Analysis Of Gary D. Schmidt's Book Okay For Now

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People use the word okay nearly every day. It is a word that everyone knows and uses due to its vast meanings. To be okay, is what Gary D. Schmidt’s novel Okay for Now really tries to get readers to understand. He poses the question: just what does “okay for now” mean? These answers are found through examining the characters in the store. While, okay can mean many different things, being okay means that the person is in a state where while things are not perfect, but they are tolerable and satisfactory and can improve.
In a way, the main character of the novel, Doug Swieteck has been okay all along, despite his disbelief in himself. As time passes, Doug continually grows to understand the state of being okay and while it is not an easy ride, it is clearly a rewardable one. The point of Doug’s journey is to show the reader that everybody questions who they are, but it’s what they do with this question that matters. Anything can happen, and Doug’s story really shows that becoming okay, the promise of more than okay, is possible. …show more content…

Principal Peattie, who is seen as a self-centered man through his constant reference to himself in the third person. In a way, that also disconnects himself from situations he is in. While Peattie is not a major character, the brief moment when he uses “I” instead of “Principal Peattie” is an important scene. Not only is Peattie showing vulnerability, but he is showing Doug that he has done something good. Principal Peattie compliments Doug two times, the first being when he says “I haven’t told this to many students, but I’ll tell it to you. I think that you’re going to go wherever you want to go” (Schmidt 353). The second being when he thanks Doug “for what [he] did for Coach Reed” (Schmidt 353). These two statements, not only show a new view of who Principal Peattie is, but allow Doug to know what he did was good. Who he is, is

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