The Value of Life in If I Stay

             In the book If I Stay by Gayle Forman, Mia's life is altered incredibly when she is in a devastating car crash which kills her little brother and her parents. Mia is stuck in a realm between life and death in which she can choose to either live or die. Her boyfriend, Adam, her best friend Kim, and all of her relatives desperately want her to live. This book made me think about the value of a single human life and love as well. Adam and Kim and all of Mia's relatives claim to love Mia, but what is love? Is love something that is even real? And why does it matter so much that Mia stays and lives? Mia is one out of billions of people on this Earth. Why does she matter compared to any other human being? Why do people matter in general, anyway?
         The dictionary defines love as, "a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person; a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend." The things that make us have affection for things lie in the world of science. When we get pleasure out of things and chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin are released in the brain, we as humans process that as a feeling of liking towards whatever the thing may be. If this happens enough times with the same exact thing, we claim to love it. This thing could include a person. And when it comes to humans, we all unconsciously desire love, unless a mental condition like sociopathy prevents us from doing so. We all are blindedly searching for it whether we know it or not. This is because most people believe that with love, comes happiness. But these two things are so similar. They're both surges of chemicals through the human brain, and they both are nearly impossible to find. When Adam wants Mia to stay, he's doing it because apparently, he loves her. But how do we even know what love is? How do we know when we are in love?
         If I Stay also made me think about the value of a human life. When Mia is critically injured and could possibly die, all of her relatives and the important people in her life want her to live so badly. Why does it matter if Mia lives? Mia was created equally along with the rest of all the humans on Earth. Why should she be valued over another person? Sentimentality is something that cripples everyone from seeing ethically. When people start to value people over other people, it isn't moral because all humans, value-wise, are the same. Happiness and love can actually make someone think incorrectly. Once people believe they have happiness and/or, they become so scared of losing it. This can be extremely bad when people are in ethical dilemmas. For example, when we read that article from The Ethicist in class about the woman who had the sister with Down Syndrome and Parkinson's disorder, the woman was considering putting a feeding tube in, because she wanted to keep her sister alive so badly because she loved her. But what if the person is happier dead?
        All in all, the book If I Stay made me think about the value of human life and love. While mostly all humans desire to be in love, love can blind us and make us ignorant and selfish. It's okay to be in love, but when love affects your ethics and morals, something has to change.
        

Character Relationships in Speak

Text-to-Text Connection: Flawless by Sara Shepard and The Crucible by Arthur Miller

In the second book of the Pretty Little Liars series by Sara Shepard, which is called Flawless, there is a text-to-text connection to the classic play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. These books are different genre-wise, because Flawless is a coming-of-age book whereas The Crucible is a very dark and intense play where frivolous things like designer clothes and school drama are not at stake. But the thing that binds these two stories together is that a lot of unnecessary fear is generated from a sociopath in the town. The four main characters in Flawless are Hanna, Spencer, Aria, and Emily, who all have very dark secrets of their own, secrets they all told or accidentally revealed to Alison, their best friend who mysteriously went missing when they were 12. They all kind of drifted apart after that, slightly traumatized by the experience. Everyone then starts receiving strange texts messages and e-mails that imply that the sender knows their deepest secrets. The sender also signs all the messages “A”, saying they are Alison, who knew their secrets. In The Crucible, there wasn’t any text messaging or e-mailing technology, but everyone becomes so fearful of these “witches” because a witch could be your best friend, who’s planning to perform dark incantations on you any second, and in comparison to that with Flawless, “A” could be anyone. Also, Abigail accuses lower-class, unpopular as witches because it’s easier to believe, and the girls in Flawless think that people they don’t like, like their childhood stalker Toby Cavenaugh or geeky class president Andrew could be “A”. As you can see, these books are very much alike.

            In Flawless and The Crucible, a lot of paranoia is driven into the hearts of 4 girls and an entire town because of person who has no remorse for their actions, and they’re unaware of the consequences of their actions. In The Crucible’s case, the villain is Abigail Williams, who goes a bit too far in a scheme to save herself. To save herself, she accuses innocent people who don’t have a ton of power in the town and she has a stunning amount of charisma, and no matter how many people challenge her, she wins. For example, when Mary Warren tried to challenge her, Abigail won the judges over because she acted so amazingly well. In Flawless, “A” is not trying to save herself from being caught because she did a bad thing, it’s because she wants revenge on Hanna, Spencer, Emily, and Aria. But the very similar thing about these two people is that they have so much influence over people. They’re filled with this sickly sweet charm that just wins everyone over, it’s nearly impossible to defy them. For example in Flawless, Hanna receives a note from “A”, stating that if she doesn’t say that she makes herself throw up to the people who hate her and want to ruin her social life, her secrets will be revealed and other terrible things could happen to her. Hanna has no choice but to do it, because her secret being revealed is like her world crashing down, and her life is already pretty dysfunctional. So as you can see, charisma and influence really make these characters very similar.

            Adding onto how “A” and Abigail are so similar, it’s because they use fear as a weapon. These girls become so afraid because “A” could be anywhere, lurking in the shadows, plotting to destroy them. Same with The Crucible, because anyone can be a so-called witch. Your loved ones could easily fall into Satan’s clutches and possess you, making you turn into the Devil’s slave. “A” and Abigail use this to their advantage because the 4 girls are still slightly traumatized because of Alison’s disappearance, and anything about Alison said to the girls sends chills down their spines, adding to the terror of an anonymous person texting you, saying they want revenge. In The Crucible, everyone is so terrified of witches because of their ultra-religious life where they basically blame all their problems on the devil, and now people in their good, pious town are fraternizing with pure evil? To the Puritans, that is terribly frightening, and since everyone is so afraid of these witches, Abigail uses that fear against them and so does “A”.

            Another way that these two stories are similar is that the “victims” target unpopular and disliked people as their villains. In The Crucible, Abigail says she saw Goody Osborne, an unknown peasant, with the devil. People believe her because Goody Osborne doesn’t have a lot of say or power in the community, which made it easy to believe she was a witch. In Flawless, Spencer thought that Andrew Campbell, her main competition in school for grades, student government, and many extracurricular activities. Spencer wants to be the best academically, and her feelings turn bitter towards Andrew because she thinks he may be “A”, because he drives by her house every day, perhaps witnessing drama that Spencer goes through, and her first name begins with “A”. These are silly excuses, but Spencer is so afraid she’ll believe anything. Also, Hanna and Emily think that Toby Cavenaugh, their childhood stalker could be “A”. He watched them obsessively when they were friends with Alison, and he got put in a boarding school because his parents couldn’t necessarily control him. It’s very clear how these “victims” suspect unpopular people and enemies of being their villain.

            In conclusion, Flawless by Sara Shepard and The Crucible by Arthur Miller are two very similar stories. They are similar because the “victims” target disliked and unknown people as their “villains”, both of their antagonists use fear as a weapon, and also the antagonists are very charismatic and they have a lot of influence. Even though these stories are written from the perspective of very different time periods, and the issues are different, they have a lot in common.