The Theme Of Life As We Knew It By Susan Beth Pfeffer

What would you do if the world was ending? Would you freak out or would you stay calm? In the book Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer, Marinda is faced with a life-changing event the moon getting hit by an asteroid knocking it into the earth's orbit. This event sends the world into hiding, and after just 2 days people rush to the stores to buy anything that they can. As time goes on Miranda and her family grow together showing the common theme of when times are tough people can grow together.

The big idea of family is first introduced when Miranda gets a call from her dad and Lisa saying that they are okay. It shows this when “it’s your father!” showing that they were excited to finally hear from somebody after their house had been without

“We all talked. We all joked. We all enjoyed ourselves. After dinner, Matt and I cleared the table. Nobody wanted the evening to end, so we kept sitting around the table. I don't remember what we were talking about, but it couldn't have been too serious because we didn't talk seriously all evening long”(Pfeffer 151). This is important to Miranda and Jonny because they hadn’t seen each other in a month and their dad since before the book started. In this scene, they grow as a family and are happy that they can see each other again even though nothing is anywhere near back to normal. Another time it shows this is when they are preparing for dinner. “Maybe it was the smell of freshly baked bread or maybe it was the wine, or maybe it was something as basic as having enough food, but we all had a great time”(Pfeffer 151) This shows them being a family and just talking and being grateful. “ I’d wondered what it would be like having Peter and Dad together, but they handled things pretty well the way Mom and Lisa do, like they were old friends and having dinner together was the most normal thing” (Pfeffer 151)This shows how Lisa and Peter did not generally like being together with her Mom and Dad but they were acting like they have been friends for forever. This shows the family growing just a little bit more even though they are having a

It shows this when it says “So much food. So much laughing. It was great. Then we all kind of hemmed and hawed and harrumphed and excused ourselves. I went up to my bedroom to get everybody’s presents, and much to my surprise mom and Matt, and Jon also went upstairs to their rooms.”(Pfeffer 281) This shows how everyone in the family thought about each other and got everyone a gift not expecting anyone else to get them a gift. It also shows how they grew to realize that they have made it to Christmas. When at the beginning of the book there was this big thing nobody was going to make it to Christmas and everyone was going to run out of food. It shows this also when “We woke up in great moods and we talked all morning about how much fun it had been to go caroling the night before. We don’t even like the Mortensen's, but seeing them last night, knowing they were still around and healthy, was so incredibly reassuring”(Pfeffer 281) This shows how the night before they went caroling with their neighbors even though they aren’t good friends with them but they still had a great time. Then that mood carried through the night and into the next day where they talked, laughed, and grew as a family. In the end, they all realized that they will survive if they made it as far as they had and keep pushing