Changes

Author's Note: This essay is talking about how the main character, Sophie, from the book, What My Mother Doesn't Know, changed. It also talks about how Sophie is like another character from a different book.

Imagine going through life, constantly being judged on everything you do and have no friends, because they judged you before they got to know you. Well in Sophie’s high school, your image means everything and people are judged on a daily basis. The main character, Sophie in, What My Mother Doesn’t Know, is afraid that something like that will happen to her. Throughout the book, Sophie goes through many changes.

Sophie started off as a teenager who cares a lot about what people think of her. For example she really likes Robin, a guy from her school who is constantly bullied and made fun of, but she's afraid of what her friends will think. Due to her fear of telling her friends she doesn’t tell them who exactly she’s dating. She just says that she is dating someone from their school. When Sophie says, “I tell them everything except who the heck it is.”This quote really shows how afraid she is that her friends won't like her anymore if they found out she was dating the school freak. Not only that but, how concerned about her image she is and what others say and think about her.

Throughout the book Sophie changes a lot from the beginning to the end of the book. Not only has her perspective on how she sees people and gets her first impression, changed she also has learned to not care what people say and think about her.  The quote “I race over to Robin, sit down across from him and take hold of his hands,” is a big turning point in the book, because it is when Sophie decided not to care what her friends thought of her and showed the school that she is dating Robin. This quote shows that she has changed by not caring what other people think of her, how she looks at people has changed and she has learned to be herself and that she doesn’t have to be popular as long as she’s content with who she is. That’s how Sophie has changed from the beginning to end of the book.

The catalyst of the book, is  Robin. Robin is the boy who Sophie fell for, he is without any friends and is constantly tormented at school. I think Robin is the catalyst because he was the reason that Sophie made the transformation from caring so much about what people think into someone who could fall for a social loser like Robin. The quote, “And somehow when he slips his arm around me it feels right,” shows how Sophie started to change her mind about Robin as she got to know who he really is and not just what horrible things people are saying about him.

Not only did Sophie change into the type of person who isn’t judgmental and doesn’t care what people say about her. Lindy, the main character from Beastly, started off as a timid lonely girl who looked for and saw the good in people. The quote, “I love you too Adrian,” really shows Lindy’s character and how she thinks. This quote describes the part when Lindy realized she loved Adrian and how she learned to love someone as ugly and beast like as him. Something they both have in common is that they both saw the good in someone and didn’t judge them based on their looks and popularity.

Just like any other teenager, Sophie went through many changes throughout the book. Starting off as a teenager trapped in a place where she has to pretend with her own friends. Sophie learns to not care what others think of her. She also learned not to judge people she doesn’t know. Most of all she discovered that she can be herself she doesn’t have to be popular.