Summary Of Backlash By Sarah Darer Littman

People say it all the time- think before you act. This wariness is a trait that the human race does not excel at. People just get so caught up in their emotions and do things that they regret later. This, and people don’t think about what they are doing and the long term consequences coming with it. The latter is illustrated perfectly in the book Backlash by Sarah Darer Littman. In this book, Bree Connors gets so caught up in her anger that she creates a fake profile account and, with a nasty intent, tries to deceive the protagonist, Lara Kelley, into thinking she is talking to a cute guy. Later, she posts under that name, a name that Lara had come to trust, that Lara is fat, ugly, and should kill herself. Ultimately, this causes Lara to try

Through this exploration of the book, the author shows one thing- if the characters would have thought about their actions before they did them, they would have saved themselves and others from a lot of trouble. This theme of the importance of thinking before you act is demonstrated throughout the book, through the characters of Bree, Lara, and Lara’s father.
First, the theme is demonstrated through the character of Bree. If Bree would have thought about what she was doing and where it could take her before she started bullying Lara, she would have saved her family and her from a lot of consequences, one being an issue with the police. The police came to ther house after tracking the IP address of the fake profile and interviewed Bree, where she then confessed to her actions (Darer Littman 208). But, if Bree would have considered the fact that the police might have to get involved at the end and aborted her plan, then she wouldn’t have had to even confess. It wouldn’t have been an issue if she would have thought it through before, and then she wouldn’t be in trouble with the police. If she would have thought about it, she also wouldn’t be in trouble with the press and

Lara should have thought about her actions as she was friending “Christian” and starting to talk to him and get a crush on him. Even though Lara didn’t know this “Chrisitan DeWitt” that sent her a friend request, she still friended him, started talking to him, and even started to trust him, which was very dangerous considering that fact that she didn’t even know if he was a real person (Darer Littman 128). If she would have thought about the fact that she was starting to trust someone that she had never met in real life and how that was risky, she would have prevented herself from being surprised and sad when “Christian” dumped her. Then, she wouldn’t have had to work so hard to get that trust back and feel okay again. But, because she had trusted “Christian”, all of the bad things that Bree said under his name hurt her even more, which was where the suicide and depression came in (Darer Littman 179). If Lara had stopped herself from trusting “Christian” she would have prevented herself from being hurt, and then she also wouldn’t have tried to commit suicide. Finally, if Lara would have thought about the dangers of talking to someone she didn’t know online, she would have prevented herself from being embarrassed and hurt when she found out it was actually Bree acting as Christian. She was hurt and mad that she allowed her former best friend to get the best of her, and also that she fell