Blog of the Week October 26, 2015

A Year and A Day

By: Leslie Pietrzyk 

P.g: 0- 282

Summary:

The book I am currently reading is A Year and A Day by Leslie Pietrzyk. Alice's mom killed herself, and she must figure out how to manage without guidance, support, and her mother’s famous cooking that comforts her in her darkest hours. Even though she has a brother, he slowly breaks away from her. She hears her mother’s voice when she doesn't want it and needs it when it isn't there. To become comforted she seeks help from different people and finds out secrets from her mother’s past.

Prompts: How the conflict drives character development (causes the character to change)

     There are different conflicts that the main character has deal with in the story. One of the conflicts in the book is that her mother died. She goes through sadness, anger, loneliness, and jealousy throughout the story. For example in the beginning of the book Alice is sad and grieving over her mother. It talks about how she misses her and different things that she is reminded of. This is mentioned throughout the book, but is mostly focused on in the beginning. She also goes through anger in the book. Now she doesn't understand why her mother killed herself when she had two children and responsibilities. Alice blames her mother for her failures and tells herself that she shouldn't be forgiven. Once this stage wear's off Alice becomes very lonely and feels like she is by herself. Many of her friends try to comfort her and talk to her, but she drives them away. Then she realizes that her friends are so lucky to have the lives they have. She becomes jealous of them and thinks she hates them. These are some of the conflicts the main character has to face.

     The main character changes a lot because of these conflicts. She has had to mature way too early. When her mother died she was only 15 years old so she was very young. Her whole life has to fasten up and she has to gain way more responsibilities. Although you would think Alice has to play the grownup role in the family, this is not true. Her older brother ,Will,  has to act like the adult even though their aunt takes care of them. The aunt is described as unusual and delusional. Alice plays the youngest helpless role in the family. Sometimes I think that this has caused her to become more of a child then an adult because she has been pitted the most.

    One way she changed because of these conflicts was that she began to grow feelings for a guy named Joe Fry. He comforted her and made her feel better when she was upset. She changed her idea of who she would like because of her feelings that the conflicts made. In the book Alice says that Joe is a bad boy who skips school and smokes. Alice wouldn't have normally found him interesting, but under the circumstances she felt attracted to him.When Alice felt alone she might have thought that she should make a scene and try to rebel like Joe Fry. Her choice in guys changed.