The Phantom Tollbooth Reading Response

“Whatever you learn or do affects everything and everyone else around you”

Ever since I have read that sentence in the book The Phantom Tollbooth I have become more self-conscious of what I do and how I act. I think about what I should or should not do because whatever I do affects everything, even if it does in the smallest amount. An example of this is when I didn’t try on a practice test, and many things chained off of it. I woke up one morning and I sat down in a beanbag chair and while eating my breakfast of tortilla chips, I took the test. At the time I wasn’t thinking that it would matter, it wouldn’t affect anything. I was wrong.

After the test I graded it, and I received a really low grade. My mom was really mad at me and punished me for a month’s worth of allowance. Not only was I thought down by from other persons, but for a while I thought down on myself. I was unconfident and unsure about myself, and I lost some of my ambition to succeed in life. This affected me for a while and how I lived, dreamed, walked, talked- to sum it up, pretty much everything. How I acted changed everyone else’s opinions on me. Coincidently, I finished this book soon after the “slump” and thought to myself that I should have thought of the test more importantly, even if it was a practice test because it still affects my life. After that I thought more on how I acted, because it does affect my life, and I want it to affect my life positively.

In the book, after the person who says this line (Reason, the princess) to Milo, he changes. When he returns back to reality he appreciates the world, and does productive things instead of moping around because he knows that what he does affects everything. This is a big change from his previous self who wasted time sulking about everything, and affected everything in a negative way. This decision to change his attitude would have changed his future life if he ever had one. I can imagine a mopey, depressing, useless, lazy person like Milo was at the beginning of the book being really unsuccessful in life. However, the new Milo who cared about what he was did would have probably have been a happy man with a nice life. This character change would have affected his life drastically, which proves the quote.

A small decision that resulted in a major change was when Rosa Parks decided to stay seated on a bus when a white man asked her to move. This is such a small decision that started the spark of anti-segregationists. Her small decision ended up changing every life in America. Because of this action, the Montgomery bus boycott happened, which led the spark against segregation. She probably knew that the action she chose would affect her life and others greatly. This is probably what fueled her to do it, knowing that her choice would “affect everything and everyone else around” her.

All these examples, from my life, the book in which the quote came from, and from the world proves the quote ““Whatever you learn or do affects everything and everyone else around you.” The examples prove it because in every unique situation, the outcome was always the same: everything was changed. In my life example, people thought differently of me because I acted differently because of the test. It affected everything. Also in The Phantom Tollbooth Milo’s whole life, and perspective on life was changed because he was depressing and mopey. Because he was mopey, he experienced an adventure that changed his life. Rosa Parks made a small choice not to leave her seat on the bus, and because of that, segregation was mostly annihilated. Not directly branching off of her choice, but branching off from other branches that originated from her decision. “When a butterfly flaps his wings the wind changes and could create a devastating hurricane.” Another quote from the book that proves my point will be the last thing I say to sum up this reading response.