Kaczur 1 Sarah Kaczur L408 Dr. Carter Book Rationale ... - Oncourse

Kaczur 25campfire on the beach, Diana sings the song "Hard Love" seemingly to John. The song speaks oflove in an unhappy home and impossible love as hard love, but the lyricist recognizes that hardlove changes people and restores lives. He writes:And I'll tell you how you change me as I live from day to day How you help me to accept myselfand I won't forget to say, Love is never wasted, even when it's hard love. For the love that healsour lives is mostly hard love. (227)John loves Marisol, who as a lesbian cannot return a like love. She can love him only as afriend, and does. It is this hard love that has made John ready to join life.Like Myers, Wittlinger uses the format of the book to her advantage. The design of thenovel replicates characteristics of a zine. Each chapter begins with slanted print as if the bookhad come through a home computer's printer with the paper crooked. In addition, when zinearticles do appear, they are surrounded with illustrations as if they were in a zine.Just as Myers establishes psychological intimacy with Steve Harmon's journal entries,Wittlinger creates immediacy through the illusion that the reader is often reading John's zine, thatis, his writing. John's writing reveals who he is. Marisol realizes this. When reading one of hispieces, she says, "' There's the moment of truth. ... That's the line that lets me know this cockyguy is real, that he's not just a slick jerk who doesn't care about anything"' (76).John's notebook entry and his letters and poems are printed as if they were printed by handon lined notebook paper. Marisol's letter to her birth mother and her poem to John are neatlytyped, and Diana's letter to John is handwritten on what appears to be stationery. The formatclearly sets these pieces apart, calling attention to their importance in the story and revealingsomething of the character of each writer. Thus, like Myers, Wittlinger uses format visually todevelop character and to underscore theme.The Search for SelfThese four novels deal with three themes that are important to young adults. First, mostyoung adults struggle to come to terms with who they are, and Monster, Speak, and Hard Loveall contain characters who are searching for their identity. When the prosecutor refers to SteveHarmon as a monster, he begins to examine his life, trying to repudiate for himself the attorney'sclaim.When he is found "not guilty," the question remains. He opens his arms to hug O'Brien, hisattorney, at the moment of victory, but she turns away (276). Is it because he is black and she iswhite? Is it because she is young and thinks this would be unprofessional? Does she think he isguilty? In his cast of characters, Steve has described her as "the Defense Attorney with Doubts"(10). The conclusion that he imagines for the screenplay ends with a grainy black and whitepicture of him - "It looks like one of the pictures they use for psychological testing, or somestrange beast, a monster" (277).