Analysis of a Writing Situation

When the idea of a random act of kindness is brought up, one would connect it to giving a stranger your one day metro pass when you were done with it for the day.  However, there are more abstract ways of showing kindness to a person.  In David Levithan’s book The Realm of Possibility, his poem “The Patron Saint of Stoner’s” explores a similar compassion to a random act of kindness in a more obscure fashion.  Elements of this text that help the reader see something beyond a drug transaction include an appeal to emotion and the school’s multiple social circles.

Clara is studying endlessly with occasional breaks to listen to her bed ridden mother’s crazy stories of her youth.  Already, the reader learns how sickly Clara’s mother is.  This appeal to emotion draws the reader into a state of compassion for the two, and bringing upon memories of someone they themselves may have of a loved one, or a friend’s loved one that may have had cancer or another concerning illness.  With this approach, Levithan is able to bring about the reader’s empathy and understanding as to why Clara is in search for marijuana.

Clara seems to have a very academic schedule for school, leading to hanging out with more academic students like herself, and at home she is always working on homework.  In comparison to Toby, she is “Socially Inept But Intelligent” (Levithan, 128) while he’s the kid “the principal knows by fist name/ But can never nail him for anything more than his attitude” (Levithan, 130).  The readers observe that there is a type of social separation between the two characters, because of their school setting.  The only real connection the two share is a mutual dislike of their P.E. class.  Clara’s mother has more in common with the boy than her daughter does.  This fact not only shows the readers that both Clara and Toby are nearly strangers, but it adds to the awe of Toby’s way of showing compassion towards Clara’s situation.

A sick family member is already a tough thing to deal with.  Adding the even more difficult task of pretending everything is alright when it’s not just adds to the emotional beating.  Clara is capable of taking so much of that, and if giving her mother an escape to memories of a time before she was sick through an unconventional way meant a bittersweet happiness, Clara would take it.  Reader’s are able to see how Clara’s front she wears at school may fool people, and the reader can also see her act faltering as she is given the pot.  These little slip ups in her act let Toby see into her life, and the pain that is going on behind her studious ways.  When the readers see this, they are able to understand how the taboo object, the pot, that Toby gives to Clara for free, is an incredibly beautiful act of kindness for a near stranger.