Main Character in Sing Down the Moon

 I'm about halfway into this book, and I have to say I'm really loving the main character Bright Morning. Being a 14-year old girl Bright Morning has a lot to handle. She has the stress of chores, the pressure from her parents and her older sister, as well as competing with the other kids her age. She's a teen so I bet that a lot of us here are able to relate with her to an extent. However it's not that easy to compare our life with hers and still assume she lives like us. Because she doesn't. Her life is tied to her village. And for this girl, she falls into some major trouble which turns her life into a one she never imagined living. 

Now, we all have bad days but what happened to her reflects a major problem in society that continues to happen everyday all around the world-kidnapping. So Bright Morning does get kidnapped but her experience during that low point in her life is what was able to truly bring out her character. When she goes to her new master's house the first piece of her character that rises is her determination and stubbornness to get out of the place where she felt like she was locked in. Let me tell you it wasn't hard to characterize her because the author very explicity stated how she was. Bright Morning essentially makes a promise to herself saying, "I will never stir the beans nor will I ever smile when I am in this house," (O'Dell 35). This shows her willingness and determination to resist the force upon her. In this type of situation, I feel like it is particularly important to have a strong mental state so that a person is able to stay strong and use all their energy towards finding a way to get out. And or course that quote also shows how stubborn Bright Morning is when she says that she will"never stir the beans". Now normally people think it is a bad quality to have if you are stubborn but for this character her stubbornness was vital for her to conquer her mind and control it so that she doesn't give into the demands of her slavers.

So I truly appreciate her and what she did for herself when she was landed in this mess and believe that it is important for everyone to be determined and passionate in the thing they believe so that they can go through it. And as for Bright Morning her willingness to get out of this experience was a great part of her personality.

Article talking about famous American kidnapping cases