A Cinderella Story...

A Cinderella Story...
Prom
Topic: What hard things occur in text? Whose perspective is being used?

I've been reading the book "Prom" by Laurie Halse Anderson, which is about Ashley Hannigan, a girl who declares herself as average, because it's normal for students who attend Carceras High School to get into trouble all day long. In the story, the end of school is approaching, which means that prom is coming soon. Ashley is not the type of classy, girly girl that is bothered by the dress she should wear or the guys she should go with to the prom. Well, at least not like how the other girls are. Strangely, Natalia, also know as Ashley's best friend, is the leader of the prom committee. And right at the time people had least expected it to happen, the prom money collected was stolen and it from the math teacher too. I feel that the author chose to use Ashley's perspective in the book because even though she wasn't affected by the fact that the prom may be canceled, her friends around her sure were. She was also facing hard things besides struggling to comfort her friend, who had been ignoring her ever since. In all, Ashley is having a hard time organizing her life, which is why her perspective was used.

In the book, Ashley has many difficulties to deal with, and prom is basically her least concern. For example, Natalia is too upset to talk to her. Her small house is overcrowded with four naughty kids, another one in her mom's belly, and a unusable washer taking up a large space. On top of that, she is working with a job that she hates, which requires her to serve pizza to customers while wearing a rat costume. Additionally, her library fines are climbing up to the top of her table, and the detentions that she owes to the teachers are never really served. And most annoyingly, it's her dishonest slash lazy slash horrible boyfriend that cares about nothing. Ashley has too much things to worry about to even think about prom possibly being gone forever. I feel that she should use this opportunity to reorganize her life. If she study hard and get to a good college, then she could find a suitable job for her and leave the overcrowded house. If she return or replace the books, then she wouldn't be fined anymore. If she join the prom committee, then she won't have to serve detentions. If she have no more detentions, she can actually graduate. And plus, this way, Natalia won't be mad at her for not caring anymore. The solutions are here, it just depends on Ashley to decide whether or not she should do it.

On top of that, this makes me feel that the reason Anderson chose to use Ashley's voice to explain the story is because she started to do what she normally would not do. I believe that prom have became a symbol of making impossible things in her life happen. She's different from the other girls. If we view through the eyes of Natalia, the story gets pretty lame because the plot will be changed to how she was anticipating everyday for the prom and then cried over it because there may not be enough money to run the event. Ashley's role has a wise personality, who is stubborn and has a strong-will to save the day. That's the image of a heroin. Seeing through her mind is more interesting than seeing than a prom-freak girl's because they have nothing to worry about in there lives. They are like pretty, little barbie girls who don't even know where the kitchen is. I feel that the author used Ashley's perspective to write the story because of the contrast of her personality traits with the other people's.

To wrap it up, Ashley is facing an ongoing series of troubles that does not seems to have an end. Hard things are hitting her whenever she least expects it. She's different from the other cheesy friends, which made her perspective special. I think that prom is a symbol of hope, and how you can make anything possible, because it was difficult to have the event with the low amount of money available but by the end, Ashley and the others came to put something great together. She is like Cinderella making the transition from being imperfect to perfect in order to go to the ballroom party. Her mean sister's perspective weren't used, because they do nothing more than be mean to someone who doesn't deserves it at all. In all, her obstacles differed from other people, which was why her viewpoint was used in the story.