going back I'm fading out All that has faded me within You're by my side Now everything's fine I can't believe You found me When no one else was lookin' How did you know just where I would be? Yeah, you broke through All of my confusion The ups and the downs And you still didn't leave I guess that you saw what nobody could see You found me You found me And I was hiding 'Til you came along And showed me where I belong You found me When no one else was lookin' How did you know? How did you know? You found me When no one else was lookin' How did you know just where I would be? Yeah, you broke through All of my confusion The ups and the downs And you still didn't leave I guess that you saw what nobody could see You found me (You found me) (When no one else was lookin') You found me (How did you know just where I would be?) You broke through All of my confusion The ups and the downs And you still didn't leave I guess that you saw what nobody could see The good and the bad And the things in between You found me You found me |
"Being numb" can be represented in the book from when Nat is left abandoned by his mother under the tree. He almost died from malnutrition and the freezing cold winter air. Until Nathan rescued him and saved his life and showed what "when everything's right" feels like. No one else was looking for Nat and didn't know where he would be, but Nathan ended up finding him. How did Nathan know just where Nat would be? Nathan broke through all of Nat's confusion and showed him unconditional love. Through Nat's ups and downs, Nathan never abandoned Nat because he promised that he would never give up on him. Nathan saw the good in Nat unlike his Gamma. Nat finally has someone on his side. He got terribly hurt from the professional fight that he did and Nathan stood by him. Nat wanted Nathan to do his physical therapy with him. Nathan found Nat when no one else wanted him. |