“More than one million people in the U.S. are living with HIV,” and “more than 725,000 pregnancies occur every year” (U.S. government). HIV and Aids, along with teen pregnancy are ginormous problems that teenagers in the world are currently dealing with. The realistic fiction novel Tilt by Ellen Hopkins explores both of these topics along with others such as popularity and dating. In her realistic fiction novel Tilt, Ellen Hopkins shows that while going through internal and external struggles, people will learn more about the way others view them and the way people view themselves. Through pathos, Ellen Hopkins challenges the readers to think about everyday problems teenagers are dealing with.
While reading Tilt, readers learn that while going
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Ellen Hopkins argues this statement through the use of pathos and making the readers feel for the characters. The first example of pathos is when Mikayla found out that she was pregnant. When Dylan and Mikayla first laid eyes on each other, they knew they wanted to be together. However, neither of them knew that they were going to be expecting a baby in a short nine months. Dylan was not supportive of being a dad and his reaction to finding out the news was, “Pregnant, it’s not what I wanted to hear” (231). Clearly Dylan is not supportive of Mikayla being pregnant. The readers find themselves feeling bad for Mikayla because they don’t want her to have to go through the pregnancy journey on her own. Another couple weaved throughout the book is Alex and Shane. These two boys are dating each other but there’s one thing holding them back, Shane’s dad. Since Alex has HIV, Shane’s dad doesn’t what him anywhere near Alex. During a conversation Shane’s dad is screaming at Shane, “He tore at my shirt. The motion splashed whiskey out of the glass he was holding. Shut up. What the hell are you doing? Trying to die? You can’t mess around with HIV. AIDS is God’s way of saying “gay” is a very bad choice” (211). The reader knows all Shane and Alex want is to