SPOILER ALERT
I recently finished Specials by Scott Westerfeld. Throughout the series, Tally changes a lot, but not by choice. Tally becomes a special, which makes her feel like everyone around her is worthless. This book made me ask, Should her friends try to change Tally whenever she is forced to think differently? Or should they try to get used to her new self and try not to revert her back to who they want her to be?
When Tally travels to Diego, the ex-cutters try to cure her, but she doesn't want it. In the end, she cures herself on her own. This makes me think that you shouldn't try to change people. Even when she was forced into change, her friends didn't trust her to find her own path. Tally was happy as she was, and she didn't want to be changed. She was happy with who she was.
One other example of people forcing others to change is the Pretty Committee's special operation on Tally. They made Tally become something that fit what they wanted. Tally was herself, but just because they wanted her to be different, they changed her.
David says, "You just look like Tally to me." I think this shows that people can learn to love changed people again. Even though Tally has become so different, he looked at her like he used to. He didn't want her to change in the first place, but he still loved her even if she is different.
I think that this want to change represents the people around us wanting us to be different. Old friends who we haven't seen in a while may want us to change back to who we used to be so they could have a lost friendship back. Or a couple who has changed may want one another to change so the could recover their love. Living in the past won't help anyone, and neither will trying to drag someone back with you. The most important thing to known order to let go of people who have changed is that life moves on, people come and go, and time goes on. There's no going back to the past, because every friendship, personality, or relationship has its time. Like in the book, Tally's friends wanted to change her to she used to be, but you can't "un-change" something. Whatever happened to a person happened, and there's no going back without a person wanting to.
Great point! I especially liked it when you said that we can't live in the past. The only thing before us is the future, and you can't go back and be who you were a long time ago. We often think "if only this person would be like this again" because it's what we're familiar and comfortable with. But change helps us grow and gain experience, and since people are always changing it's impossible to go back. Like if you're climbing up a cliff of personality, and every step higher is a change. It would be very hard to go back to one specific handhold (personality) on that cliff. Nice post!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with this. i think people grow up and change and society helps that (not always in a good way) and people grow apart. but i think at the same time, you'll always have that uniqueness of yourself and that thing that made you, you. and i think people who understand you most will accept the new person you have grown to be and what they remember still is you and is shining through your new personality.
ReplyDelete