Sam I am

In the feature article "The Boy Behind The Mask" Tom Hallman, Jr. beautifully recalls the story of Sam. Sam was born with a birth defect called vascular anomaly. Which is a deformity that left half of Sam's face looking bloated or swollen. On the outside, Sam was easy to judge by bystanders and the general public, what these people couldn't see explained by Tom Hallman Jr. is that on the inside, Sam is a completely normal kid playing sports, attending school as a great student and making friends. Hallman jumps into the life of Sam describing his circumstances in a heart-wrenching way. The reader will have no choice but to fall in love with Sam and his story. Hallman depicts sam as a brave, amiable and fun kid who really just wishes to be normal and able to fit in. Hallman is able to write this story from so many different angles, going through Sam's struggles, ending in his overcoming them. Hallman describes how Sam didn't notice his own differences until he was 3 years old, and when he did, he cried. Sam, 12 years-old decides being different is too difficult, and he'd like to try to have a type of plastic surgery. Although the plastic surgery wasn't able to fix all of his deformity, Sam's first day of high school showed Sam's bravery and character; not willing to be the boy with a deformity, Sam decided where he belonged and embraced school and society and in return was loved and cared for. His story will not be one that is soon forgotten.

This feature article and Pulitzer Prize winner was definitely not by accident. What makes this article a feature is how Hallman gets a profile of Sam and his life, interviewing him and his family with beautiful quotes as well as getting behind the scenes or analyzing the story and life of Sam and his family. The way Hallman writes this article will leave the reader in aw, and quite possibly teary-eyed.

If you wish to read Hallman's feature yourself, you can find it at the following link: http://www.pulitzer.org/works/2001-Feature-Writing