Red to Green
Red to Green
A fiction Red to Green by Maile Meloy is a story about a girl named Sam. This story is basically about a girl who is offered a scholarship to a boarding school hesitates to accept it then after what happened while her trip she decides to accept the offer. The main happening that affects her mind to accept a scholarship and leave far away from home happens when Sam, her father, her uncle, and her uncle’s client Layton take the float trip down the river. The reason she was hesitating to accept the offer in my opinion is because Sam’s mother died and there are only Sam and her father living in her house so she did not want to leave her father alone and leave far away from home. The father feels same as what Sam feels. It was his idea of Sam going to the boarding school but then after she got the offer, he feels dismay.
In one of the night during the trip, something happens that affects Sam’s decision. Layton, a client of her uncle, sexually harasses her. Sam’s father left her alone with Layton and went to sleep. Of course, he did not know something will happen and did not expect it to happen and wanted it to happen. The one thing comes up in her mind after Layton harassed her is why did her father left her alone with some stranger even though they stayed together for sometime and not take care of her. After they come back home, Sam filled out the acceptance form for the scholarship to boarding school. She decided to go to the boarding school and leave her father. The first break she got after she left for the school, she called her father telling him she will go with her roommate to her roommate’s house.
By once reading this story, I think no one will get the point or main idea of this story. This story is complicated that is hiding a main point and so requires you to read more than once and explore to understand it better. One question that most of the reader would ask and which is also my first question is why Sam’s father leaved her with a stranger man. But we can also come up with simple answers which are that he left her behind and left to sleep because he was really really tired and he also had a trust in Layton and so did not think of what he actually did to his daughter will happen. Another question I had is if the title of this story is really significant to this story. When I saw the title I was able to rephrase it as ‘stop to go’ because when you look at the title Red to Green you can think a traffic light and I think that the author also referred it to a traffic light. A Green light means you are allowed to go and a red light means you must stop. Also in the story, the author mentioned twice the red light that is from a traffic light. There is this woman who works in a lab and got damages so she is not able to drive anymore. She cannot tell a red light means stop or go anymore. Does it have to do something with Sam’s decision?
What has changed Sam’s decision or helped her to make decision? First thing I can think of is the fact her father left her alone and did not take care of her. Her father is the only person she can always trust and maybe her father’s act had broken her faith so she needed some time away from her father to think