Olive's Ocean Character Analysis

The novel “Olive’s Ocean” revolves around Martha Boyle, a twelve-year-old girl full of personality. At the beginning of the first chapter, she was given a journal page from a mysterious woman, who revealed to be Olive Barstow’s mother. Mrs. Barstow explained that her daughter (Olive) left directions to rip out a specific page from her journal and hand it over to Martha. Olive Barstow was a quirky and unique girl, who attended Martha’s school. In fact, the two of them shared the same passion for writing and the study of the ocean. However, Martha has never spoken to Olive, or greeted her because she was pressured by her friends to ignore her. After Martha read the journal page, she realized that she made a mistake. In the page Olive wrote

Though, I think treating people the way you want to be treated is still the one stuck in my head. Martha felt like she should have been nicer to Olive, considering the fact she always seemed lonely. In fact, when Martha was having a phone conversation with a friend, she admitted that she felt bad for Olive. She revealed that Olive had no friends, and would sit alone at lunch. Olive secretly admired Martha for being kind to her classmates, and taking responsibility. However, Martha did understand Olive, therefore she chose to ignore her. This relationship between Martha and Olives teaches me that you should take for granted who you have in your life. For example, after Martha realized Olive loved writing and the ocean, she wished that she had talked to her, or even introduced herself. You should be grateful for the people who admire you. It is fine if someone is different or strange, you do not need to follow others, in order to impress them. Martha missed a great opportunity to begin a friendship with someone like her, but of course her peers influenced her. However, I wonder if Martha would actually acknowledge Olive if she did not die. In conclusion, from reading these nine chapters I learned you must be grateful for people who love or support you because you never know when they will leave and all that you will feel is guilt and