They Cage The Animals At Night Book Report

“I’ll be right back,” said Jennings Michael Burch’s mom as she dropped the eight-year-old off at an orphanage in New York city. The boy had no idea how long he would be there or the heart wrenching reasons for is stay. The story They Cage the Animals at Night is an autobiography written by Jennings. He tells the tale of his eight year old self living with a broken family. He is constantly moved from orphanage to orphanage, rarely gets to spend time with his mom, struggles in school, and is tormented by kids of his age and nuns that are supposed to take care of him. The only friend Jennings has is his stuffed dog that he received from his first orphanage and refers to as “Doggie”. The story ends with, what seems to be, an end to his struggles.

One such event is when Jennings learns that his mother has been giving all the food to him and his brothers. This caused her to fall ill. He and his brothers knew that they would be sent off to other orphanages again. At his new orphanage he was abused by the nuns taking care of him. He became fed up with the abuse and made the decision to run away. Cops found him and took him to a station. Jennings was reluctant to tell them his name in fear that he was in big trouble. This psychological barrier of fear was broken down by an officer who was very kind to Jennings and talked to him on his level. Because of this event with the police, he knew further on in his life to trust them and knew that they meant the best for him. Without this event to give Jennings encouragement to talk to police, he would have tried to run away from the Daily’s. Then he would lack shelter and food that he was in great need of. Another psychological challenge was presented to jennings at the loss of his friend Mark. Jennings knew Mark since he started his journey being taken in and out of orphanages. Jennings was now alone in his new orphanage. He had great joy when he found out that Mark and him were placed in the same orphanage. Now that joy was shattered. After a month of grieving, Jennings gets called to go home with his brother Walter. Then he realizes that all the kids in the dining room wish that they could be him and how lucky he is to be able to have his name called to go home. This helps him cope with his grief and makes him realize not to always be down because it could always be worse. This lesson drives his determined attitude to survive. The largest challenge that Jennings faces occurs all throughout the novel. The unhappy household that Jennings has to live in is a burden on his mind. There is little time for Jennings to be happy at home. His mom broke her neck