Blog Post for 12/15

It would be confusing if there was no perspective in stories.  The details wouldn’t add up and no one could ever make heads or tails or the message.  In the book, “Twerp,” by Mark Goldblatt, the story is told from the eyes of Julian Twerpski, a young boy figuring out society, school, and family.  While we witness many social injustices through Julian’s experiences, we only see one side of the issue. Throughout history and in books, we only see one side to a problem and therefore we may not understand the whole conflict.

For instance, in “Twerp,” the reader can infer from the details provided that things aren’t great at home.  Julian’s mother is constantly under-mined by Julian’s dad and does not stick up for herself.  Amanda, is Julian’s headstrong is always focusing on women’s rights and fair treatment yet we never get to see her perspective.  It would be effective to see or hear her opinion because it was give us hope for the situation.  Also, Mark Goldblatt doesn’t give us a sufficient reason as to why she doesn’t help her mother.  One thing the author could add is her reaction to this problem or her at least acknowledging it.  Those details would include her perspective and give her more depth as a character.

Another perspective that the author excludes in “Twerp,” is Lonnie’s.  Lonnie is a very important secondary character and yet we never get a glimpse of his thought process or backstory. In the book, Lonnie is portrayed as a flawed hero that makes reckless decisions. Also, we learn that Lonnie pushes Julian to make bad decisions, which eventually leads Julian on a path of self-discovery.  It would be interesting to see Lonnie’s reasoning behind hurting Danley.  In that situation, Lonnie and Julian did the injustice and the reader is left clueless as to why they did that.  Although they apologized, we never understood the deeper reason behind the incident.  If they author had included it maybe we would feel sympathy or anger towards the characters.  Often that can even lead to a different view of the whole book or message. 

Lastly, Eduardo’s perspective was not included in the storyline of Jillian and Jake.  Eduardo witnessed both sides of the situation, Jillian and Julian’s.  He actually got to understand the conflict and end it, but we never hear his opinions on the problem.  He knows the crime Jillian committed and how Julian dealt with the consequences. If we heard his perspective on the conflict, the readers could have known what they should make of Jillian.  There is always more to a story and in this case having only a character know the whole story doesn’t help the reader form a conclusion.  Even Julian deserves a little insight on what Eduardo thinks because the issue had a direct negative effect on him.  Angling details and events is essential in writing, but leaving out a main ingredient in a book is unhelpful and makes us think less.

In any given situation, there is always more than one truth and as a writer it is up to you if you would like to include both truths.  In addition, focusing on some perspectives can reflect bias or opinions for writers and activists that is something they should consider when reading.  Twerp covered a variety of issues and therefore many unique perspectives weren’t included.