A Hero's Journey By Frank Santos Summary

1. Briefly summarize your piece. Then describe your message or moral

Based on the life of a teenage boy, Frank Santos, my short story takes place during the mid 90’s in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Fifteen-year-old Santos, is lives life according to plan; his father, was a very wealthy man, making the Santos family one of the richest in the country. The father one day, mysteriously, dies and due to fraudulent contracts and deceiving family members, the Santo’s family, once rich and wealthy now poor and homeless. Following his father death, Santos sets himself on a journey; Santos must now, find a way to support his family, as he feels he is the “man of the house.” Keeping his promise, of becoming end engineer to his father, is what Santos is set on. Frank’s journey is about him finding his place in the world, all on his own. Beforehand, everything he needed or wanted, he had handed to him. He had choices and opportunities. Santos had a comfortable, easy, simple life. Now he had to work and study and find a way to get back on the path he was on before, all on his own. The main message of the story is: when life knocks you down, you must get right back up and find a way to continue forward. The story also teaches, that success does not come easy.

2. Discuss your process

My writing process began with brainstorming. I came up with

several story ideas first that would interest me, after choosing a storyline, I created a timeline. I began my rough draft, once the timeline was complete. When writing my rough draft, I wrote without stopping until I had about half of my story complete. I then had you revise it. Afterwards, I filled in many plot holes that I did not realize I had, continuing with the ending. I self-revised my story: editing grammar, spelling, as well as changing some detail to spice up the story. For example, at first the character who lied and stole the inheritance, was a lawyer, later, I changed it to be his brother as I thought it would intensify the story. After having, a revised rough draft from both you and myself, I had Tricia and Mrs.Myfett read my story for various opinions on it. I edited any errors found afterwards and continued with my good copy. My last step was printing my good copy; I read over it and still found a couple of grammatical errors, which I corrected and handed it.

3. What aspects of the assignment did you struggle with?

The first struggle I went through when writing my assignment was selecting the actual topic; originally, writing about an about a child finding out their parents were lying (Tooth Fairy, Santa Clause) A page and half later, bored and uninterested, I changed my topic.

Instead, basing my assignment on my father’s experience; following his real-life timeline was difficult which is why I, beefed up the story adding detail. When writing my rough copy, I failed to notice the plot holes I had left, at first the story did not make much sense and scenes did not connect; I felt that this was also due to the fact that I had the story

memorized.

4. What aspects of your piece didn't work for you? /
5. What aspects of your assignment worked well for you?

Several aspects did not work for me when writing my piece; my original intention was for Ricardo to be the family lawyer instead of the brother. I choose against it, however, because I felt as by doing this I would create confusion; a detailed background story about the history of the father and lawyer would be needed as well, which would take emphasize from the main storyline. The brother being the con artist, allows the reader to assume that Ricardo was jealous of his brothers. Supposedly, Ricardo was meant to be the killer of the father, but again, I felt as if it would distract the reader from the main story which was Santos and his journey to success.
After changing, the character from lawyer to brother, I found it was a better fit; I felt that the change, intensified the story's mood, giving it a darker edge. What I really enjoyed from my story is the ending sentence, I felt that by naming the main character at the end, it created a relationship with the reader and gave it a sentimental touch.

6. If you had more time, what would you change.

If I had more time, I would have learnt how to begin paragraphs in a more interesting way. The reader will never be bored, if the beginning sentence is intriguing. I would have also included several scenes: when the family finds out Santos has gone, Ricardo killing his brother, as well as the family lawyer and his involvement. If I could do something differently, I would change the circumstances under which Santos meets William and further develop their relationship.

7. Are you happy with the final result?

Overall, I am happy with the final results. I feel that by the end, the story made sense and all the dots connected. Out of the entire year, this assignment was my favorite to write.