Across The Star Swept Sea Justen Helo Essay

Everyone changes, and learns life lessons. In this second chapter, I will talk about the character development of Justen Helo, an essential character in the book ‘Across the Star Swept Sea’ by Diana Peterfreund. Justen changes from a kind but snobby rich boy, who thought the world depended on smart, educated people, and judges people based on the common stereotypes; to a person who sees the good in everyone, and realises that sometimes, the world doesn’t need smart people. First of all, in the beginning of the book, Justen Helo was very haughty, thinking people like Persis Blake were silly and shallow, and not worth his time. This can be shown on page 61, when Justen thought “And with an airhead like Persis as her lady-in-waiting…” (Peterfreund). In other words, Justen views Persis as someone not worth his time, and he treats her with disdain. Instead, he dedicates his time to working to combat his invention that has taken a massive toll on what is left of the world, Towards the middle of the book, where Justen Helo and Persis Blake have a moment in the Scintillans, where he starts to change. On page 234 and 235 ,when he says, ”Sure, they {Aristos} were spoiled and could be silly and shallow. But they weren't all like that,

He begins as an aloof man, who judged people based on stereotypes, and who didn’t want to waste his time with any aristos, to a man who sees through the stereotypes, who sees the good in aristos, realises that they aren’t so bad, and discovers that sometimes, the world doesn’t need smart, educated people, trying to change the world. Some changes can be bad, which he learns the hard way, and all that is left, is to try and fix it. This is a good life lesson, because people are so different and diverse, and even if they seem one thing, they can be a totally different person. It is up to us to give them a