Have you ever wondered what it is like to feel unimportant and unloved? To feel like you have let people down and you no longer matter? Millions of teens today have these feelings and thoughts everyday and it affects the way they view their future in life as well as relationships with others. Instead of talking to your parents or an adult about these feelings, teenagers tend to bottle their feelings all up which can lead to depression. In the book, Twisted by Laurie Anderson, the main character, Tyler Miller, goes through similar struggles and circumstances many teens face today. Anderson uses the historical context, characterization, and semantics to convey Tyler’s emotions and thoughts throughout the story which ultimately leads the development of Tyler’s character all together. A combination of bullying, verbal abuse from home, previous bad behavior, and social pressures at school led Tyler to have low self-esteem. The way that …show more content…
Tyler hesitates to commit suicide when he says, “I opened my eyes to watch it reach out for me. I wanted to see Death up close and personal. I wanted to shake His hand. Homo, Fuge”(211). By referring the concept of death as a person, it shows how Tyler has an emotional attachment to the concept of dying and that he was willing to die, leaving the whole behind. However, that term “Homo, Fuge” stopped him from killing himself because Mr. Salvatore explained that “‘Homo means man, fuge, fly, so ‘fly oh man’, or ‘fly away’. God is speaking to him, dropping a giant hint that he should take of, follow the light, if you will; do something positive instead of sealing the deal with the devil’”(176). Tyler uses this term “Homo, Fuge” as a motivation to stay alive and do not give in to the darkness and not give up on life. This shows how even in our darkness moments in our lives there is still light at the end of the