Written Essay

McGraw

Riley McGraw

Mrs. Belden

Honors English I

Period 2

September 16, 2014

                                  Things I Can’t Forget

I read the book Things I Can’t Forget by Miranda Kenneally. The theme of this book is life isn’t always black and white. In the beginning, Kate only goes by what the Bible says and wrongs and rights no in betweens. As the book progresses, Kate learns things that are not as clearly defined as she once thought. The first detail of how the book shows the theme is when Kate figures out her best friend had an abortion, which Kate thought was the worst decision ever. Kate is a very religious girl, who was taught choosing to have an abortion was never the answer, which made Kate look at her friends decision as anything but wrong. This supports the theme because through Kates experiences at camp, she starts to see more and understand in her friends choice for abortion. Since Kate went from seeing only wrong to more understanding, she sees and learns that life isn’t always black and white.

        Another example of the theme is when Kate thinks all boyfriends are bad. Kate has these thoughts because her best friend Emily’s boyfriend left her after finding out Emily was pregnant. However, during Kate’s time at camp, she finds a relationship with a boy and realizes not all boyfriends are bad like Emily’s was. This supports the theme because Kate, once again, learns there is another side to her first thoughts. She went from seeing only bad in having a boyfriend from her past knowledge, to having a relationship of her own, and realizing boy friends are not all bad. From Kate having her own relationship it helped her understand there is another side to having a boyfriend. Once again, Kate learns from this experience life isn’t just black and white.

        Lastly, the author shows the theme by showing how Kate thinks of people in the beginning. When Kate meets people in the beginning of the book she only sees the first impression side of them. She thinks if someone was rude, they couldn’t be anything else but rude. She only sees one side of people. This supports the theme because during her time at camp she got to know more about the people, with their stories, and their past they shared. This made Kate understand that there was another side to these people. She learns to not look at people just one way anymore. Kate then understands to look more openly at people and consider their past that maybe people don’t know about. This is yet another way Kate learns things are not just black and white.

        Throughout the book, life isn’t always black and white emerges. Kate slowly starts to understand the other side of life through her experiences.