Pieces Of Us Analysis

The novel Pieces of Us by Margie Gelbwasser is the story of sisters Katie and Julie, and brothers Alex and Kyle. In this book, the two families visit a camp called Catskills every summer. Before the summer starts, Katie is raped by her then-boyfriend and his best friend because she was too drunk to say no. They recorded the whole thing, but kept it a secret from her. But once school is over, both families head out for Catskills. Once there, Katie works to keep what happened hidden while trying to build a trusting relationship with Alex. Throughout the summer, they develop a close relationship and Kyle and Julie start to take interest in each other. Summer eventually ends and they decide to keep the relationship going, but when the boys who raped Katie come

The topics of abuse, sexual assault, bullying, and broken homes are very heavy. A quote from the book that shows the grim tone is, “‘You have more?’ You know she does. Another casualty of Alex. At least no one can see the bruises he gave you. They’re hidden within your flesh. ‘Did he do that?’ She looks at them closer. ‘Me, him, I lost track. Just penance.’” (Gelbwasser 280) That moment shows how the abuse has affected Kyle and how bad it really is with Katie. Another word that would describe the tone would be irreverent. Alex specifically contributes to this tone by the way he blows off the severity of what he’s done to Katie and Kyle. He sees what he’s doing, but makes a joke of it to himself. A point that really shows that is when he plays his hurtful nature towards Kyle as him just trying to toughen him up, when in reality, it’s only breaking Kyle even more. Julie is also a victim of blowing serious things off. She, like everybody else, knows that rape is wrong and it’s a very serious thing, but she doesn’t treat it that way. She asks Katie why she did it, when it was do to her against her will, and sees it in almost a childlike