Social Issues Blog

In the book Dreamland by Sarah Dessen and I noticed a lot of hard things are happening in the book.  One of the main issue I noticed was abuse.  The main character, Caitlin, is being abused by her boyfriend for no aparent reason, other than making him wait a little while for her to show up.  Other times she does nothing at all.  She says she doesn't leave him beacause she loves him.  I think that she should leave him, and do what is right for herself.  Thats another issue in the book, doing what is right for themselves.  The hard thing that happened in the beginning was that Caitlin's sister Cass left.  At first nobody knew where she was or why she left.  But eventually Cass started calling and she was forgiven.  Cass ran away because it was what was right for her.  She was tired of being perfect, for pleasing everyone all the time.  And by running away and not going to Yale, everybody learned that she is not perfect.  And Caitlin has been trying to be as perfect as Cass her whole life, and after Cass runs away, she has to even more.  She tried to fill up the space her sister left behind.  Like by joining the cheerleading squad.  She knew it wasn't the right thing for her, she hated it.  In the end she only did it beacause it was something Cass didn't do.  But in the end she couldn't do any of the things Cass could do.  She could replace her.  And that was the right choice for her, to stop trying to fill her sister's shoes when she could barely  fill her own.  I think this is a valuable lesson.  To think about filling your own shoes and doing what is right for you, before you start doing that for someone else.