Many people are hurt by someone they know, but they choose to remain in these fractured relationships out of either undying love for their attackers or fear of possibly losing their will to live as a result of walking out on the already broken bonds. In Wendy Guerra’s 2006 young adult novel Everyone Leaves, the protagonist, Nieve Guerra, grows up in a wartorn Cuba during the 1980s. She endures numberless trying situations during her childhood and adolescence. Throughout her experiences, she finds solace in her vivid diary entries. Her perseverance more often than not produces both positive and negative consequences. First, Nieve has both the benefit and the disadvantage of having acquaintances who claim to be her guardian angels. Her mother, …show more content…
As she approaches young adulthood, she shares a house with a group of mostly grown-up artists and thinkers. However, she is not sure whether they consider her their friend. She explains, “I ask myself how many times I’ve slept in the same bed with my friends during exceptional situations. Of course, this is not an exceptional situation. Maybe they’re just a different kind of people and this is the price I have to pay for being accepted” (201). Nieve has every right to be perplexed, given the fact she no longer has a strong union with her mother. Now she cannot grasp what lies ahead if her friends leave her. Eventually, her roommates go their separate ways, leaving Nieve stuck in Cuba. All she has left are her diary and fond memories of her teenage years. She recalls, “I met mediocre people, wonderful people, mean people, powerful people, gentle and unforgettable people. I learned French and for three years I visited the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ much too often─in other words, José Martí International Airport, where everyone disappears forever, including, not surprisingly, Osvaldo”, her love interest (246). Nieve realizes that she cannot change the state of affairs, but she can make the most of her struggles. She gradually accepts the reality that not everybody will take her side and stick with her through thick and