Life As We Knew It is the story of 16 year old Miranda, who must learn to survive in a post-meteor-hitting-the-moon world. She must learn to survive with food shortages and drastic climate fiascoes. But most importantly, she must learn the importance of family.
At the start of the book, Miranda's family is presented like any other. Her mom helps her with her homework and gets mad when she gets an 80 in history. She likes her younger brother but does not pay him any special attention. Nothing is out of the ordinary with them. But as the book progresses, the reader can see some hints at a greater message. In their world, each family must learn that they can only look out for themselves when it comes to food. Miranda disobeys this ground rule directly. Her mother is furious. The reader still sides with Miranda, seeing as all she was trying to do was help. I believe that though Miranda's mom is going a bit over board, the author in some ways agrees with her. They can only look out for each other. What other reason would the author have for staging a huge fight between Miranda and her mom?
The best moments in the book are when their family is all together and happy. When things start to get really rough with food, the mom pulls out some old board games and they all begin to play poker together. They are all so happy that this is one of the most elating moments of the book. Miranda even says that what she never would have considered a fun night before had now become the highlight of her month. On Christmas they all work really hard to get each other heartfelt gifts. Miranda finds her mom a box of chocolates, and she gets her brothers baseball cards and colored pencils. In return she gets a journal to write in. This is also one of the high points of the book.They are all so touched by their gifts. Miranda compares this night to a Christmas around the time of her parents divorce. She says that her parents felt so badly that they let the kids get basically anything they wanted. She used to consider that an amazing Christmas.
I believe that through this story, the author is making a comment about how family is these days. We can barely stand to be around each other, and we don't appreciate each other the way we should. Miranda learns the importance of her family so clearly in the hard, hungry months that they struggle through together. And she loves them so much more because of it. It really makes me think about how much my family means to me, and how it would feel if I lost mine, like Miranda almost does countless times.
Nice post!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like the author really made a point of showing how a family can stick together during the roughest times. It must be really hard for each member of the family, since they all worry and have to be so careful of their food consumption, but they have each other.
I think in the worst of times a family is the best thing to have. Whenever I'm feeling really down I can always turn to my family for help. I think that just the fact that Miranda's family is there for her will make her feel at least a little safer!
This was really good! This is one of my favorite books and you thought of a really good way of showing the underlying cause.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great book, Ellie, and I think you identified the message beautifully. It seems from your post that the author has truly conveyed the importance of family to readers, and although the author may portray the message in the form of a starving family coming together in a hard time and learning how to stick up for each other and no one else, it's still clear in the end what the message truly is. Good Job! Your writing is quite prolific.
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