Character: Final

The character Jennifer has changed this whole book. Before she was some loser who just wanted friends. Everyone pitied her, and she felt she deserved it. I mean who wouldn't considering she was ugliest for four years in a row. Her so called "friends" try to get her to win homecoming queen. Jennifer is ecstatic about it, this would be the time she would shine. She goes to a party with them and is feeling desperate. People around her feel bad that she's trying so hard to have friends. She ends up kissing an intoxicated guy since she wanted her first kiss: to feel normal instead of the ugly fat girl. When homecoming comes around and the principal tells her she didn't win. She thought her whole entire plan had failed. She deserved peoples pity, but she didn't get enough. She was the mastermind behind everything. She thought that since she was ugliest she deserved pity and people to feel bad for her, she felt what she did was right. She hadn't learn anything from her experience. She just went along believing that everyone hated her and what she did was right. This character's view on herself was forever ugly.

Theme & Summary

    The theme of The List, is, "Even though something may be believed to be a good or bad thing, it could possibly change ones viewpoint on themselves or life." It develops over text partly because the reader gets to hear what the character is thinking and how they are reacting to the list. We also get background information on it. For example one character named Bridget thought, "And in a flash, the guilt, the sadness, and the depression she'd felt the whole way to school vanish and is replaced with warmth." This is when Bridget first found out she was put as the prettiest junior. During her summer she was starving herself so she could fit into a smaller bathing suit. Soon she realized it was a terrible idea. But once she sees that she was put on the list she thought she should keep it up because it seemed to improve her look to others. She felt amazing, but her sister makes her feel bad about it in the middle of the text. Her sister confronts her and tells her she needs to start eating. Bridget says," I'm telling you. After the homecoming dance, I'll eat. I'll be back to normal again. I swear. You know how you keep talking about the list, wanting to be on it someday? Well, just think about things from my perspective. It's a lot of pressure." This is where she starts to realize maybe it's not a good thing to be known as prettiest. But towards the end she knows it wasn't good. She says, "I wish I wasn't on the list. The list has been nothing but trouble for me." This shows that she starts to wish she hadn't made the list because then she wouldn't have thought that starving herself was a good thing. The list actually ruined her viewpoint on herself.

This picture shows how Bridget felt. She felt fat compared to other people in the world when in reality she was skinny. Once you start to feel a certain way it takes a lot to change old habits.

Book Recommendations

     I have recently read the Uglies series. I'd rate it an 8/10. This book is about a girl who lives in a world where at a young age everyone is ugly; having unsymmetrical or boring features. But when they come of a certain age they get an operation that changes them. They get perfect faces, perfect white teeth, perfect bodies, and amazing facial features. Tally Youngblood has been waiting for this day forever.  Before the operation she runs into a girl named Shay. Shay teaches Tally how to hover board and shares that she wants to go against the operation. Tally ignores it until she finds a note with information on how to find her. The day of her operation the Special Circumstances (law enforcers who have extra strengths) call her in. They say she has had connections from outside the cities limits. She has a decision to make, either give up her best friend’s secret location in the Smoke, or not get the operation. Which will she choose? This book is filled with quirks and twists you wouldn't expect to be possible.  Read the book Uglies by Scott Westerfeld and find out what happens with the adventure of Tally Youngblood.

Character

     One of the characters in The List is Jennifer. She was put on the list as the ugliest. She has been the ugliest all four years of high school for being overweight. Before high school started she only had one true friend and that true friend was Margo. Margo was elected as the prettiest girl in senior class as Jennifer was voted ugliest. Margo stopped hanging out with Jennifer because she was too needy for her liking and didn't fit in with any of her friends. Jennifer was left all alone with no one to hang out with. She was voted the ugliest freshman year and she had a major break down. For example the book states, "Jennifer had sunk to the floor in front of her locker and bawled unabashedly until her entire face was shellacked with the mixture of tears, snot, and sweat. The list, damp and twisted in her fists, was reduced to soggy pulp. Blood vessels burst in her cheeks and in the whites of her eyes. She'd barely survived the worst summer of her life, and now this? The freshman collectively backed up and gawked in horror, the way one might upon seeing a dead body. Except Jeniifer was very much alive. A gasp for breath turned into a choke, and then she vommited on herself." Throughout the years she starts to get over it. The student body was surprised when she started cheering and jumping up and down when she was nominated for the fourth year in a row. Something has changed with Margo's best friends this time though. Them being the popular girls in school, they talk to Jennifer and invite her to hang out with them. Jennifer obviously accepts quickly so they don't change their minds. Margo is frustrated that her friends invited her to go to homecoming so she makes an excuse to cancel it. Little did she know Jennifer told them she could drive and Margo was left in the dust. Jennifer has changed because now she is willing to make friends with any one and she's not afraid to talk to Margo anymore. Jennifer advances the plot because now Margo will try to get her friends back without Jennifer being a part of her group. If she fails then Margo won't have friends since she's being a bully.
  http://www.obesityaction.org/educational-resources/resource-articles-2/childhood-obesity-resource-articles/bullying-bullycide-and-childhood-obesity

     This article relates to Jennifer's teasing because of weight. It most commonly occurs during high school for girls and that's exactly what has happened to her. In middle school she was also rejected by Margo because she was overweight and uncool. Many people have the same story as Jennifer does.

Book Recommendations

I recommend the book Thirteen Reasons Why. This book was depressing to be honest, but there was an underlying meaning that is a very good life lesson. Even though you think what your doing isn't hurting other people, repercussions will be made. The girl in the book, Hannah Baker, gets put on a paper saying she has the best butt in freshman class. Seemingly harmless to the creator, he passes it around and shows everyone. That one little decision changed Hannah's whole entire life. I believe this book is crawling with suspense. You're always wondering why this person was brought into the story and how they contributed to Hannah's decision. Every chapter I was pulled into the story even more than I was before. I would rate this book a 9/10.

Reading skills

     The book I'm currently reading is The List, by Siobhan Vivian. In my story 8 girls in high school are put on a list. One girl from each grade is picked as the ugliest. Another person from each grade is picked as the prettiest. The principal would like the girls to come together and find out who made the list and tries to encourage them to ignore the list and go against it. I predict that the girls voted as the prettiest won't try to help find the mastermind because they got an extra confidence boost. That person made them popular also making them feel special. I also predict that some of the girls who were voted the ugliest won't help either so they don't get even more hate.  They are most likely pretending that the list doesn't bother them, when it in fact does. I hope that at least half of the girls start to help track down the list maker and take them down. I am curious if the maker is on the list. The whole story would be turned around and surprise would be evident for the readers if it were. This story relates to the book Thirteen Reasons Why, because in that book the quandary that started it all was a paper that said Hannah Baker had the nicest butt in freshman class. That one paper changed her life forever and had major consequences just like how people started treating the ugly and pretty girls differently. This book relates to my life because one little thing a person does changes my outlook on them. If they do something very strange or disgusting I will have the urge to judge them. This relates to the world by everyone having certain points in their life where they feel major confidence or major sadness. Being labeled as "ugly" or "pretty" is a major issue that is still happening all around the world. If people start to believe these things they could change their whole life for the better or for the worse depending on the situation.