Girl In Translation: Appreciation

     I just finished Girl In Translation, by Jean Kwok.  It is the story of Kimberly Chang.  Her father died when she was quite young, leaving only Kim and her mother.  When Kim was eleven, they immigrated from Hong Kong to the U.S.  Life is incredibly hard for both of them, and much responsibility is put on Kim.  Kim is very, very smart, but she has troubles.  For example, she must work with her mom in the sweatshop everyday after school and well into the night.  She also can barely speak English for a while; seeing as she just immigrated to a completely new country.  They also have terrible living conditions, they practically freeze to death in the summer.  Kim's greatest dream is to get her and her mother out of there.  With her intelligence and hard work, this goal is pretty uninterrupted; until she meets Matt.

     Matt works with Kim in the sweatshop and is kind, funny, handsome, and wonderful in all ways except that he completely lacks Kim's great intelligence and work motive.  Matt obviously does not enjoy working in a sweatshop as a child, but he has accepted that he will for the rest of his, as his mother has done since they immigrated, and as his children will do.  Sadly though, his conditions are probably even worse than Kim's causing him to drop out of high school to work.  Kim would never accept something like this.  But Kim and Matt fall in love. 

     Eventually, it does not work out.  Kim is brilliant, and I think that she also feels some obligation to her mother and any children she might have.  She feels responsible for getting her mother out of these terrible conditions, and she never wants to see her children working in a sweatshop, and living in the conditions that she did.  She takes classes that are many years ahead of her in high school, even while she must spend most of her time with her mother in the sweatshop.  She gets a full scholarship first to Harrison, one of the best high schools in the city, then a full scholarship to Yale, and then to Harvard Medical School.  Matt does not complete high school.  This becomes one of the most challenging decisions Kim has ever made.  She is forced to choose between Matt, whom she loves, and the future she has worked so incredibly hard for, that she knows she can achieve.  I thought that this decision was an interesting part of the book, but also very sad.  I wish she could have somehow had both. 

     I also found the complete separation she learns to incorporate into her life, between her fancy school, and the reality of her poor, sweatshop life to be interesting.  I think that the title, Girl in Translation relates in a direct sense to the culture change from Hong Kong to America, including the new language.  But I think that is a more metaphorical way it relates to her two opposite lives.  She changes her clothes, often her language.  Very few from one part of her life ever know about the other part.  Her status even changes from quiet but super smart, and slightly popular girl, to low sweatshop worker.  In middle school, before she even goes to Harrison, she tells her one true friend that she works in a factory with her mother, and that is why she is never free to do other things.  Her friend,  Annette, is upper middle class,  a billionaire to Kim, white, and will never have to work at all compared to what Kim does.  Annette comes back the next day to school and tells Kim that she told her father and that her father says that there is no child labor in America, and that what Kim said is not true.  Although Annette turns out to be a great, and one of the few people who Kim trusts enough to let see both parts of her life, this causes Kim to realize that she should keep her two lives separate. 

     I also had trouble figuring out the antagonist in this book.  It could be Matt, or Kim's love for Matt because being with Matt would have prevented Kim from being successful and changing her life.  On the other hand, it could be Kim's drive for success that is the antagonist.  It prevents her from being with Matt, who she loves.  It really depends on which you view to be more important for Kim.  That is why I found the book sad in the end.  She has to choose between these two things that are both good. 

     In conclusion, I loved this book.  I dealt with some harsh issues, while always remaining exciting to read.  I thought it dealt with some interesting issues, and in the end, I guess I'm glad that Kim chose her future, but I still wish that she could have had both. 

Wintergirls: Appreciation

     I just finished reading Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson.  It is about Lia and her former best friend Cassie.  They have known each other since about fifth grade, and both have serious eating disorders, Lia is Anorexic and Cassie was Bulimic.  Recently though, Cassie died late at night, alone, in a motel room.  Partially from the disorder, and partially from the huge amount of vodka she drank that night.  A couple months before the death, their friendship had ended.  On the night that Cassie died, she called Lia 33 times.  Lia figured that they were not friends any more, and Lia never once picked up.  Since they met, they have also been competing in a deadly contest to see who can be the skinniest girl in their grade.  Part of the reason they ever stopped being friends was because Cassie felt that Lia was encouraging her eating disorder, maybe because Lia did not want to be alone.  For never picking up, and kind of believing herself that she was bad to Cassie, Lia has been haunted by Cassie ever since.  

      

     Lia has always had serious problems, but now they are becoming far worse.  For example, Lia's sense of "strong" is completely distorted.  The considers staying strong to be not eating, like she is.  Staying clean and empty.  While she considers herself strong in these ways, she can only barely lift a ten pound plate.  By the end of the book she weighs about 85 pounds, with a goal of 80 pounds, and is about 5 1/2 feet tall.  Her goal is always 5 pounds lower than her current weight.  She even says that she will not be comfortable with herself until she weighs nothing.  Lia also cuts herself all the time.  As terrible as this is, things had been much worse for her since Cassie died.  For example, She envisions Cassie coming into her room every night and trying to kill her.  She "sees" Cassie everywhere.  During this whole time, she is totally convinced that it is the real Cassie. 

     

     Of course, Lia's eating disorder is a huge problem in the book.  But there are many other things behind it, some of which may have caused her to stop eating in the first place.  Lia also cuts herself, and has incredible body image issues.  For example, She made the bet with Cassie, her best friend, to be the skinniest girl in school on New Years Eve.  They were making resolutions, and Cassie had made some pretty good ones.  At the time, Lia had no idea what hers would be.  Until it occurred to her that being skinny was the only thing she was good at.  I think she feels that she is terrible at everything else, so why not be skinny.  She also does it because she loves how other girls are occasionally envious of her weight.  But I think she overdoes this.  Most people seemed to think that she was creepily and unhealthily skinny, only one or two girls were jealous.  Lia also thinks the idea of eating as gross.  She considers not eating to be clean, and that eating is letting germs and things into her body to ruin it.  Throughout the book, the author shows her real thoughts about how crazily hungry she is, and how they are crossed out and replaced in the text by thoughts of staying clean, empty, strong, and how she is a fat, ugly, loser.  Her family life is messed up too.  Her parents have never really done a good job, but now when they are trying, she rejects them and ignores them.  Some of which they might deserve, but at least they see how very unhealthy she is.  When her parents force to eat and go into treatment because of the possibility of her dying, she only tells them that they are blowing the whole problem out of proportion.  She sees her body as fat, and she completely believes it, just as she believes in the hallucinations of Cassie. 

     During Wintergirls you mostly see Lia's perspective.  One aspect of Lia's perspective that I find especially interesting, is how her original, real, hungry thoughts are shown first, and then crossed out, like they are in her mind, and replaced by sort of fake thoughts of wanting to be skinnier.  Within Lia's perspective, you see mainly see one side, but you get a glimpse of a whole new perspective within Lia in those crossed out lines. 

      Regarding justice in the book, her problems are not necessarily unjust.  Mostly, she had brought them upon herself.  In that way, Lia, the part of her that does things like hallucinate fake Cassies is the main antagonist.  Lia is almost more the antagonist than the protagonist in many sections of the book.  Often, the people around her, like her step-mom Jennifer and especially her friend Eli, are fighting for her more than she is for herself.  I find this very sad.  But I also think that she thinks that she is fighting for herself by staying anorexic.  She does not realize the seriousness of her problem, or even that it is actually a bad thing.  She is not becoming stronger by not eating , sometimes she has trouble realizing that. 

     I resisted the text pretty often in this book.  Especially when she talks about how people are hurting her by making her eat.  I resist then because I know how wrong she is, and how they are trying so hard to help her.  I also resist when she does something terrible.  For example, one time after she had been cutting herself all over her body very badly in the bathroom, she passes out.  Somehow, her much younger sister Emma finds her.  Emma is terrified.  She is seeing the big sister that she admires so much passed out on the floor, with blood all around her.  She also sees how skinny her sister is and it scares her.  Even Lia knows how wrong that was.  I resist at times like those because I wish that was not happening in the book.  

     I thought that Wintergirls was a very sad book, but I enjoyed reading it.  The story was good, it was an interesting perspective, and the writing was very good and poetic, fitting for the book.  Even though it may not be realistic, I like how the author hints at the end of the book that Lia will recover. 

Paper Towns: Archetypes

     I am in the middle of reading Paper Towns, by John Green.  Quentin, the main character, has always admired and loved his neighbor Margo.  She is adventurous, fun, beautiful, brave, and smart.  In Quentin's words, she is just awesome.  He says that if there were a Nobel Prize for awesomeness, she would easily win.  Quentin really admires her bravery, and all the amazing adventures she has taken.  For example, She has broken into Disney Land and Universal Studios, and does things like run away to Mississippi or travel with a circus only because she wants to and is not afraid to.  It seems like she really has a wide scale understanding of the world, and what's important to her.  Quentin has never been brave enough to do anything that even compares to her exciting adventures. 

     I think the journey in Paper Towns has elements of a quest, task, and a loss of innocence;  it seems like all stories do to some extent though.  I think it is a quest, because Quentin might be trying to find something within himself, or realize something about himself.  Maybe that he is also brave.  Or he is going to realize something about Margo.  The task part of it could be finding Margo, or accomplishing the job of realizing that he can also do great things.  Maybe Margo wants Quentin to realize that he can also be adventurous.  It could be a loss of innocence in that when Quentin has some important self realizations, or realizations involving Margo, he also grows up a bit.  I'm not far enough in the story to know for sure, but those are some of my ideas on the journey of the story.  

     I definitely think that Quentin is the Hero.  He is the one on the journey, and will probably be most changed by whatever the journey is; he has been so far.  He is the protagonist.  In a way, I think that some part of him might be the antagonist.  That he is resisting change within himself.  

     Quentin's two best friends, Radar and Ben are two minor mentors.  They will always be there for Quentin, and help him with whatever he needs.  

     I'm not entirely sure what Margo is.  She is a mentor in some way though.  She absolutely represents knowledge that Quentin does not have, and what he probably wants to be more like in general.  Just being around her changes him, makes him much more adventurous, and makes him willing to do things that he would have previously been unable to do.  She represents what he does not have.  I think she knows how she is changing him to some extent.  Margo also might be a shapeshifter. She unexpectedly goes on an adventure with Quentin one night.  This leads him to think that they will finally be friends, but she ends up disappearing the very next day.  This could be because she cannot make up her mind on Quentin, or be something more personal to her.  She did leave clues for Quentin to figure out where she is after all, so she certainly did not just leave him hanging.  But she does still represent some uncertainty to Quentin.  

     Overall, I am really enjoying the book and cannot wait to see what happens next; it can be sort of suspenseful.  I think that Quentin is the main character, but we might also be following a personal journey for Margo. 

Friend Me: Appreciation

     Friend Me, by Cathy Hopkins, is about three best friends and the troubles they have at age fourteen.  I definitely enjoyed reading it.  The three girls are named Lucy, Izzie, and Nesta, and they live in London.  Most of the troubles they go through are stereotypical teenage girl problems; boys troubles, and other mean girls.  I do really support how they are always there for each other throughout the book. 

     Friend Me consists of books 1-3 in a series.  Each book is narrated by a different girl; first Lucy, then Izzie, and finally Nesta.  Their perspectives are each quite different.  I think the author had each of them narrate the book that most involves their own life.  You get to know each character much more thoroughly over the course of the book they narrate.  For example, Nesta narrates book three.  In this book she also meets her boyfriend, her family starts having some financial problems, and she must face the mean, snobby Cressida. In other books you only get a glimpse of some of Nesta's smaller problems.   It might just be that during the book each girl narrates, you see more of their life.  But I think that the author deliberately has each girl narrate the book where their own life changes most. The author leaves out the other points of view because the point of view of the girl that narrates each book might be more interesting at that book, and possibly because then the other girls points of view would give things away.  Throughout the book, the girls have self realizations.  These points in the book would be less meaningful if you already knew that they were going to occur.   

     I do not think that there are any seriously unjust things in this book.  But when their is a problem, even if I wouldn't necessarily categorize it as unjust, it is solved in the fair way.  This goes for when either a disliked character, or a main character that you are supposed to like does something wrong.  For example, Izzie meets this boy Mark in the second book.  He keeps saying that he will call her, then he does not call.  When ever they see each other he promises to call, and never does.  One time he says that his phone was stolen.  Izzie later sees him texting on the same phone.  This whole time, his ignoring her is negatively affecting her emotions.  Justice is served during a dance that takes place before they go on winter break.  Once again Mark never calls, discouraging Izzie from wanting to go to the dance.  Eventually, her friends convince her to go.  When she sees Mark, he acts like nothing was ever wrong.   She rightfully gets mad, and ignores him, going off to dance with someone else.  Mark ends up being the disappointed one.  When problems arise, justice is served, and the character normally has a realization about herself.  

     While other themes come and go, friendship is the strongest theme throughout all three books.  Lucy Nesta and Izzie are always true to each other, and solve their problems.  It is only with the help of each other that they solve their problems, and realize important things in their lives.  They also know this and and really value their friendship with each other.  They do fight, but miss each other immensely while in arguments, and realize afterwords that their friendship is more important than anything they would have been fighting about. 

     Overall, I liked the book and will continue to read the series.  The friendship of the three main characters is the most important thing in all three books and I predict that that will continue in the later books of the series.