“Seemed like forever ago that the bus dropped him off for that first voyage-though it had only been eleven days”. In the novel The Living by Matt de La Pena Shy is the main character. Shy’s role in the novel was a young teen spending the summer working on a cruise ship. Shy went from being a negative person to a positive person. In the beginning of the book Shy was having a negative attitude. In chapter three Shy was cleaning up the ship and he thought about life back home, and how being on the ship was not fun. On page 29 the narrator shows what was going through Shy’s head when it says “He wished he could fast forward through the rest of the voyage, get back to his simple life in Otay Mesa”. This showed Shy’s negativity about working and not wanting to be on the voyage. When Shy says he wants to “fast-forward through the voyage” that shows he doesn’t want to be on the voyage. In chapter ten Shy is talking to his mom and hears about a relative being sick and he again wishes to be off of the ship and is …show more content…
When a tsunami is heading right towards the ship and the passengers are scared, Shy helps people find their family members. He is positive about the tsunami and calms the passengers. On page 112 Shy is helping people and he thinks to himself “This is what he had to do. Help people.”. When Shy saw the wave even though he knew it was bad he remained positive and had some hope, he also was able to help and comfort others. When Shy is stranded at sea he makes the best of it and continued to survive. On the page of the book Shy thought “He had no idea how long it would take for a boat this size to sail all the way back to California, but he was convinced they’d make it their eventually. When Shy was convinced they’d sail home even though it was a small boat he remained with a positive attitude. He knew he would make it