Zalika Reid-Benta Fry Plantain Sparknotes

Literary essay about Frying Plantain by Zalika Reid-Benta

Did you know that the author of Frying Plantain demonstrates the concept that being your authentic self and always telling the truth is better for you and everyone else. Kara learned to be honest with herself through mistakes from the past.
One thing that can determine an individual’s future is the type of person they were. If Kara always lied when she was young, people would assume shes a liar when she gets older. If Kara was a trouble maker when she was young, people would assume shes a bad person because of what they remembered from the past.
This theme is developed in the book Frying Plantain by Zalika Reid-Benta. The character the author uses to demonstrate this idea is having

Kara told a lie about killing a pig in Jamiaca and it escalated quickly into an huge problem. This is demonstrated when Kara got asked why did she join the community circle and she gave an honest response. For example, “ I didnt join because I needed to, I just didnt want to be in math class.” {Kara on page 60}
The significance of this is Kara being herself and to not lie but to give an honest response even if it was a simple question. It is clear that the author uses trial and error to explore the idea to us readers the concept to not lie and that we should be our authenic

The author also shows us that we need to be friends with good people who want to succeed in life rather than people who don’t. This is demonstrated when Kara didn’t want to skip french class to go to a party, but her friends peer-pressured her into, leading to getting drunk and wasted.
For example,
“Your already accepted for a university, just skip french class, nothing will happen.” (Hannah from page 206). The significance of this is teaching young adults that peer-preausre is a huge problem and that you should know from right to wrong and do what is best for you. It is clear that the author uses this idea to explore the idea that many teenagers face peer-preasuer and it can lead to major issues suck as geting drunk, illegal activities or more.
By the book’s conclusion, the author has shown that trust can take years to build, but can be destroyed within seconds.
This is clearly demonstrated by Kara getting into a good university which takes years, so her mom trust her, but then Kara getting drunk completly ruins her trust. Now weeks or years later, her mom won’t forget that and will most likely always bring that up when she either goes somewhere or does something bad.

An instance of this is
“It’s not because your 18, its because your graduating.” {Eloise page