The Heart of Stone

Author's Note-Change is a word that can make some people shudder, but it can also make some people giddy with excitement. It is a complex thing but we must all be willing to accept it.

Fur dripping with the wetness of the river, Toklo watched in deep emotional pain as his mother walked away with no regrets, the weight of her last surviving son was off her shoulders now. That’s when Toklo felt completely alone, and that’s when his heart began to harden. Erin Hunter, the writer of Seekers, The Quest Begins is an amazing author, she can take human tendencies and instincts and apply them to animals in way that you feel like you are that character.

The character that stands out the most is Toklo; while the other two bears are trying to find one specific place, Toklo is trying to prove something to his mother who abandoned him when he was a cub.  He wants to prove that he can survive without her; he’s not sure where’s he’s going or why, he just knows he needs to do it. Toklo is a male brown bear with shaggy brown fur and long menacing claws, even though he doesn’t use them often you’re always aware of their presence. The most relevant thing about Toklo is his eyes. His eyes are a cold, hard shade of brown. Your eyes can tell your story, whether they’re a soft ocean blue or a mysterious deep green, your eyes show who you are in a way that you can’t explain. Toklo’s eyes tell you that he’s had a hard life and his heart isn’t open to change, yet.

Toklo’s heart is very hard; he’s been through so much pain, he figures if he closes out and denies the pain it won’t hurt anymore. That’s not the case for this poor bear. That doesn’t really work for anybody; it may seem okay for a short period of time but the pain you closed up might become too much to handle and you end up having an emotional breakdown. Bottling up your feelings is never a good idea. Erin Hunter is trying to prove that it’s okay to express your feelings even you get hurt; what doesn’t kill makes you stronger. By keeping his feelings to himself, he has developed a very harsh personality. For this reason many bears do not want to be around him, or befriend him. People in the real world are like this too, when they’re in a bad mood they think everybody is out to get them and they use that as their reason to by hateful; it’s not right, though. Nobody has the right to be hateful.

Hateful thoughts occur in Toklo’s mind constantly, most of them are directed at his mother. The center of all of his negativity and hatred is his mother; it all goes back to her. Like Toklo, people who are very negative can trace it back to their family, who for whatever reason up upset them in a way that it affected their whole life thereafter. Toklo claims his problem is his mother, but it’s really him not being able to forgive his mother for the mistakes she made in raising him. Everybody makes mistakes, and Toklo’s mother’s biggest mistake was abandoning him. That was a terrible thing to do but everybody deserves a second chance. Like Toklo, we as people, who have many imperfections find it hard to forgive. When somebody does something terrible to you, for a split second you wish they were dead. It’s not nice at all, but that one thought may cross your mind even if only for a millisecond. You must push these thoughts aside and remember that forgiveness can sometimes by the best medicine of all.

Forgiving is very hard to do but being forgiven can be the best feeling in the world. Especially for Toklo, when Ujarak a strange little brown bear who has a destiny greater then he will ever know, shows up into Toklo’s life, he is reluctant because that heart of stone wants to push all chances of being hurt away, but Ujarak starts to chisel away the stone and release the beautiful personality that Toklo once possessed. After only a short period of time Toklo was different in a way you wouldn’t believe. He was very compassionate and caring towards Ujarak; even though Toklo was still quite impatient, you can’t expect him to change all at once. It’s going to take time but by the way he’s changing now you know the end result will be amazing. Change can be hard, for people too. When you notice that your changing you want to take it all back; when you act one way for a very long time it, becomes your comfort zone and it’s very hard to leave it, but once you start taking those small steps out of your comfort zone you start to realize that change is a good thing. Eventually the people around you start to notice too, and suddenly you have new, close friends and your old friends enjoy being around you even more now. Toklo has started to notice this too and he has put his feelings of hatred for his mother aside and started to focus on keeping Ujarak safe and finding a safe place to stay. You could say that he’s finally got his priorities straight.

Erin Hunter Is an amazing author who has the talent and skill to apply human tendencies to animals in a way that you can’t help but relate to it. Change can be scary; especially if you’re like Toklo who’s been through so much, change seems worse than death. But you have to think long-term when trying to be a better person, think about the end result and never stop trying to be that amazing person you know you can be.