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Red to Green

In: English and Literature

Submitted By Yoyo1996
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Essay – Red from Green

The story is about a girl, called Sam who is offered a scholarship by a boarding school. This essay will include a deep analysis of the text and a other analysis related elements. At first she feels like the caring relationship she has with her father is too important but she changes her mind after a trip she makes with her father, Uncle Harry, and one of Harry’s clients from his law firm called Layton who is a bit younger than Harry is. Sam lives in Montana with her father, and every summer they take a trip down to the river, but this time they are accompanied by Harry and his client. The weather on the trip is very fine, the sun is shining, and there is fresh air. The group of four people is sleeping in tents, and sometimes they make a bonfire to make it all cozy.
Sam is a girl at the age of 15 so she is almost half through her teenage years, which is the time where kids are emotionally most unstable. She likes very much when people say that she is good at something which says that she is a little unsecure about herself, and maybe that is also one of the reasons why she cannot decide about taking the scholarship.
Before the trip, she had not made her mind up about accepting the scholarship but afterwards she chooses to take the offer and leave her father.
She has a very close relationship to her father, because she has no mother. Her father is her only idol, and she feels that she can always trust him. The two love each other very much so it is a pretty normal father-daughter relationship they have.
Layton and Sam become sort of close. They become good friends, and spend a lot of time together. Layton compliments Sam’s teeth which makes her a bit embarrassed. The two of them go out shooting one day, which is something Sam has not tried before. She does okay, and feels proud about herself after hitting the target. But Layton exaggerates a lot about her shooting and tries to manipulate her into thinking that he is only a friend and wants to be nice. The texts also says that Layton was not “like other adults” in Sam’s eyes.
In the evening, Layton complains about having some problems with his back so he wants somebody to stand on him, and then he probably lies about the weight he needs, just to get Sam to do it. She chooses to do so her father does not say anything about it but she still feels kind of nervous about the situation because she does not feel a 100% safe.

As Sam is walking back and forth on Layton’s back, he asks her to kneel down between his shoulder blades. He thinks of a way to touch Sam by telling her that she is not sitting straight so he pretends to put her in to place while touching her and he does not remove his hand after pushing her into the right position. After some time, he continues touching her leg but he pushes his hand closer to her vagina and touches the back of her thigh, which makes Sam move away, because she does not feel safe about the situation, and she probably did not see Layton as a sexual partner anyways. Then Layton proceeds to touch her between the legs which makes Sam stand up, which is a symbol of Sam standing up for herself and defending her opinion. Layton obviously want to have a sexual intercourse with Sam so he rolls over and tells her to stay but Sam is strong enough to say no, and she leaves. At this point Sam is very scared and frustrated and she does not know what to do. She has never seen a look like the one Layton had in his eyes as he touched her, and Sam understands this as if Layton had actually taken her virginity and innocence even though he did not. It is understandable that Sam is scared because she felt like she could trust Layton, and she did not think that he would harass her sexually. All of this happened after the father went to bed, which is a symbol of the father letting his daughter down, and not really care about her.
The next morning Layton and Sam do not speak, and they do not even look at each other. They are like strangers, which shows that sex is not just sex. Sex can mean a lot to some persons, and to some it does not mean anything. It is important that you feel safe and you trust your partner.
After her father letting her down, she decides to take the scholarship and leave her dad.
Sam really wants to ask her father why he left her alone that night with Layton, but she does not do it. Instead she tells herself that it is not his fault and of course he did not want that to happen to his daughter. After she tells her father about the scholarship, they do not talk much.

She is a young woman who has finally grown up, and decides to leave her dad and possibly try to forget the incident with Layton. She is still a confused teenager, but she will gain life experience and she knows that.
Taking the scholarship is of course the best thing to do for a 15 year old girl, because and education will help her a lot in the future.
The name of the text:”Red from Green” is basically Sam’s inner traffic light that goes from red to green. She does things her dad does not like, and even though she feels like she should just stay with her father “Red light” she decides to move on “Green light” and take the scholarship.

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