Character Sketch of Kim from On the Right Track
Character Sketch of Kim from "On the Right Track"
Many people in today’s world may feel out of place, and feel they have little to no control over their life. This influences them to do the funny things they do to make them feel like they are “somebody”, and that they do have some control over their lives. An example of this would be in the classic “school yard bully.” Every school has at least one, and these kids probably have some problems in their family or at home that they are ashamed of and have absolutely no control over. Their low self esteem leads them to play the role of the “tough guy” by picking on others smaller or weaker then themselves, in order to mask who they really are or how they may be feeling. This control over other people makes them feel as if they now have control over their life, and makes them feel like the have a place in life, even if that place is to make others miserable. In the short story On the Right Tack by Dorothy Chisholm the character Kim has a lot in common with the school yard bully. However, this similarity is not that she picks on people like a bully, but in the way that she feels ashamed of her family life and has the need to mask her true self because of this insecurity. Kim feels as if she has no control over her life, and has to take some sort of action to feel in control. Kim tries to hide her true self, because she is ashamed of her background, and lives her life as almost a lie by trying to be accepted into higher culture.
The character Kim has many strong points of view. These views are basically things that she is trying to stay away from because she feels they are lower class, uncultured, and would only hold her back from becoming accepted into a higher class. This makes Kim a very opinionated character. Kim doesn’t like uncultured people, no matter how nice they may be on the inside, “I told Kim I thought Donny was nice but she says, warehouse, talk about downward mobility.” (Page 246). This shows that Kim feels Donny will not be going anywhere in life, and she doesn’t like...