Summary
In "My Virtual World", two teenagers meet by blogging online. The girl, known as "Ms. R.E.", writes about her feelings and her thoughts. A boy writer, known as "Blue Boy", writes back and comments on her writing. The two strike up a friendship, becoming closer and closer and revealing more about themselves to each other. Ms. R.E., whose real name is Rebecca, writes to Blue Boy, known as Garret, about how she feels alone and seperated and how she regrets cutting herself. Garret gives her advice, and later reveals that he used to be a girl. Near the end, Rebecca suggests they meet for coffee or tea. At the end of the story, it is written in third person point of view and the author describes how Rebecca and Garret act, and how tentative they are. The author describes how they both have their stories and that "if you look closely enough, you can see it written on his chest and along her wrists" (Block, 91), but they are only going to share their stories with each other, because other people won't care.
FLESCH-KINCAID READING LEVEL: 5.6
Evaluation
We chose this story to be included in the literature textbook because it relates to real life, current situations. We would like to defend this story, because even though this story as an easy reading level, there are many metaphors, there is direct characterization, indirect characterization, and the story itself is relatable to many teenagers. This story discusses realistic events that actually happen to many teenagers today. This story is extremely interesting and we love how the story draws you in and keeps you interested. This story relates to the real world because events in the story do happen in real life. For example, many people meet online and many people are confused about their sexuality or gender and many are involved in self harm. This story is extremely relatable, filled with good literary elements.
Reviews
"...Standouts in this collection include...Francesca Lia Block's "My Virtual World," in which social networking enables two troubled teens to form a bond of friendship..." -Kirkus Reviews (September 1, 2009).
"A talented corps of young adult and adult authors contribute to this polished, poignant story collection exploring sexuality and gender identity. A mix of storytelling methods and genres makes for a balanced, appealing volume, albeit one that skews into the adult realm due to the wealth of retrospective grown-up narrators. The literary merit and emotional insight of the tales are nevertheless outstanding." -Horn Book (Spring 2010)
"As a ninth grade English student, I found this story to be extremely relevant to today's world. Many teenagers go through the same issues as the main characters in 'My Virtual World'. This story plays to the reader's feelings and makes the reader establish a connection to both characters. This story is exceptionally written and it is definitely one of my favorites." -Stephanie Landas (November 30, 2012)
"The story stands out from many other stories. It is not sugarcoated like most teenage books. It actually gets right to the point. It discusses issues that are relevant to the society today and many teenagers can relate to them. Many teenagers can also learn from the story. They can see how the characters who they can relate to deal with the problems. Many teenagers would be interested in this, so it is a great story for anyone to read." -Melissa Webb (December 2, 2012)
"This story is completely different from any other story I've ever read and would be a good short story to put into the ninth grade english textbook because it does apply to real life and some teenagers go through this everyday."-Lexy Zemke
"A talented corps of young adult and adult authors contribute to this polished, poignant story collection exploring sexuality and gender identity. A mix of storytelling methods and genres makes for a balanced, appealing volume, albeit one that skews into the adult realm due to the wealth of retrospective grown-up narrators. The literary merit and emotional insight of the tales are nevertheless outstanding." -Horn Book (Spring 2010)
"As a ninth grade English student, I found this story to be extremely relevant to today's world. Many teenagers go through the same issues as the main characters in 'My Virtual World'. This story plays to the reader's feelings and makes the reader establish a connection to both characters. This story is exceptionally written and it is definitely one of my favorites." -Stephanie Landas (November 30, 2012)
"The story stands out from many other stories. It is not sugarcoated like most teenage books. It actually gets right to the point. It discusses issues that are relevant to the society today and many teenagers can relate to them. Many teenagers can also learn from the story. They can see how the characters who they can relate to deal with the problems. Many teenagers would be interested in this, so it is a great story for anyone to read." -Melissa Webb (December 2, 2012)
"This story is completely different from any other story I've ever read and would be a good short story to put into the ninth grade english textbook because it does apply to real life and some teenagers go through this everyday."-Lexy Zemke
Real Life Connection
A real life connection to this a movie called "Trust." In this movie, a girl started talking to a boy online. They talked for months on end and shared many of their secrets. One day they met up at the mall and began talking some more and eventually they would see eachother at that mall everyday. This connects because both characters in the movie and the short story were chatting online and eventually met up and stayed together that way in the real world.
Pathos Effects
The pictures at the top of the page reflect the story. The story occurs mostly by emails, hence the picture of the girl typing on the laptop keyboard. At the end of the story there is a quote that says: "They hold hands a bit tentatively" (Block, 90). This is the reason I chose a picture of two teenagers holding hands. The music is very solemn and sad, which reflects the mood of this story. However, there are major chords in the music piece, just like there are happy moments in the story.