Whirligig Critical Analysis
It is one drop of water, one mistake, that ripples outward until we don’t even realize it is there anymore. Brent’s one mistake travels with him, rippling far away from home, in both direct and indirect ways. Whirligig, the novel, by Paul Fleischman demonstrates how one small choice can lead to many consequences, but direct and indirect, that we may never even be aware of.
Brent knows he has impacted many other people, but throughout the book he discovers that it also impacted himself. While Brent was in Chicago he came upon a group of kids on the beach that were very interested in his whirligigs. They didn't seem to have parents near them, so Brent decided to let them stay and watch him build the whirligig. “He felt like a substitute kindergarten teach” (97). Brent had to grow up throughout his trip. He became a leader figure to the kids, this was part
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Brent met a cyclist who let him stay where he was camping and taught Brent a game. “He explained the rules and they began a practice game… Brent felt he was practicing constructing his new life” (48). Brent was planning his new life out, as if it were going to happen. Brent may have secretly wanted this new life, instead of the one he was living right now. Then, when Brent feels like he has grown enough, he meets a painter lady in Maine and exposes himself to her. The painter lady earns Brent’s trust in such a little amount of time, Brent had not trusted anyone enough to tell them the true story. “‘And, God knows, we all make mistakes.’ ‘I Could be wildly wrong. But my senses tell me you’re a good person not a bad one’” (128). The lady understands that Brent did not mean to do what he did and she knows that he feels awful. She forgives him and makes him feel better about himself. Brent made a bad choice, but he is trying to forgive himself and do good things in honor of Lia and for her family, and the people that Brent met helped him a
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In Whirligig Analysis
433 Words | 2 PagesBrent made a bad decision one night and began to drunk drive with suicidal thoughts. He got into a car crash hoping to kill himself but instead killed a girl named Lea. When Brent's actions (car crash) affected ones family he had to pay a restitution. Brent had a meeting with Lea’s mother and she decided on the restitution for Brent to go to the four corners of the USA and put a whirligig up. With his new journey Brent starts new because the people he comes in contact with, don't know his backstory.
Whirligig Thesis
1009 Words | 5 PagesIn the novel Whirligig, by Paul Fleischman, is a novel about Brent a teenage boy who only really cares about being popular who decides to take his life while driving home from a party but instead he takes Lea Zamora’s life and as punishment Lea’s mother asks Brent to build a whirligig representing Lea at every corner and we see interleaving chapters with people coming across the whirligigs and how their lives have changed because of them. In the important event of Brent killing Lea in a car crash we see a positive effect and consequences on Brent because of this event showing the key idea that all actions have consequences. The positive effects being Brent Learning that we never know who we really are until we step away from other influences around us, that in the journey of life we’ll go through rough patches however it’s how we get out of them that counts and that
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