Question

How does the author make John into a believable or realistic character?
Excerpt from Just Like my Dad

Tracy Wilson

1 John took off his helmet, turnout gear, and boots in the truck room and hung the jacket on his assigned peg. Just above the peg was a handmade label that read, ‘FF#121 Wilson.’ John still felt a sudden surge of pride every time he looked at the label. His father would be proud too, he reminded himself. After 32 years and a couple of million fires, his father still had the passion for it in his blood until the end.

2 It was still an hour before dinner, so John washed up and settled down in the old worn chair beside the phone to do what he always did after returning from a fire call... ‘Hullo’ a tiny voice finally answered. John was happy to hear the sound of the voice he had heard only in his head for the past two hours...

A) by describing John's extra-terrestrial background as an alien.
B) by showing how John's secret CIA training prepared him for his job.
C) by making him into a super-hero who saves people from constant peril.
D) by giving him a real job and an extended family with a father and son.

Answer 1

D

The author grounds John in realistic, everyday details (turnout gear, assigned peg and handmade label, washing up, the worn chair, routine phone call) and connects him to family—his father’s long firefighting career and the implied child’s voice—making him an ordinary, believable person. The other choices (alien, CIA, superhero) are not supported by the excerpt.