Lost Property by James Maloney is a young adult novel that deals with relationships teenagers may experience. The novel, narrated by Josh Tambling, a seventeen year old high school student, illustrates what he learns through the progression of the story about his relationships with other characters.
Josh learns that within a relationship, one must be completely honest to yourself and with other people.
Josh learns that in relationships, he must be honest with others. He learns this through his older brother Michael as he travels up to ‘find him, and bring him home’. Josh also learns that he can’t always control what happens when in a relationship. Josh also realizes not to jump to conclusions about things you don’t understand.
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“I sang. No, I yelled”, “wrenching words up from my lungs with an energy that was foreign to me. The strange thing was that it wasn’t so hard. All I had to do was put on an act”.(p106, 107)
This shows how Josh is aware that he is lying about who he is, though he doesn’t say anything until later in the novel about it as he didn’t want to let the boys in the band down.
Early in the novel Josh feels he must make everyone else happy rather than be honest with himself. This is seen through his relationship with the band and his father. After Josh returns from Mackay, he realizes he must be himself in order to feel happy. This is achieved when Josh confronts his father and his band members about how he actually feels
Josh also learns that he can’t always control what happens when in a relationship, like with his parents and with Alicia.
• Josh feels like his stuck in the middle of Michael and his parents.
• Hates the fact when Michael calls it hurts this mother Carol.
• “Mum stood staring at the lifeless phone in her hand. Then mum as crying, great wrenching sobs that racked her body and threw her off balance”
• Josh feels with his mother breaking down he must look after the family.
• Calming Hayley down after his parents fight.
• Ultimately leading him to make the decision about finding his brother
• “Hayley wasn’t in her own bed, she was sitting on mine, her knees up to her chin, arms
| Tom wants his old life back prior to the accident and he sees the accident as the end of his life as he knew it. He loses his sense of identity and sense of family in particular.Feels guilty and ashamed about the irrevocable consequences his brother’s irresponsibility had for other people and their familiesRetreats into a depressed state which feels empty and black.
After Ruby’s mom and step brother pass away, she relies on Simon and they finally get the bonding experience he always wanted. Simon does eventually pass away, nevertheless they had a good time together and Ruby learned valuable lessons. Ruby goes to find refuge and find a fellow nerd, which also so happens to be her classmate, Darius Spratt at first Ruby hated him, but it was required that Darius and her got along so that Ruby could complete her journey of finding her real dad. After a few days they split and Ruby becomes very sad, she realizes the importance of a friend, but she becomes very determined, she would go anywhere to reunite with her dad, it was her last hope. After a few days she finally found him and she burst with excitement and now understood that life was more than makeup and her phone, it was about family and relations with them, it was about others who mattered and Ruby now understood that. The reader could now infer that Ruby has completely changed into a brand new person for the better and that her life will forever be changed with her new
Bridget for example, has a bad relationship with one of her soccer coaches. She constantly flirts with her coach Eric, to the point where she sneaks out one night to a local bar just to see him. A few days later she snuck out to his cabin and they have sex. Afterwards, she gets very upset and can't get out of bed for days. Carmen goes to visit her dad. When she gets there though, she sees he has a new family already and feels mad and replaced. Eventually it gets to the point where she can't take it any more and runs away. Carmen expects her dad to come out looking for her, but when he does nothing she hops on a bus and goes back home. Feeling extremely guilty about the whole ordeal, she finally calls him and tells him how she feels. Deciding to surprise him, she flies to South Carolina on the day of his wedding and heads to the church. Lena paints walks and talks her days away. One day, she's skinny dipping in a secluded pond, when suddenly a boy named Kostos walks in on her. She goes to her grandfather and tells him about it. He makes a big deals a bout it and triggers a family feud between Lena's family and the family of Kostos. Secretly, the kids start seeing each other and fall in love. Tibby gets a summer job. She immediately hates it, like everything else, and decides to make a "suckumentary" about how bad her summer is going to be. Bailey, a girl with cancer, shows her that things really aren't that bad and they decide to drop the "suck"
In the text’s final act, Sonny’s brother agrees to accompany him to see him perform with fellow musicians and as Sonny plays his piece, the brother realizes that through song, he “[hears] what [Sonny] had gone through, and would continue to go through until he came to rest in earth” (Baldwin 140). In this instance, Sonny expresses his pain and frustration through his music, which his brother finally understands that Sonny cares about music because it grants him a voice where he normally would not have one. Again, considering the perspective of the story, the fact that the brother hears Sonny’s pain signals the effectiveness of Sonny’s form of communication. Whereas Sonny was previously characterized as not talkative, this later moment seems to challenge that notion by proposing that although he may have appeared to not be talkative in a verbal sense, Sonny reclaims his voice through music. The text includes this transition to depict how relationships between people can be improved simply by utilizing communication, especially through nonverbal forms. To further substantiate the claim of Sonny’s new voice through music, the text claims that Sonny “began to make [the song] his” (Baldwin 140). By making the song “his,” Sonny attains ownership of his
The narrator goes to a club to watch Sonny and his band play. He begins to understand how deeply his brother feels and thinks, “I had never before thought of how awful the relationship must be between the musician and his instrument. He has to fill it, this instrument with the breath of life, his own.”(Baldwin 102) The music gives Sonny a chance to release his hopelessness and depression. Even though the narrator believes Sonny could have done more with his life if he had turned to classical music, he understands that Sonny is being true to who he really is. The anonymous brother, however, has not found
When Torvald finds her hairpin stuck in the keyhole of the letter box, Nora tells him it must have been their children trying to get into it, not willing to admit that she had tried to break into his things. Although the truth about her is about to be discovered, Nora wants to preserve the last bits of dignity that she has left, finally worrying about herself before anyone else. This last lie however, leads up to her finally speaking the truth and expressing that she no longer feels that she loves Torvald. Her husband is furious at her, insulting her, and fails to see that every lie that she told was for his sake. Realizing that Torvald can’t see her side of things and will only find fault in what she did, she comes to her decision to leave her family. Nora states that she is not happy and never really was, her marriage to Torvald was as fakes as a doll house according to her. Rather than lie, she is completely honest now and states that she wants to become her own person and learn that which she doesn’t know despite what society might think.
What has not yet realized is that heroin is in fact the thing controlling him. What his brother has tried to obstruct him from is how the more dependent one gets, the more the drug and its providers takes control of their users. Ultimately, the price of this brief feeling of control is an ocean of even more pain and suffering. Fortunately, Sonny found yet another way to cope with his pain. Sonny is once again able to set aside his tortured mind and find happiness and peace through the keys of his piano instead of destroying his life with heroin. The narrator is finally able to witness his brother in true bliss and in addition, discovering the power of Sonny’s blues: “and it brought something else back to me, and carried me past it, I saw [Isabel] again, and I felt my own tears begin to rise” (Baldwin 140). Music will always be there to help with his problems like expressed by Gary Bartz: “Music is my religion. Music is the only thing that has never failed me People let you down, music won't” (Bartz 2). Although the narrator tried to help his brother become the same respectable man that he has built himself up to be, he can finally accept that, Sonny is unique in his own way, finding happiness in the music he plays. Overall, all the narrator wished upon his brother was happiness. Similar to what Freud predicted, Sonny found solace in escaping his everyday hardship with, not death, but music, which gave him the same lifting feeling of
Josh gets in fights with his brother Jordan because he has to help him with his school work because he is out with his girlfriend Alexis “Miss Sweet Tea, Miss Bitter Tea”. Josh gets through the story with
2. "… there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion, a whispered “Listen,” a promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour." (p. 11)
Different events, positive and negative, changed his thoughts and helped him become more mature, and a responsible person. Watching his home going to the work made him realize he should do something in his life. Once he started working, he learned to be respectful and reliable even if it took a while for him to change. Once he became more familiar with Penny, she starts to trust him. She starts to give more responsibility. With that in mind, the accident that Penny had changed everything. It ended the relationship between him and Kentucky. However, he moved on without much difficulty. At the end, he was still thinking about his father's words and what he said about the white boys. He never forgot him. Perhaps, the father also had a positive effect on
Self realization, according to Baldwin, will be reached when a certain shock such as losing something or someone very close to you. Making the person stop and think thus reaching the point of self realization. Examples of this is the narrator and how he somewhat lost Sonny to the drug life and prison. As well as the death of the brother of the narrator's father. The final point in which Murray comes to which is at last reaching self realization. Sonny finally feels that he has found his place and calling in life after all the suffering and trouble he had to go to. Baldwin uses some biblical comparison of Sonny taking a journey that will change him “ hearing something else, is dealing with the roar rising from the void and imposing order on it as it hits the air” (Baldwin 356). This Journey that will cause Sonny to finally take that step that Creole pushes him to take with the music playing. Creole plays his role as motivation for Sonny as he is fairly nervous about playing, “He wanted Sonny to leave the shore line and strike out for the deep water” (Baldwin 356). He was the father figure that Sonny never found in his real father or in his older brother because they were both dealing
, we learn about major life lessons important for teens to learn about, all through the help of the characters in the book. Firstly, we learn that life is tough trying to make it on your own on the streets and if you ask for help, you could have a better life. For example, Dylan is reluctant to go to the drop in centre or the education building for help (48) but when he does, he gets food, good advice and a
Lacey, and a butler, Paul, were hired to take care of the family's every need. This in particular meant that Josh did not have to worry about anything but taking care of his own personal health. Everything soon began to change when Frank felt the need to join the Navy during World War II, who becomes the commander
Just like Sonny, the narrator too struggles to establish his own identity. According to Maslow “when we are in doubt we are not honest” and if one is not honest, he will not be able to take responsibility for his actions, and the only way to self-actualize is by taking responsibility (112). Even though the narrator is quite successful in his life, working as a math teacher and having his own family, he also feels encaged in Harlem where he spent his entire
Joshua Dread is proving to be, well, awkward in his middle school when bullies are picking on him. Also, super villains are trying to flood the world. Everyone including his friend Milton is rooting for Captain Justice to take down the Dread Duo. The Dread Duo happens to be Joshua’s parents. As if trying to hide his, Joshua, identity wasn’t hard enough, he started to leave a trail of exploding pencils and burned handprints in his wake. The new girl in town, Sophie, with a mysterious past seems unsurprised. There was a violent attack at the Vile Fair and makes it clear that someone is kidnapping super villains. Joshua’s parents may very well be the next, so he should join with Sophie and Milton and use their help to defeat Vex and save