Reading Doesn't Allow Us To Walk In Another's Shoes

• Emmily Lingard, Grade 8, Fraser Coast Anglican College -
• Short Story
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Horizon of Dreams 2018' competition

When you put on someone else’s shoes, they are uncomfortable, the wrong size, and just don’t match your outfit! Books are just the same, and they might not match what you are looking for. Reading doesn’t allow us to walk in another’s shoes. You only have limited knowledge of the characters and you’re not actually in the situation or knowing the story line, and what about fiction books? They’re not even real.
Do you ever have moments in life that people just don’t get? Well when you’re reading a book sometimes you just don’t understand what the author is trying to get across to the audience. When you’re in someone’s shoes it’s different and when you’re reading books you only have limited knowledge of the characters; whereas the authors know everything about the characters. In the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins is described as ‘fat in the stomach with thick warm brown hair with a laugh deep and fruity’. If you saw a picture of Bilbo Baggins you would not be able to see how J.R.R Tolkien has described Bilbo in the book. But if you like to get into the humble details of his adventures you don’t know a lot about the other characters in the book.
Would you believe something that you can’t see yourself, like Fiction books? If you like reading fiction books like The Hobbit you don’t know what the characters are like because they’re not real. Things like dragons, giant spiders, elves, dwarves and goblins in the Hobbit aren’t living so how would you understand what they should be like? Fiction books are stories that are made up and you don’t even understand what some of the things are because they’re not real.
Are you walking in difficult, uncomfortable shoes or are you imagining walking for hours in smelly, different shoes? When you’re reading a book are you interested in the story or imagining something else? While people read books, about 30% of people don’t understand what the story line is. Although you’re reading a book you’re not actually in the situation or seeing the story in real life. Reading a book and imagining the story in your head could be completely different to the story line.
Walking a mile in someone else’s shoes isn’t always the first thing you do, but there is no way you can think or imagine the same thing as the author who wrote the book. Reading doesn’t always allow us to know all the knowledge in a book but reading fiction books that have made up characters just makes it even harder. Knowing the storyline in real life or seeing the situation in real life would make the story so much clearer and easier to understand. Reading books are great but reading doesn’t allow us to walk in another’s shoes.