~Quotes~
- “Maybe you can afford to wait. Maybe for you there's a tomorrow. Maybe for you there's one thousand tomorrows, or three thousand, or ten, so much time you can bathe in it, roll around it, let it slide like coins through you fingers. So much time you can waste it. But for some of us there's only today. And the truth is, you never really know.” -This ties in with the theme of choice where you never know when your last day is going to be- if you make good choices and complete positive actions, the day you're taken off this earth, you'll have nothing to regret.
- “I guess that's what saying good-bye is always like--like jumping off an edge. The worst part is making the choice to do it. Once you're in the air, there's nothing you can do but let go.” -Once again, choice plays a big role in this quote where once you've made a choice, you can't take it back. Sure you can do another action to make up for your choice, but you can never take back the final choice you made and that's when you have to "let go".
- “So many things become beautiful when you really look.” -Samantha never really stopped to "smell the roses" because all she cared about was her reputation in being popular, always focusing on looks and her purpose. When you let go of selfish focus, the world seems to slow down and you're able to realize the things around the world other than yourself.
- “Here's another thing to remember: hope keeps you alive. Even when you're dead, it's the only thing that keeps you alive.” -Ties into the theme of hope where hope not only helps you keep going on physically but also mentally- hope doesn't allow you to give up but instead allows you to move on.
- “How is it possible, I think, to change so much and not be able to change anything at all?” -This quote refers to thought that maybe its not you that has to change but the actions that you do have to change in order to affect the people around you.
Theme- HOPE- A Thousand Splendid Suns Vs. Before I Fall
Hope is a strong theme in both of these novels that develop the main characters to be stronger and benefit the characters around them. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam began to lose hope when her father gave her up to get married to some stranger who turned out to be an abusive spouse. Mariam always had the hope of being accepted and loved because she was always an outcast even back at home where her mother was rude to her and her father was not really involved in her life and did not quite care for her. When Laila moves in with Mariam to be wed to Rasheed, they both had loss of hope in freedom and faith. Later in the novel Mariam murders Rasheed which gives Laila hope to become a strong woman like Mariam and hope to have a successful life now that Rasheed is out of the picture. Hope in A Thousand Splendid Suns is similar to hope in Before I Fall because the character, Samantha, tries to restore hope in a person, to save a life. Hope in both of these novels is used to create a strong character development in so that characters' get stronger.
"Live Like We're Dying" by Kris Allen
This song represents this book quite well in that the lyrics match up with the situations that happen in the book:
"Sometimes we fall down, can't get back up
We're hiding behind skin that's too tough
How come we don't say I love you enough?'
Til it's to late, it's not too late"
The lyrics above represent Samantha's character where Samantha never shows any emotion of love to the one's who she truly does love, like her family. Although she's popular, she's still a human being with flaws and emotions where Samantha is "hiding behind skin that's too tough". The story-line shows that it's no too late to show someone that you love them represented when Samantha saves Juliet from being hit by a car and sacrifices herself although she wouldn't have had to sacrifice herself if she had changed her actions early, "Til it's too late."
"We only got 86 400 seconds in a day to
Turn it all around or to throw it all away"
These lyrics represent that Samantha does have a time limit, those seven days, to change her actions to prevent bad events from happening. When the lyrics say "to Turn it all around or throw it all away" it ties into the major theme of choice where Samantha can turn it all around by making better choices or throw it all away.
This song represents this book quite well in that the lyrics match up with the situations that happen in the book:
"Sometimes we fall down, can't get back up
We're hiding behind skin that's too tough
How come we don't say I love you enough?'
Til it's to late, it's not too late"
The lyrics above represent Samantha's character where Samantha never shows any emotion of love to the one's who she truly does love, like her family. Although she's popular, she's still a human being with flaws and emotions where Samantha is "hiding behind skin that's too tough". The story-line shows that it's no too late to show someone that you love them represented when Samantha saves Juliet from being hit by a car and sacrifices herself although she wouldn't have had to sacrifice herself if she had changed her actions early, "Til it's too late."
"We only got 86 400 seconds in a day to
Turn it all around or to throw it all away"
These lyrics represent that Samantha does have a time limit, those seven days, to change her actions to prevent bad events from happening. When the lyrics say "to Turn it all around or throw it all away" it ties into the major theme of choice where Samantha can turn it all around by making better choices or throw it all away.
Themes-Hope Vs. Choice
Hope and Choice tie into one theme where they work together to create a beneficial story line for our main characters, Samantha Kingston and Juliet Sykes- Samantha has to make choices each of the seven days she relives. Her choices effect each day in a different way, changing the day's routine but still having the same ending (until day seven); the car crash. Her choices eventually become more beneficial where her character changes from egocentric ruthless, and popular to more of a selfless, thoughtful, and considerate being. Her choices eventually tie in with hope near the end where she tries to re-befriend a girl in her grade with the name of Juliet Sykes (an old best friend of Samantha's). Juliet Sykes is a suicidal character who is socially isolated and has a harsh family situation back at home- she cant escape the abuse of life. Samantha tries her best to save Juliet from self-harm, changing her own actions in these seven days where she used to "bully" Juliet. By Samantha changing her abusive action towards Juliet, Samantha also tries to place hope into Juliet so that she doesn't commit suicide; Samantha tries to show Juliet that she has a place in this world by placing hope into Juliet by Samantha improving her own actions. However, in the end it ends up being that Juliet caused the car crash that "killed" Sam in the beginning by jumping in front of the car with her suicide thoughts- but on the seventh and last day Samantha places the most hope and choice in her last action; right before Juliet jumps in front of the car, Sam finds Juliet and jumps to push Juliet out of the way. In the end Sam placed hope into Juliet by Sam taking her own life and making the choice to give a life to a person who fully deserves it, to dear Juliet.
Quick Overview!
A young teenage girl named Samantha Kingston is known as the "most popular" girl in school where everyone envies her and she has anything and everything. Samantha and her three best friends rule the school and she not only has the beauty and popularity but she even has a the popular, cute boyfriend to top everything off. Being a senior, she worries about college and mainly expects her senior year to be full of partying and drinking. With popularity comes a big ego which Samantha expresses quite well; she's rude, confident, and egocentric- weird how everyone still envies her. However, on February 12th everything takes a sudden change. She expects February 12th to be a perfect Friday-partying and hanging with her friends, until a car crash at about midnight changes everything where she has to rel-live the same day for a whole week as she learns the wrong choices from the right ones and what truly matters in the real world.