Inconsistency In The Outsiders

Maya Rotershteyn
English 1 Period 6
January Monday 30th
Consistent Inconsistency
Inconsistency is the curse of life. It leads to indecisiveness and causes others to lose trust in you. In The Leavers by Lisa Ko, the main character Deming portrays the consequences of inconsistency through his relationships. Deming experiences many conflicts due to his inconsistency, however, he learns to find his self-identity. Despite Deming consistently putting in minimal effort to change, towards the end of the book, he accepted his shortcomings and grew from them. In the beginning, Deming found himself through music and joined a band. However, gradually, he is unwilling to work for his place in the band and this frustrates Roland. While Deming believed

He did this so frequently that he didn’t even see the issue with blowing off Roland after months of practice. Roland was enraged and “mimed tearing his hair out” (234) since they had been working on preparing for the show for 5 months. Deming's relationship with Roland became more strained due to his inability to stay committed to his goals. Danial used music as a form of escaping from his problems, “Without music, the world was flattened, washed out, too obvious”(236). The imagery that Lisa Ko depicted was a world without music that was bland with Demings' problems being “too obvious”. With the music flowing through him his life becomes “awash in colors and sounds and there were only lights and possibility of flying”(236). By increasing the volume, Deming acts as though it's no big deal. His “leave before I am left” mentality causes more harm than good, and his inability to understand this harm is portrayed through him drowning out, or “cranking up” the noise to forget his problems. Roland’s frustration reminds me of a time when I had a friend that was unable to commit to plans. This friend would give excuses like Deming. Demings' indecisiveness towards committing to the band causes him to lose

Then 10, then 30… 2 HOURS later, she promised she would be there soon. So I waited for “soon '' for a long time. Those measly 10 turned into 40, I waited for 3 hours for someone who swore to be better, someone who acted as if nothing had happened. I called them out but all I could get in response was a half-apologetic shrug. They proved to me on over a dozen occasions they were not willing to make the effort to be there on time. I agreed to meet with them once more but 6 hours after the agreed meeting had passed and they were 4 hours late. We got into a fight and didn't speak to each other for months on end. On a random Saturday in early March, I got a text. “Hey! We haven't talked in a bit but I was wondering if you wanted to meet at Noah's round 12?” I replied quickly but I didn't trust them to show up. To my surprise they were there in fact 5 minutes early, they were ready, prepared, and willing to improve. Just a one-time case of being early was strange, yet they stuck with it and to this day they are always punctual. They had changed their identity from being late and irresponsible to being aware and respectable of others' time. Just like Deming who had finally become consistent in his music and