DEAR MR. WINSTON is an apology letter from a girl named Cora to a Librarian named Mr. Winston. It is about the girl saying how sorry she is for bringing a snake to the library and hurting Mr. Winston. She wrote many things to show that she was truly, genuinely sorry. However, Cora wasn’t actually sincerely sorry for harming Mr. Winston at all. She was only writing that she was sorry because her parents forced her to. In fact, she was upset about her own things like not getting to watch TV and her money. Cora also blamed Mr. Winston and said it was his fault that she got into trouble. Here are some evidences to show that Cora wasn’t actually sincerely sorry for breaking the rules by bringing a snake into the library.
First of all, Cora made the letter sound truly genuine just to make her parents let her watch her favorite TV show Galactic Patrol. Cora didn’t really feel sorry for Mr. Winston at all, she was just unhappy that she may not get to watch the Galactic Patrol ever again. Her parents threatened to never let her watch the TV show again if she wasn’t truly sorry. Therefore, Cora only said sorry because she wanted to watch her favorite TV show. In other words, Cora said that she was sorry just to watch a TV show. Her parents forced her to write the apology. Cora wasn’t feeling bad or sorry for Mr. Winston. In fact, she was just faking it so she could watch Galactic Patrol.
Second, Cora was upset about losing her money instead of feeling bad for Mr. Winston. She wasn’t happy about having to pay for the flowers sent to Mr. Winston. Also, Cora was not very happy that she spent a lot of money just to keep a snake for one week. She only cared for herself but not Mr. Winston. One could conclude from this that Cora was just sorry about herself but not Mr. Winston. She thought her money was more important than doing the right thing. Cora did not realize she did a very wrong thing and she thought it was very unimportant. Cora was sorry for herself instead of hurting Mr. Winston with a snake and breaking the rules.
Lastly, Cora blamed other people for making her get into trouble. She criticized Mr. Winston for making her open the box and letting the snake escape. This also points out that Cora wasn’t sincerely sorry for bringing a snake into the library. Cora thought that it was Mr. Winston’s own fault that he got hurt by the snake, because it was Mr. Winston who insisted on opening the box. Her selfishness made her think that she had nothing to do with the problem and it was all Mr. Winston’s fault. Cora didn’t reflect or look back on what she did to Mr. Winston. Therefore, she put all her fault on Mr. Winston just to get rid of the problems. Cora showed that she wasn’t actually sorry by blaming her mistakes on other people, even the victim himself.
DEAR MR. WINSTON is a letter from a girl named Cora to a librarian named Mr. Winston. The letter is about an apology for bringing a snake into the library and hurting a teacher. Although Cora said that she was truly, genuinely sorry for breaking the rules, we could see that she wasn’t actually sorry from many points. She only made the letter sound very sincere because her parents forced her to. Cora felt only sorry about her own things like money instead of Mr. Winston. She also blamed Mr. Winston for getting her into trouble. These could all prove that Cora wasn’t truly sorry about harming Mr. Winston and breaking the rules by bringing a snake into the library. As young people, we all make mistakes, and it is okay. The point is to think through them and think about how you could avoid it next time, not to blame it on other people and find excuses to get rid of the problem. By using the format of a letter, DEAR MR. WINSTON finds a unique way to tell a story.
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