"The Schwa Was Here" Book Report

Hank Sanders

Christa Kaainoa

English 7 (Pink)

11/19/2013

The Schwa Was Here: By Neal Shusterman

Debrief Essay: By Hank Sanders

Take the word “special”. The word “special” is one of many words in the English language with a ‘schwa’. Schwa is the word for a vowel that goes unnoticed. In this case, the unnoticed letter is the ‘i’. However, the ‘ia’ sound is what gives the word that ‘sh’ sound. Without out that ‘i’, the word would sound like “spesal”. In fact, for this reason, the letter ‘i’ is one of the most important letters in the whole word. But no one hears it. Wierd. In the book The Schwa Was Here by Neal Shusterman, the main character Calvin Schwa is a teenager who has an odd condition where he is functionally invisible. As someone in the book says about Calvin “If you stare at him long enough, you can see what’s written on the wall behind him. He is a “schwa”. He is unseen, but important. Unknown, but powerful. Anonymous, but very much familiar. How does this happen? How does something that everyone takes for granted have the potential to do so much? One does not need to be known to be important. What one does decides what others see.

At the beginning of the book, Calvin Schwa is a distance image in the eyes of the teenagers at a busy Brooklyn Middle School. He is unknown, has no friends, and overall quite mysterious. On pg. 1, Ansty Bonanno (another kid in the book) says “I don’t really remember when I first met the Schwa, he was always just kinda there.” On top of all this, Calvin is totally unrecognized. Antsy goes on to say “He was somehow becoming invisible…”  But within the first ten minutes of reading the book, this all changes. A kid named Ansty Bonana begins noticing him. “The Schwa was about six inches away [from me],....in science class, but I had never noticed him.” Ansty tells us on pg 11. Before much longer, Ansty and Calvin are friends. This friendship comes at a small price (mostly for Calvin). Antsy informs his friend about his idea of how to make a little money off of this incredible invisibility-mind escaping trait that Calvin obtains. Calvin and Antsy start making money by doing dares for the kids at the school for money. Within days, Calvin was the go to guy. If any kid in needed anything that required some incognito surveillance, (i.e. going into the girls restrooms, scaring people, picking up classified information by listening in on conversations) Calvin was their man. However, despite all this, Calvin was no more popular, no less invisible, and had not a single more freind. When Calvin dressed up in a catsuit, an orange sombrero, and was singing “God Bless America,” the Schwa is “Barely noticed (pg. 27). This tells us that the Schwa, in terms of physical status, is unseen. But his actions, his business, his deeds are most definitely noticed.

In the book, a common metaphor is the “paperclip” idea. This is the idea that small things, things that people don’t think about, are sometimes extremely. In the book, Calvin Schwa collects paper clips. Tons of plastic baggies holding nothing but a single paperclip. These paper clips tell a story. They held together important parts of history. For example, “This [paper]clip held together pages of the Nuclear Arms Treaty signed by Reagan and Gorbachev” Calvin explains to Antsy on page 65. Another paperclip “was clipped to a mission manual for the space shuttle.” When others wish to have the first page of the treaty of the third page of lyrics to the original ‘Hey Jude’ song page, the paperclip is overlooked. The paperclip is what holds the pages together. The paperclip literally “holds history together.” The paper clip at one inch long is so important but at the same time, so neglected. So it is with Calvin Schwa and his family. Without Calvin, his family would fall apart. At a very age, his mom ran off to be with a day butcherer at the local market. A few years later, his father fell off a ladder and ever since then has (for lack of better words) lost his mind. Now Calvin goes to school, then cooks for him and his father, then does homework. Without Calvin, his father would be lonely and would be forced to take take of himself. For a man who can’t keep his own life together, no Calvin would be make his problems much bigger. But still, Calvin’s father does not recognize what he would be like without Calvin. In fact, he is so oblivious to everything his son does for him, he loses track of him to the point that he doesn’t know where his son is at any given point. This shows us that importance and recognition do not go hand and hand. Just because one is not recognized for one’s actions does not mean that their actions are not important. One does not become important through recognition. One becomes important through the importances of their actions.

These days many people try so very hard not to be a schwa. The thing they least want to have happen is life is to be not recognized for what ever they do, no matter how petty and small. They want to be credited and known at every turn in life. I know this from personal experience. I myself struggle with being recognized, something that people these days usually refer to as “being popular.” Everyday, people my age (including myself) struggle with the question “How do I become popular?” “How am I seen, and what can I do to make my self my visible?” Although while in the moment, these seem like legitimate questions, when we step back and look at the big picture, what we find is that these questions derail us from the questions that we should be asking. The questions that we should be asking are the ones that make a difference: “How do I improve as a person?” “What can I do to help others?” “What can I do now to achieve my future goals?”. But many are not answering these questions because they are stuck on asking themselves “How can I be Popular?”. If more people were schwas, then we would be more focused not on silly questions but on bigger questions. If more people were schwas, then more people would know that what matters isn’t what others see you as but what other see your actions as.

Although you may not be seen, you do have to be unimportant. Although Calvin Schwa was lost and alone at first, once he found his way, he became very much important. This is because he became noticed through his actions. Those who are unknown, are not forgotten. Their deeds live on.