The Unseen Force; The Antagonist

The Protagonist’s Inner Voice

(The Antagonist)

Everyone has an inner voice inside of themselves that usually provide advices in what you should do. There are always superior and dreadful ones. While I was reading the book, “Waiting for You,” by Susane Colasanti, I’ve became aware of the fact that Marisa, the main heroine of the story, is facing many obstacles because of a certain antagonist that is trying to combat her life. It is an unseen force that has prevented her from moving forward. I believe that the force must be Marisa’s anxiety disorder because of the impact it gives in her already-messed up life.

Narrowing this down from the start of the story, for instance, Marisa has been avoiding her recent pressure such as dealing with her divorcing parents and a buddy who has too much time to flirt with unidentified guys on the internet. Because of this, she learns to pretend that everything is all fine, instead of putting an effort to overcome her issues. “There are some things I can't control, & that's just the way it is,” she had mentioned before. I believe that her anxiety is the antagonist averting her to push forward, to actually manage her stress. Her distress always interferes with her ability to lead a normal life. Marisa assumes that there is nothing better she can do to improve her life, when she’s not even trying. She is constantly overwhelming herself with problems and becomes anxious because she can’t find a solution for it. And so she tries to make it disappear by forgetting about it, but that only works temporarily. You’ll still have to go back to it another time.  It’s like a mess that you bury under a pile of clothes that will eventually reveal another time. Things don’t get better if you don’t do anything, obviously. Nothing is fixed. I feel that it is important for you to deal with what you have, instead of delay everything behind because you are unwilling to clear the jumble.

Besides, Marisa’s anxiety disorder forces her to think negatively about herself. I can tell that she has low self-esteem when she said, “I want to be the kind of person who can do that. Move on and forgive people and be healthy and happy. It seems like an easy thing to do in my head. But it's not so easy when you try it in real life.” And the thing is, it is significant for her to confront that adversary inside of her. She had assumed. “Things fall apart, even when you think they're stronger than anything you could ever imagine,” and so trauma is nothing, unless you don’t deal with it. I have come to understand that in most cases, it is best to overcome your problems instead of just acting as if it is nonexistent because they won’t ever literally vanish and evaporate in the air.

Consequently, by the finish of the story she point out. “I mean, maybe under the surface, somewhere that's hard to see, I've known it had to end for a long time. I just never thought I'd be the one to end it,” she had stated. Marisa’s anxiety, being her main obstacle and rival, should be stopped by herself.  After all, she had been quite depressing the year before her intense sophomore year, and so it was hard to get back up from where she had fell. But it is possible with that thin streak of light remaining. “There's a quote I heard a long time ago, something my Dad told me. It’s about how you're like a lighthouse, always searching far into the distance. But the thing you're looking for is usually close to you and always has been. That's why you have to look within yourself to find answers instead of searching beyond,” she declared. You should trust yourself to solve your problems instead of immediately stuffing them under your pillows. Indeed, by the end, she was able to stop the confliction between her life and her social anxiety disorders. By and large, her way of managing stress at first has become Marisa’s biggest opponent of her days.

Hence, the inner voice inside Marisa’s mind is the antagonist that is blocking her from moving further because she is avoiding what needs to be cautioned. That voice is always telling her to disregard the stress that needs to be handled properly. It’s kind of like Max from Freak the Might, for the reason that he had been trying to put her mother’s death away from his mind, instead of fighting over it because he was afraid of remembering the past. The author felt that you can remember anything, whether it happened or not. Susane, the author of this book said, “Even in a bad situation, there's always a positive side. Even if you can't see it yet.”  I would rather be weird but elated than being all normal but despondent.  Briefly, I suppose that Marisa’s coward way of life is hindering her from progressing.