Symbolism in Bruiser by Neal Shusterman

In the book Bruiser by Neal Shusterman a very prominent theme is seeing life with “blinders” on or seeing life with these “blinders off.  Horses have these blinders to keep them from seeing everything. On people these blinders are nonexistent, but in ways they are much more powerful than the blinders on a common horse. As Brontë, one of the main characters explains, “Most of the time we don’t even know they’re there. Maybe we need them though, though, because if we took in everything at once we’d lose our minds.” Brontë is trying so hard to keep her blinders on and shutting her eyes away from the horrific truth, whereas Brewster (another main character) has seen the world for what it truly is. This theme kept on popping up discreetly over and over again in Brontë’s and Brewster’s actions and thoughts. So I think that the theme of living life with the blinders on versus off is very important in the book Bruiser by Neal Shusterman.

A way that this theme shows is through one of the characters, Brontë. Brontë tries so hard to keep her blinders on and in doing so she completely denies all her problems. “‘No! They’re not getting divorced! They worked things out! They’re happy!’” The “they” that she is talking about is her parents, and they are on the verge of divorce and her mother is already seeing another man. Also, Brontë never fully realizes the consequences of her actions. For example,  Brontë will introduce Brewster to all her friends and he will begin to care about them, causing him agony because he takes other people’s emotional and physical pain away from the people he cares about. So you can see two ways of how the theme of having the blinders on versus off is shown in Brontë because she is trying so desperately to keep her blinders on and seeing reality.

            A different side of the blinders theme is shown in Brewster whose blinders are fully off. He sees the world in an entirely realistic perspective and he realizes reality while others, like Brontë, refuse to accept it. “… Who have devolved into Play-Doh pumped through sleazy suburban press, stamped into identical molds, all bearing chunks of bleak ice, comet-cold in their chests.” He sees straight through all the heartless people while other people will worship them as if they were magical, filled to the brim with mystical powers of only good. The theme of the blinders is also shown in another way through Brewster.

              In conclusion, the theme of living life with these protective blinders on and on was a reoccurring theme in the book Bruiser by Neal Shusterman. As Brontë will state, “Can you imagine how terrifying it must be to suddenly realize that everything you believe about the universe was wrong? Most people don’t realize how terrifying that is until their world is the one being threatened.” Brontë clutches her “blinders” tight to her face whereas Brew’s blinders are off and he sees straight through every phony thing. So I believe that the theme of having blinders on versus off was a very prominent theme in the book Bruiser by Neal Shusterman.

The Theme of Love in Born Confused

              In the book Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier, the theme of love is seen in three different perspectives. Dimple's mother believes that love is something that will connect you to that person for the rest of your life and it is a sacred holy thing. Dimple believes that love is a powerful and terrifying thing that sweeps you off your feet into a whole new world for the better or the worse of you. And Dimple's best friend Gwyn believes that love is something that barely exists and it is very rare. She also believes that false love is found all around. The way the book showed love in these three perspectives made me think about love in my life. I love my family and my friends, and I agree with all three of these perspectives. I believe that love can change your life and it is sacred, I believe that it is a terrifying thing that can switch your world upside down for better or worse, and I also believe that love nowadays is a rare yet beautiful thing. These three characters are all very different and their ideas on love are very different, yet I believe that one thing that all their beliefs have in common is that love is powerful. Love alters so many things in a person's life that it's breath-taking. Born Confused really expresses that in a wonderful way.
         Gwyn in Born Confused is Dimple's best friend. She and Dimple are so close that they are practically sisters. Yet Gwyn and Dimple are very different in the way that Gwyn has been used all her life for her body, and not her soul. Gwyn is a gorgeous girl, being described in the book to have lustrous blond curly hair and radiant blue eyes. Yet in the story, Gwyn dates guys who just use her for her body and she falls for every single one of them. And when they leave her, she gets extremely upset because she felt as though she has given something up all for a waste. She is anti-love, and sometimes even feels that love itself is a complete waste. Yet in spite of that, she continues to search for love, giving up her body and soul only to have it being used and wasted in the end. Dimple and her mother have both never been used like that, so obviously they have different perspectives about love comparing to Gwyn's view on love. Gwyn's perspective made me very sad, because she is only 16 and is a full grown woman in her soul because of the way she has been treated all her life. I think that possibly, sadly, Gwyn will have this outlook on love for all her life because of the way she acts.
            Dimple is the main character in Born Confused and she has just turned 17, which means she is thinking an awful lot about the life she has ahead of her. Part of that life includes getting an arranged marriage, which Dimple will comply to even though she may not be entirely happy with it. Dimple believes that as part of her womanhood, she should fall in love. This scares Dimple though, because Dimple has never been in love because her strict Indian parents forbade her to have a boyfriend or any type of companionship with a boy at all. Dimple is always surrounded by love: her parents love each other deeply, Gwyn falls for practically every boy around her, and her cousin Kavita has fallen very deeply in love with her roommate, Sabina. Dimple kind of reminds of Juliet in the beginning of  Romeo and Juliet in this way. Juliet sees love all around her, and when her parents arrange her to marry Paris, she agrees, because she is naive in the way she has never been in love before. Dimple wants love to happen to her so she can continue on with her life and be happy, yet love terrifies her because she has so little experience with love and she sees how powerful love can be.
          Dimple's mother always wants the best for what she thinks for Dimple. She wants Dimple to get good grades in subjects like math and science so she can be successful one day, and she wants Dimple to have an arranged marriage with another Hindu Indian boy. She wants Dimple to be confidant about being Indian, to have pride for her nationality, and to be a faithful Hindu also. Dimple's mother has an amazing relationship with Dimple's father that even though their relationship may not be shown as much or be as physical, their love is overpowering enough to last across an ocean and raise a child. Because of this love Dimple's mother shares with Dimple's father, she believes that love is a sacred holy thing that will connect you to that one person for the rest of your life. Dimple's mother believes that even if you stopped loving someone years and years ago, the love will still be there because once, that spark was special and it was sparkling. I personally think this is the best perspective of love to have. To know that love is something so special that it is holy and that love never runs out no matter how you may feel about the person is something so beautiful and tender. I wish all people could have that belief.
           In conclusion, three very different perspectives on love are shown in Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier. The first one is by Dimple's best friend, Gwyn, and her perspective on love is that love is very rare and it barely exists. False love is also found everywhere. The second perspective on love is from Dimple's mother, and that is that love is a sacred hallowed thing in which you are connected to that specific person for life no matter what. And the third perspective on love is from Dimple herself, in which love is a terrifying powerful thing. I agree with all three of these perspectives and I love how the author incorporated all of them into the book. I personally love Dimple's mother's view on love the most because it is so moving and gentle. If all people could see the wat Dimple's mother does about love, the world be a much better place.

The Issue of Identity in Born Confused

           In the book Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier, the main character, Dimple Lala, is an Indian girl who has an extremely strict Hindi family. But living in New Jersey and seeing the "American" lifestyle makes her wonder about who she really is as a person. Her parents want her to be an obedient desi girl who gets good grades and will go into an arranged marriage, yet Dimple does not wish to do that at all. Also, Dimple is very insecure of her ethnicity, with her large hips and brown skin. Dimple idolizes her best friend, Gwyn, for she is blond and pale and skinny. Dimple has trouble accepting herself, and she is struggling to identify herself as an American or an Indian. The American part of her is rebellious and free, yet the Indian part is bone-crushing reality, in which Dimple has to abide by her parents strict rules. Dimple knows that not all American people are good people, but there seems to be such a glamorous quality about the people to her. Dimple isn't quite sure what category she falls under either, considering she is Indian, but living permanently in America. Yet all in all, the book Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier says a lot of the issue of identity.
          The first part of Dimple Lala's identity crisis is that Dimple wishes to be American so she can fit in in New Jersey at her high school. The so-called "All-American Golden Girl" is a girl with blond hair and blue eyes plus a slim figure. There are only 2 Indian kids in her entire school, so Dimple is often sadly an outcast among her peers. On her birthday, Dimple goes shopping for clothes with her mother as a tradition. Dimple insists on going into a trendy new store called Style Child that her best friend Gwyn often goes to. In Style Child, Dimple sees a white studded miniskirt that she falls in love with. But when Dimple tries on a size 0 and does not fit into it, she gets very upset and keeps telling herself that she has to fit into a size 0 although it is completely unrealistic for any 17 year old to be able to fit into a size 0. When Dimple finally discovers that she will not be able to fit into the skirt, she breaks down crying and gets very displeased. Dimple's situation is something many girls everywhere have experienced, yet Dimple's was to be a certain race. This shows Dimple's confusion with her identity and her longing to be something else but knowing that she can't.
            Another problem Dimple has with her identity is that she struggles figuring out whether she is Indian or American. She visited India when she was little but she can barely recall any memories from those trips. She has lived in America all her life and is friends with American people and has dated American men. Yet both her mother and father are Indian, so she is biologically Indian. She is expected by her parents to be an Indian girl who follows all Hindi customs. This makes Dimple understandably very confused about her life and who she really is as a person. The other Indian in her school is proud of his heritage and wears a turban to school with his head held high. Dimple labels him a freak and refuses to acknowledge him. Yet when Dimple goes home and away from her school and her extremely American best friend Gwyn, she is Indian again. It's almost like Dimple is living a double life because she is so confused with her identity. She doesn't which one to choose because one is the life she was born with and the other is the life she wants so badly.
          In conclusion, Dimple Lala is a girl stuck between the confining yet familiar world of her Indian home and the so-called exciting and new world of being an American teenager. She is on the verge of an identity crisis and wants to be an American but knows it is impossible. She expects herself to be an American teenager, because, after all, she was born in the United States, yet she is Indian because both of her parents and the rest of her family is Indian. One thing that shows Dimple's lost identity is how she desperately wants to be an American girl like her best friend Gwyn, but her all-real Indian side is holding her back. Dimple most definitely knows that Americans are not the perfect people, but she wants to fit in with the rest of the kids at her school. Another thing that shows Dimple's identity crisis is that she is frustrated being stuck between two worlds: her Indian one and her new American one. Yet all together, the book Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier teaches a lot about the issue of identity.