The Sky Is Everywhere Analysis

Shobanee Srikantha

Fessenden

CWL

17 October, 2015

IBP Essay

The Sky is Everywhere, by Jandy Nelson, tells the story of Lennie Walker, the narrator, whose mother left her when she was young and whose sister named Bailey Walker, unexpectedly died and now has to deal with the grief. In the opening of the book when Lennie returns to high school after one month she feels uncomfortable with the attention she gets from everyone and thinks, "My first day back to school is just as I expect, the hall does a Red Sea part when I come in, conversations hush, eyes swim with nervous sympathy, and everyone stares as if I'm holding Bailey's dead body in my arms, which I guess I am," (Nelson, 5). on the same day she meets Joe Fontaine, a new boy in town, who seems to have a happiness in life that is contagious. After a few days he visits Lennie regularly to cheer her up and also becomes friends with Lennie’s Grandmother and Uncle Big, who she lives with. At the same time Lennie sees Toby, Bailey’s Ex-boyfriend, and they directly have an intimate connection they didn’t have before when they start talking about

Bailey. Both of them share the strong desire to get Bailey back and their desperate sadness leads to elicit kisses to reduce the pain for that moment. As the story goes on Joe and Lennie slowly fall in love through their shared passion for playing music and after he tells his true feelings for her, which she antagonizes, she realizes that the secret relationship with Toby has to stop. But when Toby reveals to her, that Bailey was pregnant with his baby, Lennie is overwhelmed with so many emotions that she kisses him. Unfortunately, Joe picks that moment to visit her. He ends his relationship with Lennie based on the fact that it was cheated on him before. Nonetheless, Lennie tries several times to make it up to him, but she doesn’t succeed. Toby also tries to talk to Joe, but it doesn’t help either. After the incident with Joe, Lennie and Toby developed a brother-sister bond. Towards the end of the book the reader wonders whether or not Joe can give Lennie a second chance and the reader is also rooting for Lennie to overcome her grief.
Overall, the book is a very good read though there are a few weaknesses to the text.

The book is mostly about death, loss and depression, which is not the sort of book some people would want to read. Even though the depressive atmosphere is well described in the book, it also makes you feel bad for the different characters and depresses yourself. Also, the notes and poems Lennie writes throughout the book are quite confusing. They are challenging for the readers at first, because there is no reference to the notes and poems in the story until the end. You have to read the book again if you want to understand the notes from the beginning and how they connect to the story. It will be a pleasurable experience for those people, who enjoyed reading it the first time and like connecting hidden hints from the beginning of the story to the outcome of

it.