Summer of the Mad Monk Essay -- essays research papers

The Summer of The Mad Monk The year is 1936. Philip Tyler is an imaginative, 12-year-old boy. He lives on a farm outside of the small town of Delia in Alberta but their farm is suffering and their lives are suffering because of the Great Depression. They have lived in poverty for as long as he could remember, so he, like many other boys in that time had to be creative and imaginative. School was nearing the end of the year, and he and his best friend Digger had nothing to look forward to. Diggers father had noticed and he gave the boys an old .22 to work on because the barrel was crooked. Pip and Digger had worked on the thing for weeks and when they were done, it looked funny so they carved the handle to look like an old Colt .44. They had so much pride in their, â€Å"homemade† gun. The next thing Pip knew was that they were in town, when Digger took it out to show Pete McKnight. Pip knew this was not a good idea because Pete was known as the town trouble maker. Pete McKnights face was wiped clean of all expression, and he had a look Pip had never seen before on him, a look of raw envy. Pete took the gun, and was playing around with it when he accidentally shot it off and it went whizzing past the town drunks’ head. It noise was so loud that people came running from everywhere. So they threw the gun in a bush and they ran off. But they didn’t get very far before the sheriff caught them. After that, their parents came for the punishment at the town hall. The sheriff said that they would have to destroy the gun. So he gave the gun to the new blacksmith in town to destroy. The blacksmiths name was Raspinsky. There was something very odd about Raspinsky. He had ice blue eyes that could almost hypnotize a person and he walked and talked like he was authority. They said he was from Russia and that he knew very little English. A few days later he and his father had gone to visit a close family friend, Mr.Hewitt. Jack Hewitt always lent Pip books to read because Pip never had any. This week, Jack lent Phillip, â€Å"The Russian Revolution† which was only fourteen years before. Phillip got very caught up in the book and he started realizing that the Tsars family doctor, Rasputin, had seemed to remind him a lot of Raspinsky. Rasputin was a monk who gave aid to the tsar of Russia family, but many thought that he was evil because he could heal people telep... ... that his parent’s property was right across the road from theirs. So he left the horse there, and he crossed the road trying to feel for their fence. When he found it, a burst of relief overtook him! He followed the fence all the way to his house and he scrambled into the front door. He must have been covered in what felt like a foot of dust on him! He went and took a bath in the wash bucket and then went to the nice comfort of his bed. He had a dreamless sleep and in the morning, he went and filled some canteens. He then went for his horse and then again took off for the cave. When he got there, he was happy to see that Raspinsky wasn’t badly covered in dust. He was happy to see that Phillip brought him some water. When he was replenished, Raspinsky told Pip that he would have to leave the country right away if he were going to escape from the Mounties. Pip was sad but he knew it had to be done. Rasputin mounted Phillips horse and then promised that Pip shall have a good life! Rasputin took for the hills and Phillip waved to him and he waved back. Now Pip had the trouble of getting home, but if it was one thing that Phillip learned it was that nothing is impossible. The End