hurricane song

In the book “Hurricane Song” by Paul Volponi, Hurricane Katrina is hitting New Orleans. Miles, the protagonist had moved to live with his Pops just a few months ago to find that they are very different people. Miles love to play football while Pops loves jazz. Then, when Hurricane Katrina hits, Miles and Pops have to evacuate to the super dome (a giant football dome) for protection from the storm. While in the dome, Miles and Pops work out their relationship and experience something that most people haven’t. Miles changes a lot throughout “Hurricane Song”. In the beginning of the book, Miles was self-centered and wasn’t empathetic to Pops. Whereas, at the end of the book, Miles figured out that he really does care about Pops and the other people in the superdome.

In the beginning of “Hurricane Song”, Miles had just started living with Pops and wasn’t used to the kind of person Pops was. In the book, Pops wanted to share his love of music with Miles so, he got him a drum for Miles’s birthday. When Miles got the drum, he was very dismayed because he didn’t want anything that was related to music. He only wanted football gear and was rude when Pops took his time to buy miles a nice gift. As Pops was trying to connect with his son, Miles was only pushing him away. Then, towards the middle of the book while they were in the superdome, Miles started to change. Living in the superdome was tough. Miles and Pop’s friend Cyrus was going crazy because there was no food, there was huge lines for the bathrooms and they smelled horrible, and there were gangs going around taking money from people. Cyrus had had enough of the conditions in the superdome so he committed suicide. Many people were shocked but they also were grieving. Miles, Pops and whoever else had an instrument marched around the superdome playing “when the saints come marching in” to show their loss and respect for Cyrus. This was the turning point for Miles because he was appreciating Cyrus by playing his drums. Then, at the end of the book, after Miles and Pops got out of the superdome, Miles had the choice of going to live with his mom. But Miles couldn’t leave Pops and he decided to live with him.

In conclusion, Miles has changed a lot throughout “Hurricane Song.” At first he wasn’t very open to the way Pops lived but in the end he found that he really loved Pops and didn’t want to leave him. The book connects to me personally because I take my parents for granted sometimes but “Hurricane Song” has made me realize that opening your mind to them can help you come to an understanding. Most teenagers resent their parents. But, they have never had to go through something like Hurricane Katrina where they have had to evacuate. This also made me think deeper about humanity because most of the time we just watch TV and see on the news about people getting hurt but we don’t actually think about what its like to be in a place like the superdome. “Hurricane Song” really described what it was like which made me think about what I would do if I were in Miles position and I think that every reader should think about this too.