Analysis Of Absolutely Truly, By Heather Vogel Frederick

Dalai Lama XIV, the highest spiritual leader and the head of Tibet, once said, “Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.” The significance of this quote is revealed in Absolutely Truly, by Heather Vogel Frederick. Truly Lovejoy just wants to fit in, but with her father in the military and being the middle child of five, it isn’t easy. When her father suddenly loses his arm and his best friend while fighting in a war, the family moves to Pumpkin Falls, where everything changes. Truly struggles in math, her father closes himself off, and then she finds a mysterious letter leading to a quest around her town. Between swimming, making friends, and supporting her family’s bookshop, Truly gains perseverance from her challenges. Vogel

Throughout the story, Truly shows her father the importance of accepting hardships through characterization and symbolism. After Truly’s father, J.T., lost his arm and his best friend in the war, a part of his old self disappeared with them. “Since he came home from Afghanistan, Silent Man doesn’t joke around anymore … and he hasn’t once called me ‘Truly in the Middle’ or referred to our family as the Magnificent Seven.” (Vogel Frederick 8). The fun-loving father Truly once knew had completely vanished as a result of the mental and physical hardships he went through. Different people have many different ways of coping, and this is represented in his personality. He lost motivation for everything, including his family memories, and this affected Truly, who was missing their relationships. This outlines how much impact coping negatively might have, and especially how J.T., being a father, needed to stand up and support even through his hard times. As a result of his choices, his family stayed distant for too long and missed some of their most treasured items - their memories. On the other hand, Truly had

As the story resolved, the relationships and memories that had been lost were reunited. Truly and J.T. come together from the accident that tore them apart, Truly’s friendships grow, and they find out that the letter discovered in Charlotte’s Web was meant to be found more than a generation ago. Vogel Frederick’s novel shares the meaning of these three themes and how they relate to all generations in society today. In life, nothing can prevent hurdles and hardships from coming, but the way one faces them could influence outcomes. Also, the feeling of not being enough can heavily impact lives and decisions, but nobody should ever have to think that they have to change in order to be accepted, as the way Truly did. Finally, as a moral to this entire book, and what Dalai Lama XIV once said, change is inevitable, but don’t let it affect what you