Life in Shadows

English 255: Hershinow
Third mini-essay on Dogside Story

A Life in the Shadows

Since the accident that killed his two closest cousins, Shania and Taku, Rua has never been able to recover. (Hey--that "never" takes him up to the present time, and he IS recovering. So you need to re-state: "has been slow to recover") His inability to properly cope (with) and face the loss of his best friends and the loss of one of his legs has led him to a life in hiding, away from the rest of the village, in the dark protection of the trees. Rua claims he lives a solitary existence because it gives him a "physical life" when in actuality all it has ever done for him has been to provide a hiding place from the haunting truth--that he and his (half-)sister, Ani Wainoa, broke the rules of his society and culture and had a child together. (try the sentence without your firrst two commas, and then notice that you have identified two DIFFERENT causes of Rua's incomplete recovery.)
"He...