1. (There’s another Independent Study Unit…)
By: Naomi Aguilera
Class: Mr.Coghlan
Date: 12/9/2011

2. 
To get the chance to go back for one day
to fix everything you did wrong in your
life…

3. • If you did what would you do?
• Would you take back hurting a passed loved one?
• Would let someone know how much you really
appreciated and loved them for all their efforts?
• Finally would you be able to handle discovering
the real reasons on why situations in your life
turned the way they did?

4. Mitch Albom’s #1 New York Times Bestseller novel For One More
Day is story that gives his readers a philosophical view on life.
Similar to one of his previous novels(many of us have read Tuesdays
with Morrie) it is a novel that makes us think of the choices we have
made in our life and how they affect others and how everything
happens for a reason in our lives. The novel goes in an in depth look
of what would actually happen if we received “one more day” to
meet our past problems and ghosts. Overall it is a story of
redemption by going back in time and fixing past mistakes and
showing appreciation for our loved ones.

5. 
 Meet Chick Benetto whose life spirals into a complete
mess after the death of his mother, Posey. He deals with
problems with his career, finances and becomes an
alcoholic who then leaves his family and ends up in a
depression where he then tries to commit suicide. At a
young age Chick is placed in a position by his father, Len
where he must choose which parent to love, he makes his
choice by Len telling him this: “You can either be a
momma’s boy or a daddy’s boy but you can’t be both.” So
he chooses to completely idolize and worship his father.
Consistently he goes against his loving mother who gives
him all her love and tries to give him the best she can, and
instead brushes that away to tries to please his cold
hearted father.

6. .

 At any moment he possibly could Chick would always take the side of
Len over Posey. When asked about Posey’s cooking Chick would
agree with Len and would say it tasted bad, any type of behaviour Len
portrayed Chick would mimic it. If Chick wanted to laugh but Len
wasn’t laughing Chick did not laugh , if Len did not like what Chick
was wearing due to Posey’s choices Chick certainly did not like it. He
then makes a list in the book called times my mother stood up for me
and times I did not stand up for my mother. (Obviously his Mother
outweighs him).Chick also made it his passion to play baseball
because Len strongly loved baseball. He then made it a priority to
become a professional baseball player in order to satisfy Len’s dreams
and throw away his college education even after Posey balances two
jobs just to send him to college. He then regrets the day where he
leaves his mom’s 70th birthday to go to a baseball game after his father
insistence, during that game Posey dies right in front of his daughter.
After that event he tries to kill himself but fails and goes into a dream
where he meets with his mother and gets one more chance to find out
details on his parents divorce and gets to see how his mother had an
unconditional love for him.

7. .

 Albom makes it a crucial to make his readers understand his main themes in
the book and tries to tackle these themes by using unique situations. Such as
making one of his main characters Posey a single independent mother during
the 1950’s in a small town, where a situations like that would be unheard of.
 Mortality is one of the biggest themes used throughout the book. It gives
readers the chance to wonder about the possibilities of reconnecting what you
could do if you had the chance to meet again with a dead relative. After Chick’s
suicide attempt he is put into a dream where he meets Posey again. There Posey
takes him back in time to revisit the past mainly events in his childhood. To
show him how she tried to protect and love him. It is here where Chick realizes
all the mistakes he did unto his mother. It questions readers if you were given
the chance to go back would you apologize for all the things you did and how
would you want to spend a day with a lost loved one. It also makes us wonder
whether or not we can handle moving on with our life if we got to fix our
mistakes and would we continue to be the same person—Chick certainly did
not remain the same person. Through this book I got analyze Chick’s
realizations on his past mistakes and it allowed me to compare how I would
take back any of my mistakes and seeing how Chick tried to fix his past

8. .


A theme that I recognized immediately after finishing novel that is not aas highly focused on is
unconditional love—and a smaller theme attached to that would be taking a loved one for
granted. After continuously being shut down and getting rejected by her son’s love Posey does
not give up on her son. The unconditional love Posey has for her son is very evident. She does her
absolute best to ignore the rejection and blame Chick gives her and continues to provide what is
best for her son which is: love, care, and support and completely on her own. She never tries to
walk out or give up on Chick and always tries to teach him valuable lessons. However Chick
never sees that growing up and constantly tries to push Posey away from his and wishes she
didn’t love him as much. Not until later he realizes how wrong most of his actions were.
 I’m sure many of us can relate that in the past we take our parents for granted. We do not always
see the their logic or even know the real reason as on why they do certain things. Similar to Chick
I have taken my mom for granted and have tried to push her away by my actions and words. Yet
after reading this book you see that a mother’s love for their child is really strong and that love is
unconditional because what I learned from this book is that no matter how much you try to reject
a parents love when they truly love you they always stick around for you and do the best to
understand you. Unfortunately most us don’t see that when we’re young, and some us like Chick
figure that out too late. We think after time and time after hurting our parents they are used to it
, so they will always be there, by doing this Chick put himself in a state of mind where is Posey
would always be there it wasn’t until she was finally dead . Many of us don’t realize how some of
our actions can hurt our parents but subconsciously we know they will always forgive us, this
plays into mothers—or parents attaining a n unconditional because if they still are by your side
after either disappointing them or trying to go against them by pleasing someone else (similar to
Chick), no matter what you do though if a parent really loves you they never walk out.

9. 
 A huge and obvious theme in For One More Day is divorce. This is how I
related to the book the most because like Chick my parents also divorced when
I was young. After seeing continuously through the book that Chick would
show more love for Len then Posey, it reminded me of my younger self. My
parents did not get along at all and at a young age sub-consciously I felt torn
between which one to show more love more. Like Chick I chose my dad,
anything my mom would try to do I wouldn’t think was a good enough and
when my mom was always more stricter then my dad, I was blind to seeing
that it was for the best of me. As a child though I did not see my dad as often
and like Chick said in the book :``Kids chase for the love that eludes them and
for me that was my father`s love..`` so I would chase for my dad`s love because
he wasn`t always there. I felt obligated when I was young to show more
appreciation towards him but in the process I was putting my down. Again
similar to Chick it wasn`t until I was older that I came to a clear realization why
it did not work out between my parents and I discovered the truth on certain
past situations, after realizing this I stopped picking between which parent to
love more; un fortunately unlike me Chick did not realize this until his Mom
was dead.

10. .

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tZlCZyGBIk
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPKsihGrVT4&feature=youtu.be
In the first clip it is an example of a theme we have studied before “appearance.vs.reality”.
Similar in Macbeth, Macbeth tried to make it appear that he didn’t kill the King when he
indeed did. To Chick growing up his father was an idol to him and to him it was his mom
who was the “bad guy”. Growing up he thought Posey was constantly trying to willingly
push out Len out of his life. However the REALIITY of the situation is that Posey did not
want Len to be around her kids to be around a father that was deceiving and unfaithful.
In the second clip I’ll be comparing it to the film Riding in Cars with Boys which is about a
woman who gets impregnated at age 16 by a man she barely knows and if forced to marry
him for the sake of their child. The man is a heroin addict and is irresponsible and does not
want her son to be raised by such a negative influence so she tells him to leave her and
Jason’s life forever. This also is an example of appearance.vs.reality because Jason thought
his mom was ruining his life yet in reality she was being a great mother by protecting him
from any dangers.

11. 

12. .

 At one point in the book Chick reconnects with Len after Len comes to see
him play professional baseball. There they are back in communication and
Len is constantly there for Chick, yet it is evident he is not there because he
loves Chick he is there because Chick is living the dream Len wish he had.
As Chick`s health is declining and as he ages he finally tells his father there
is no point of him playing baseball. However Len will not hear this and
tries to completely force Chick to not quit baseball. Even though it is
impossible for Chick to play as successfully as he did when he was young.
These unrealistic views reminded me of the Great Gatsby because Len like
Gatsby feel he can control things you can not control and both characters
are blind to seeing some situations in life are beyond human control. After
all how is it possible for Chick to not to age and slowly his baseball talent
starts to diminish with age. Len and Gatsby both try to re create the past.
Len wants Chick to play baseball and be as good as he was in the past
however that`s impossible because all athletes have their time were their
successful and slowly that fades away, but Len doesn’t think that is
possible and keeps forcing things that are not meant to be forced.

13. .

The message I picked up from the book may slightly
differentiate from most people however overall the book
taught me to forgive the ones we love. To understand that
there is no such thing as a perfect family. It taught me that
relatives will disappoint us and some of the actions we do
onto our relatives may not be intentionally but either way we
should always forgive them. But it also sent me the message
that we do not always get a second chance and the we
should appreciate the actual day we have with our relatives
and make today count, instead of waiting for another day to
come to redeem ourselves. All of us won`t be as lucky as
Chick to get a second chance, so enjoy the day you have with
your family and show the appreciation and you have for
your family before it’s too late.

14. .
