Conversion Book Report

Carla Joiner

American Literature

Block 4

11 January 2016

Conversion is narrated from the point of view of the main character and protagonist, Colleen. She is a student in her senior year at St. Joan’s Academy, an all-girls Catholic school. As a junior student at Beaumont School, also an all-girls Catholic school, Colleen’s experience is slightly relatable. At the beginning of the school year many students had much stress. The effects started off with crying randomly in the middle of class. This then escalated into throwing up and passing out. These were caused by the junior class stress level. “‘Conversion disorder,” she explained, “happens when you are experiencing really serious, really unusual stress in your life. And your body doesn 't know how to handle being under so much stress, so it 'converts ' it’” (Howe). Could they be acting out in stress or just causing a scene for the needed attention? Could the girls in Joan’s Academy really be controlled by a supernatural force like the people of Salem 1692 believed happened due to the evil of witches?

Learning about the Salem Witch Trials in my high school American Literature class made me want to read the book Conversion by

I like that the book goes from Ann in 1706 to Colleen in the present day 2012. The two perspectives of Conversion, the past and the present, just intertwine and fit together as one with no confusion. Both girls are in Massachusetts, one in the setting of Salem and the other in present day Danvers. Colleen had been trying to figure out what is going on with the girls in her school. She is the only one who has thinks she knows what is happening. While reading The Crucible for extra credit Colleen realized Danvers was once Salem Village, where another group of girls suffered from the same episodes and symptoms the girls at her school are experiencing. Ann’s story and Colleen’s story could be two totally separate books. The way Howe assembles the two stories makes the book even more