What else could you ever need?
For this week, we were given the theme of "love." One of the most interesting things about this theme is how broadly it can be interpreted. We can discuss it from the perspective of romantic love, friendly love, familial love, true love, or even twisted love! So, for something different, I decided to focus on the last one: twisted love. I read Stolen by Lucy Christopher, and this book was written by a sixteen-year-old girl documenting her experience with a kidnapper.
While waiting for a flight, Gemma leaves her parents in the terminal and goes to get a cup of coffee. A really cute stranger offers to doctor her coffee for her, and--unbeknownst to her--slips some sort of drug in with the sugar. He whisks her away and changes her appearance enough to get her out of the airport without being stopped. The next thing she knows, she's in the middle of nowhere in the Australian desert with the man who captured her, Ty. As the story goes on, Ty slowly reveals that he has been watching Gemma since she was 10. He truly believes that by kidnapping her, he is rescuing her from her disinterested parents and the boy who has taken an unhealthy interest in her. Ty wants to keep her with him so she's safe, and he thinks that eventually she will grow to love both the desert and him. After Gemma tries to escape and almost dies in the process, Ty finally agrees that if nothing has changed in four months, he will take her back to civilization. Not long after this, Gemma is bitten by a snake, and Ty's treatments are ineffective. So, desperate, he drives her to civilization and turns himself in at the hospital so that Gemma can get treatment. After Gemma recovers, her parents and the general public pressure her to tell them how much of a monster Ty was, but Gemma finds herself missing Ty and thinking that maybe he wasn't as bad as she first thought. The take on love that Christopher's book showed is incredibly unique. First of all, Ty was abandoned by both parents at a fairly young age, and shortly thereafter, he latched onto Gemma because he identified with her. He followed her for six years, watching over her, protecting her. At one point, Ty tackled and beat up a boy who was chasing Gemma through the woods. Ty's devotion to Gemma is formed from childhood abandonment and leads him to wholeheartedly believe that she will be better off with him, and that she will grow to love him. Additionally, Gemma's attitude toward Ty at the end of the book is fascinating. She holds onto a ring he gave her even while police are pressuring her to give a statement against him. A therapist speaks to her about Stockholm Syndrome, and encourages her to write out her experience and her thoughts throughout the entire thing, so in the last few pages, Gemma reveals that this was her impetus to write this entire story. After finishing, she looks back on all of it, and reconciles her feelings for Ty with his actions. She realizes that what he did was wrong, but she is determined to tell the courts that he is not a bad person, that he treated her well, and that he deserves to be treated fairly. What this story shows is how love can be twisted and stretched until it cannot be recognized. Is it still love? Is that how it ought to be defined?
2 Comments
Mrs. Bryant
2/20/2015 09:01:39 am
Wow! This sound like an amazing book with rich discussion about the boundaries of love. What determines love? Is there a formula? A status quo? Are there rules that guide and influence who to love for what reasons? When lovers cross boundaries, when do you forgive and accept? Where do you draw the line and close the door? I wonder how this would do in a high school class? Could you use it in middle school?
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3/2/2015 12:57:55 am
I think of how we do twist what it is to love and how we can't really determine whether a love is healthy objectively. This book has been assigned effectively to middle school students. What a riveting concept and your analysis of it makes me think of other popular novels today like Twilight. I am on a search for healthy love stories as well, and I like Eleanor & Park for that.
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AngelicaLaughter and literature are two of my favorite things, and I consider them to be crucial parts of my life. This blog is designed to spread life, laughter, and literature to anyone and everyone who needs them most. Photo by Tim Geers
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