If I Stay: Blog #4

In the novel If I Stay by Gayle Forman, the main character Mia, and her family get in a fatal car accident that results in only herself living. Throughout the novel Mia has out-of-body experiences seeing herself in a coma at the hospital while all of her family’s close friends, her grandparents, and her devoted boyfriend as well as his friends come to visit her. The story also tells of many flashbacks giving the reader the idea of how close her family was to the most important people in her life as well as themselves as a family. Mia has to decision to choose to live or to die and be with her loving parents and her younger brother who she adores. Although I feel this would be the hardest decision to ever make, I think I would choose to live. Not being able to be with my family would be very difficult however, at one point in the book, Mia’s best friend Kim is talking to Mia’s unconscious body saying “ There are like twenty people in that waiting room right now. Some of them are related to you. Some of them are not. But we’re all your family…you’ll still have a family.” Leaving your close family behind would be very difficult in the situation that Mia is in however she also has very close loved ones to live for as well as the rest of her life even if it will never be the same again.

If I Stay: Blog #3

My group is reading the novel If I Stay by Gayle Forman. In this novel the main character is a seventeen year old girl named Mia. Her and her family has just been in a fatal car accident and she is the only one left but barely holding on. The novel takes the reader back to many events in their close-knit family’s life. As the story plays out, Mia soon realizes she will have to choose to stay living with her loving grandparents, her best friend, and her devoted boyfriend. However, she also realizes she would be left without her parents and younger brother whom she adores. This novel makes the reader question what they would do in a situation like the tragic one Mia is in.

If I Stay: Blog #2

In the novel my group is reading, If I Stay, the main character is telling the story of her and her family’s car accident through her point of view. It is told through her out-of-body self as her character is in a coma and critical condition. I feel telling the story through this point of view helps the reader see it like an outsider but while getting all the important and personal details of the character’s life as well as her family’s.  An example of this portrayal is seen here: “I’m staring at myself, the “live” Mia now, lying in her hospital bed.” Although telling the story through a character’s out-of-body experiences may seem confusing, it actually makes the story much more interesting and personal.

If I Stay: Blog #1

                My group is reading If I Stay by Gayle Forman. The novel starts off giving a lot of background about the main character Mia, and her family. It is a snowy day and Mia, her brother, and her father get the day off from school as her father is a teacher. Their mother then decides to take the day off with them as well. The reader learns that the family has always been into music. The family then decides to take a trip to visit the family’s friends, Henry and Willow. Suddenly on their way, a four-ton truck hits them going sixty miles per hour. The next paragraph starts off with Mia, in her mind, asking herself if she is dead. Mia is then seeming to have an out-of-body perspective of the accident unraveling right in front of her, even seeing herself lying on the side of the road. So far the novel has been somewhat shocking, suddenly turning into a tragic accident when the family was only out for a drive to visit friends. However, the author uses a lot of detail explaining the accident as well as having one of the character’s explain what they are seeing which makes to novel hard to put down at times.

Mercy

I am reading Mercy by Jodi Picoult. One of the main characters in the novel is Cameron McDonald, police chief of a small town in Massachusetts. One day his cousin Jamie comes to him to tell him that he has killed his wife out of mercy because she was suffering from cancer. Cameron has to make the tough decision to arrest his own cousin. Now, aiding the prosecution side, Cameron is at odds with his devoted wife Allie who is awestruck by the idea of a man being so in love with his wife that he would grant all her wishes, even death. If you were in the same situation as Jamie, would you be able to murder the person you love out of mercy?