“You” The novel “You” is a detailed story of a 19 year old girl who committees a crime when she was a troubled youth and how the consequences both mentally and physically affects her life after she refuses to deal with her past and hides it in a closet. Throughout the story you are introduced to three different characters, Josie, Alex and Gemma, who you find out, are all the same people, portraying different emotions and relive the crime and the effects it has on them all. The character’s real name is Alex and after the tragic events from her childhood she ends up suffering from Schizophrenia and Depression.
The events of her childhood follow the weak and damaged relationship of Alex’s mother and herself. The hardship begins when Alex’s mum marry’s a drunken and abusive man, Barry. Alex begins experiencing trouble at home and abuse at school. At the school Alex attends there has always been an issue of crime and disobedient from the attending students, the school reacts employs a new principal that believes in discipline and conformity that the students don’t agree with. At school things begin to feel like a prison and at home it’s a place of constant abuse both verbal and physical for Alex. She begins to feel worthless and rebels by dropping rocks off the town’s bridge above the freeway, attacking Barry with a paintball gun, as a joke and by smoking. Her rebellious actions of are matched with Barry trying to control her. On Christmas day he punishes her by destroying her skateboard and bans her from partaking in “Christmas”. Later that month Alex and her mates are at the local bridge where a dare turns into a freak accident when Barry’s youngest kid falls off the bridge after Alex tries to help her get down. Alex is blamed by Barry for the freak accident and abused and attacked, while Alex’s mum stands back unable to help. This results in her moving into foster care with Moria and Frank, whom also look after another girl, Lara who is disabled.
Alex suffers from psychological problems such as voices in her head, hallucinations, and graphic nightmares, which leads to acts of self-mutilations. This prevents her from attending her uni courses and fulfilling her dream of becoming a Zoo Keeper, the one thing that keeps her stable. After Maria finds her cutting her wrists she is forced to talk about her nightmares and the freak accident. At this time in the story her nightmares are at their climax and shows the vivid details of the abuse and of the accident.
The next day after Alex talks about the accident, Lara falls down the stairs. Before she is rushed to hospital she asks Alex to feed the ducks at the park, which is a ritual for the family every afternoon. Which Alex does after considers finding a sharp object to cut her wrists, ending her life for once and all. Once Alex arrives at the park she finds a sobbing young girl who had lost her parents. Alex is forced to take her to the police station, which is over the bridge. While she crosses the bridge she relives her past and the accident. This acts as the climax in the novel and helps her to understand that she doesn’t need to hide from her past or life and has suffered enough. As a reader, the beginning of the book sets out to make you have a negative response to Alex whom the reader thinks murdered an innocence 4 yr old child. As the book goes on you realise that yes the child was innocent 4 yr old but you learn that it was an accident, a freak accident. Alex is portrayed as the antagonist but as the story evolves you see her side of the story and perspective and you begin to feel sympathetic to her. This idea evolves as we learn about the abuse and neglect and depression she suffers from.
As a reader you begin to feel that she has suffered enough from the freak accident and is overwhelmed with guilt and is unable to live her life until she overcomes the guilt. The book for me was a pretty good read, it kept me interested because I wanted to know more about the accident and what the nightmares and hallucinations became of her and how it affected her everyday life. It showed me that when people make mistakes that they also go through a lot of pain and that there is many more people affected than you first think. It also makes you think about how much someone should suffer under the law after an accident when they may also endure psychological and life threaten effects
natalieh Said:
on October 11, 2006 at 10:34 am
So it will not show my paragraphs… why is that?