She walks like a model. She wears the expensive designer purses the week designers release them. She never thinks twice after she takes a risk. She has the IQ of a squirrel, but people should not underestimate the power she holds. The novel Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver includes a complicated plot and format, as well as a well-developed characterization of the protagonist and other characters.
Most people can agree that a complex plotline can keep a reader engaged in a book. Samantha Kingston has to undergo a full turn-around from being the socialite-popular girl to manifesting the traits of a caring young woman, all within one week. The plot twists around back and forth between monologue and the day in which the protagonist, Sam, is living
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in. For example, the prologue and epilogue are both spoken in monologues to the reader by Sam, along with chapters five, six, and seven. This type of writing can be intriguing to a reader because monologues can be more personal than the regular narration by the author. As Sam relives the days over again, she speaks both as a narrator and directly to the reader about the events that took place on each of the seven days. However, the parts in which Sam speaks directly to the reader could be seen as more sentimental and intimate whereas the narration bits of the novel are not. While the reader receives an intricate storyline in the novel Before I Fall, Lauren Oliver provides a profuse amount of development and background for each character. Almost every chapter begins with Sam’s younger sister jumping and yelling for Sam to get up. Izzy, Sam’s younger sister, is well-developed with a plentiful description of how she speaks. “’You forgot your gloves,’ except it comes out: ‘You forgot your gloveths.’ She refuses to go to speech therapy for her lisp, even though all the kids in her grade make fun of her” (Oliver 9). By this paragraph alone, the reader can easily tell the protagonist is talking to a younger female who is confident in the choices she makes, which makes sense for an eight-year-old girl’s lifestyle. Juliet Sykes is another quality example of a character with an extensive background in the novel Before I Fall. She is narrated as a psycho, “mellow yellow” freak who has no friends and little pity from others. Lauren Oliver gives the reader a little piece of Juliet’s history at a time, not giving it all out until the near end of the novel. Juliet plays a crucial part in the plot, so knowing too much about her all at once may ruin the crescendo of suspense throughout the novel for the reader. The plotline of the novel Before I Fall may seem short and to the point, but it gets much more confusing than one may think it could be. The rehash aspect of this book makes the reader want to go back and reread the prior pages to make sure the event has not already happened within the same chapter. For example, a form of the text, “Then all of a sudden there’s a flash of white in front of the car” (Oliver 6, 80, 129) occurs three times in the end of some chapters. Some readers may think this portion of the novel is an annoyance as it occurs quite often through the chapters. Just as the structure of this novel goes from monologue to narration in the blink of an eye, the past and present intertwine to be bemusing to whomever reads the novel. For example, Sam goes from talking to her group of friends at lunch to talking about the memories of Juliet Sykes’s childhood because it involved one of the girls in Sam’s friend group, Lindsay. These occurrences happen throughout the novel and may sometimes muddle the reader’s thought on the time period that Sam is speaking in. Even though the characters each have notable backgrounds, the whole character scheme is a little cliché. With settings in a high school and at a handsome-guy’s party, the characters are typical and do not deserve any rounds of applause for originality. Throughout the book, each group of high school students is mentioned, such as the goths, the jocks, the geeks, and the popular girls. The characters in this novel are not original, as already stated, mostly because the characters are made up of the classic high school student platitude found in all teen movies. For example, Sam’s boyfriend, a jock, thinks about nothing but sex throughout the whole book. This is one of the most common stereotypes for a relationship between high school kids: a “valley girl” dating an athletic boy. As soon as the reader reaches the first ten pages into this novel, they will get bored of the unoriginal high school characters. The ending of this novel did not end as the reader may have thought it would.
In the novel, Sam, the protagonist, repeated the same day for seven days after she got into a car accident. The reader deems Sam to be in a coma or maybe unconscious when speaking through the book, but she was not. Lauren Oliver wrote a monologue of Sam speaking to the reader for the last two pages of the book. It started out with, “They say that just before you die your whole life flashes before your eyes, but that’s not how it happens for me,” (Oliver 469) and ended with the statement, “The rest you have to find out for yourself” (Oliver 470). These last pages of the book left the reader on a thought about what had happened to Sam. An inference can be made to say that she did indeed die from the car accident, but was she dead the whole time? Was she actually in a coma and just dreaming the repeated days? For these reasons, the ending of this novel was not at all what the audience may have desired after reading almost five hundred pages. Readers would most-definitely feel better about this ending if it had ended differently. For example, instead of a monologue by Sam at the end, the author could’ve written in an entry from a doctor saying that she hadn’t made it. Better yet, the novel could’ve ended with the same monologue format, but it would have had to be longer with a detailed description on how Sam had
died. The novel Before I Fall features an eminent number of positives that outweigh the negatives. The crackerjack context of the many personas that appear within this novel can patently make the audience enjoy this story even more. Though these characters may be a bit predictable at times, their backgrounds given to the reader supersedes this frequent occurrence of the novel. The plot of the book is twisted and complex at times because of the recurrent ideas that take place. However, the plot overall features an enthralling sense of detail and complexity that makes the reader want to read more. In conclusion, whoever reads the novel Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver will enjoy it due to its well detailed plot and thoroughly developed high school characters.
The diverse alternation of point of views also provides the story an effective way to reach out to readers and be felt. The characterisation is effectively done and applied as Sam, Grace, and the other supporting characters play individual, crucial roles in the course of the story. All the elements of a typical young adult novel, consisting of a gap-filled relationship between children and parents, emotion-driven teenagers, and a unique conflict that makes the book distinct from fellow novels, combined with the dangerous consequences of the challenges the couple encounter, make the book different from all other of the same genre. The plot unfolds slowly giving readers enough time to adjust and anticipate the heavy conflict when it arises. It has gotten us so hooked but the only thing we could possibly dislike about it was the slow pace of plot. The anticipation was too much to handle and we were practically buzzing and bouncing to know how the story turns out as we read. It builds the anticipation, excitement, thrill, sadness, grief, loss, and longing in such an effective way to entice and hook readers further into the world of Sam and
As we progress though the novel, we a introduced to a variety of characters in the story like Rachel Turner
So as you can see, in the book "Safe" by Susan Shaw, you can tell there is significant character development in the main character - Tracy. She goes through a horrible experience on June fifteenth... She gets kidnapped and raped by a kid she knew. "Burgess Newman ". She was tortured by her thoughts of it. Throughout the story she was mostly inside isolated from everyone and everything. Until school started again. She had to go, she couldn 't not go. She started off isolated, hurt, feeling unsafe... to slowly healing and feeling safe once
Many times when reading a novel, the reader connects with one of the characters and begins to sympathize with them. This could be because the reader understands what the character is going through or because we get to see things from the character’s perspective and their emotions and that in return allows a bond to form for the reader. The character that is the most intriguing for me and the one I found comparing to every book that I read during school was Stacey from the book “Ravensong” Lee Maracle. The character Stacey goes through a lot of internal battle with herself and it’s on her path to discovery that she begins to understand herself and what she’s capable of. Throughout the novel, Stacey has a few issues she tries to work through. This is emphasized through her village and in her school that is located across the bridge in white town. Stacey begins dealing with the loss of Nora, and elder in her town. And this in return begins the chain of events that Stacey begins on the path of self-discovery not only on herself but everyone around her. She begins to see things differently and clearly. Stacey is a very complex and confused character, and she begins to work through these complexities through her thoughts, statements and actions.
The twists in the plot start with the exposition and rising action in the short story.
influence all her life and struggles to accept her true identity. Through the story you can
The type of narration, the plot’s rising action, and the overall imprint that is left on the reader, pushes this book above and beyond. Whaley creates a picture for the reader by using third- person omniscient point of view. This method helps the reader better understand the main characters. The rising action development was extremely easy to follow. The descriptions of the characters and the background information helps explained how the story was laid out. Also, the author seemed like he wanted the reader to realize the purpose of the three-way friendship. It represented how a relationship allows everyone to learn from their flaws and unwarranted decisions from other’s reactions. This book is truly unique, from the composure to the character’s
Characters in the story have a major impact on the theme of fantasy versus reality. The main character Connie, is a fifteen-year-old who exhibits the confusing, often superficial behavior typical of a teenage girl facing the difficult transition
“A tan to die for” written by Claire Oliver is a letter to the editor that shows that the use of solariums can greatly increase the potential for life-threatening melanoma. Claire Oliver’s tone shows a composed, collected and complacent frame of mind at her imminent death, stating that “[she is] at peace”. Her composed tone when discussing the certainty of her impending death appeals to a sense of rationality, and writes optimistically about the remainder of her life. This optimism, and personal responsibility, comes from her wish of helping those who do not know of the health risks involved in the beauty young teens crave to acquire.
For instance, the plot complexity in “Jane Eyre” was easier to follow because it allowed the reader to follow Jane’s life all the way from her childhood to adulthood. The reader gets to look at Jane’s childhood
In the book, Before I Fall, the readers experience life seven times through a teenage girl with hope of surviving. The main character, Sam Kingston whose life was ephemeral, dies in a car accident and is thrown into disarray. However, she lives that day over and over again seven times; all with different endings. Through her repeated days in Before I Fall, readers will come to know that Sam Kingston is hopeful, determined, loyal, and caring.
The main character’s teenage world, at the beginning of the story, revolved around beauty, curiosity, and independence from her family. Connie “was fifteen and she had a quick
Kempf’s reading style is also a strong positive to this novel; he uses a fair amount of transitional phrasing and adjectives to really paint a vivid picture for the reader. A lot of sifi readers don’t properly portray their vision of the fictional world they’ve created and therefore it becomes hard for the reader to correctly envision where the author wants to take him or
As a protagonist, Anna's complexity has raised questions about whether she is a heroine or an unsympathetic character, with the majority of criticism observing her relative lack of sympatico in her complexity (Reader Response, 2014, http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_19c/austen/index.html). In short, Emma is difficult to understand as a heroine, or her qualities as heroine are elusive due to her complexity, raising questions about Austen's intention in her depiction of Emma, and the meaning of the character of Emma's character arc.
The reason for this book appealing to such a broad audience lies in all the characters’ personalities. Mrs. March is a strong, independent woman who never falters, therefore she relates to all independent women; but she is also a mother who plants strong values in her girls and is the rock foundation of the family, with that she relates to all mothers. Margaret’s desire for luxury is a desire that we all can relate to and her properness is a trait most girls can relate to. Jo’s mischievous demeanor and talent for writing is something that if one cannot relate, admire to have. Beth is the insecure, sweet, homebody in all of us. Amy represents the beauty and talent, and sometimes moral code, which all women have. Laurie represents all the men that wish to be loved any uncommon-but-beautiful woman.