Tension is Needed for a Great Story: Julius Analyzes the first HIS Writes Champion — "Pen-Pal"

***Spoiler alert: Please read "Pen-Pal" by Aina Nishi-Strong & Hana Katayama before reading this Model-Text Analysis***

Relationships are difficult to maintain. People hide in fear, worrying that everything around them will crumble and fall out of control if they say or do something wrong. People also resort to lying to their friends, family, or partners to keep their emotions safe. Unfortunately, lies can’t last forever, and hiding will only distance them from others, ultimately hurting themselves and those around them for the rest of their lives. Being honest with your loved ones is the only way relationships will last. Fights may happen, but people can heal and grow. The growth in characters, the changing relationships between them, and the tension are the concepts Pen-pal conveys with such intensity that it will surely cut to your soul and leave a lesson worth more than anything.

Pen-pal is a story of tension and love about a mother and her daughter, who are both grieving Nana's death. Because the mother wasn't there, Nana raised Halia, and when she died, Halia needed her mother the most—but she wasn’t there for her. From that moment on, guilt and shame grew in the mother as Halia built resentment toward her.

Firstly, Aina Nishi-Strong and Hana Katayama excelled at showing the characters growing as the story progressed. At the beginning of Pen-pal, Halia, the daughter, seemed resentful of her mother. On the other hand, the mother seemed ashamed of herself for not being there for her. Towards the middle of the story, when the mother uses a pseudonym to write letters to her daughter conveying her emotions, Halia changes. She becomes more friendly and open to her mother but still “skittish” around her. At the end of the story, after the mother reveals that she is the pen pal, Halia no longer resents her mother and shows her love by hugging her—something she's never done before. Through this great technique, Aina and Hana show how human these characters are, truly pulling us into this story and making us feel what these characters are feeling.

Secondly, as the relationship between the mother and Halia grows stronger and stronger, we start to feel closer to these characters. At the beginning of the story, we see how distant these two are from each other. The mother tries her best to get closer to Halia by apologizing, but because of her past, Halia can’t forgive her. However, in the end, Halia feels safe around her. This growing relationship captivates readers strongly. It captivated me because what we truly wanted to see was these two characters finally accepting each other, choosing to be honest with each other, and loving each other.

Thirdly and lastly, the tension between Halia and her mother is spine-tingling to readers, truly capturing how human these characters are. From the dialogue at the beginning of the story, we hear the burning hatred inside Halia toward her mother. Furthermore, the mother accidentally makes things worse with the words she chooses, hurting both herself and her daughter. Nana, who had obviously been the caretaker for both of them, is now gone, leaving scars on them both.