Tape by istockphoto

It only took a “No”, a lack of understanding towards his older brother that flipped his whole day upside down.

I created my found poem, constructed employing the words of Adam Bagdasarian in his tale, “My Side of the Story.” I developed and designed the blackout poem utilizing Microsoft Word and Unsplash. 

In My Side of the Story, it all starts when the main character, in his free time, practicing signatures refused to play ball with fourteen-year old brother, Skip, who then rubbed scotch tape hard onto his brother’s head, who then, in search of justice, goes to complain to their mother, but in place finds his dad, who does not care about small matters like sibling mischief. The main character is then punished by his insensitive father while Skip avoids punishment, and in search of revenge, the main character does the wrong things and decides to wreck one of his brother’s trophies, hoping that Skip will tattletale and get beat up by their father, too.

I think that the main conflict of the story was both external and internal, since the protagonist wanted to make things fair, and nagging at their mom for justice because Skip had made a promise before to not torment his brother. He also wanted to get payback at Skip for getting him into trouble with his dad by breaking Skip’s awards, and is also a clear example of a human vs. human encounter.

Now I will give my reasoning for the particular designs on some printed pages of My Side of the Story. Foremost, I also black outed the text of the story using different highlighter/colors to represent the feeling that the main character felt. On the first page, it was orange (scanned version shows yellow) because it symbolizes harassment and negative emotions, then on the second page it was partly dark blue and black, representing justice when the main character went to tell his mom about Skip, and fear (black) shown when he meets his father and also for page 3 and 4. Lastly, I used pink/red highlighter to block out most words because pink or red can represent revenge.

Page 1, My Side of the Story

I illustrated a dragon on the first page of “My Side of the Story” is due to the Western belief that dragons usually symbolize chaos, destruction, and malevolence. In the passage on page 1, it is told that the reason for Skip’s daily torturing to his brother is because “he was fourteen and with a little brother he could bedevil.” I portrayed a lion on the following page, given that the main character went past his brother in search of his mom; in search of justice so she could punish Skip but ran into his father instead.

Page 2, My Side of the Story

His father, powerful and outraged because of the main character barged into the room with small sibling shenanigans, punishes him instead. As a representative of justice, physical and spiritual power, it would be fitting, along with a spider, embodying fear, which the main character experiences upon meeting his father in his mom’s room. Spiders also stand for disgust, which his father thinks of sibling fights and unimportant matters.  

On the other hand, a pink tiger along with bits of tape is drawn on the other page. I chose a tiger to represent their fierce father penalizing the main character for coming into his mom’s room without permission. Pink can sometimes be a symbol of passivity and unwillingness to take things seriously.

Page 3, My Side of the Story

Lastly, on the 4th page of the novel, I roughed out a snake and bird illustration, iconically Skip and his brother. It was based off a creation motif found in the Mesopotamian myth of Etana, in where an eagle and a snake lived peacefully on rear ends of a tree and made a promise on staying peaceful and helping the other, which, coincidentally, is also the case for the two brothers, as stated in line 30-31. But then, the eagle breaks the promise and devours the snake’s young. The snake then complains to the Sun God, which brings us to the main idea; “an interplay of the Snake and Bird who occupy opposite ends of the tree entrails both peaceful coexistence and destructive conflict.”

Page 4, My Side of the Story

It is also relevant to the theme of My Side of the Story; that we should be a bit more understanding of others, show sympathy and to do the right things, even if they are not rewarding. 

In my found poem I have included parts of the theme stated above, starting from where Skip asked his brother to play ball with him but was replied to with a “NO.” Which was a bit selfish to his brother since he had time to do so, and if maybe he agreed, nothing would have gone downhill. His father then made him realize his wrongdoing by first disposing of the tape problem, because he did not have any understanding towards the main character, he then punished him. which gave me evidence that none of the characters shown in the story shows sympathy or understanding for others.  

Page 5, My Side of the Story

In the end, Skip got off the hook with no consequences while his brother had to endure harsh punishment from their dad. But the main character wanted revenge and destroyed one of Skip’s trophies, which also brings us back to the main theme of the story, to do the right things, because he hopes that Skip will tell dad about the situation and get beat up but that would escalate the whole situation even more. This proves my idea of the theme, and what lacking sympathy and understanding and not doing the right things can lead to. 

MLA Works Cited 

“Animal Symbolism.” Whitcraftlearningsolutions, whitcraftlearningsolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Animal_Symbolism.pdf. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024. 

“The Snake-Bird Creation Myth.” Faculty Collin, faculty.collin.edu/chansen/text/snakebird04.html. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.