Art Of Getting Started At Essay

People are often deceived by appearances because they take what they see at face value as fact. However, appearances can be deceiving and one must delve deeper into actions and intentions to find the truth. Laura Langston’s novel, The Art of Getting Started At, explores the idea of appearances not always reflecting reality and does this through the protagonist, Sloane Kendrick’s, relationships within the story. The relationship between the protagonist, Sloane Kendrick, and her family members is rooted in appearances hiding true intentions. Sloane’s character arc is also centered around her relationship between the gap in appearances and the reality of the situation. Furthermore, Sloane’s relationships with her friends are strengthened based

Nor is she the shallow bimbo brain I thought she was. I made the assumption that it was. A judgment.” (Langston 278). After hearing about how Kim volunteered her time to help people get out of bad situations, she sees Kim’s true intentions. Their relationship shows how one can easily misjudge a person and their character when one only sees their appearance and not their actions and intentions. In short, Sloane’s relationship with her family members is influenced by the person they portray to the world, however, when looking at their interactions with Sloane and others, one can see there is a gap between their outward appearance and who they truly are. As the story progresses, Sloane’s character becomes the embodiment of the idea that appearances can deceive and hide the reality of the situation. Sloane has an internal struggle throughout the book about whether she is going to live out her stance on not caring about appearances and the opinions of others or portray herself as if she were this person. After Sloane was first diagnosed with alopecia, she says, “I’m determined to live what I’ve always known: that I’m more than my looks. And I’m determined, at all costs, to keep this a secret.” (Langston

When Sloane eventually tells Lexi about her alopecia, she expects Lexi to be grossed out and disgusted due to her assumption that Lexi would be more concerned about catching her condition than her feelings. However, when Lexi says, “I was wondering.if it’s a sign of something more serious and you’ll get worse and die.” (Langston 255), she proves Sloane wrong, acting with compassion and concern for Sloane’s well-being. For Sloane, this moment solidified the truth that there’s more to Lexi’s character than her love for fashion and over-the-top worries. Sloane suppresses her attraction towards Isaac due to his outward persona of being a flirt and his popularity among girls everywhere he goes. At the end of the novel, in an act to show Sloane he is serious about being with her and does not care about her appearance, Isaac decides he will shave his head. “He is losing his hair for me. For me.” (Langston 337). Although Isaac’s public persona is one of a flirt, through his actions and this gesture, Sloane sees that he is a caring and accepting person who is only interested in