Themes Of Zac And Mia

Zac & Mia Novel Study Essay by Tammy Tran

The award-winning novel, Zac and Mia published in 2013 by A.J Betts follows the story of two young cancer victims trapped in a hospital ward in Perth and who are coincidentally next-door roommates. From there on, their relationship starts with an irritated bang on the wall, which progresses to something much more. Zac and Mia focus on themes such as isolation, identity, friendship, and family which are mainly directed towards teenagers as many may relate to the issues within the novel. Using my own personal context, I’ll be discussing how this novel has positioned me to respond towards Zac and Mia’s values in the story along with Mia’s issue of ‘fitting in’.

In the novel Zac and Mia, Zac is portrayed

She seems to cherish her looks and her popularity with others rather than anything else. Her beauty has shaped her snarky and overconfident attitude, even others agree like Zac. “I can’t pull free. She’s stunning.” From Zac’s point of view, it supports Mia’s constant belief that everyone adores her for her looks and that is what makes her inevitably popular. Despite surviving the surgery that removed a cancerous tumour in her ankle, Mia is more distressed about losing her hair and half her leg than her survival which deeply enrages me. Mia reveals to us that she only had two values, which are her looks and her popularity. This is incredibly selfish and stubborn of her as following the surgery that saved her life, she was only met with horror as her leg had been sawn off, not valuing the fact that she survived and that she could’e died if she kept the tumour there. As Mia struggled to live with her new perspective of herself she internally monologues to herself, “I tried to trick myself beyond my f--ked up body… I was forced to live like this.” Along with this, “Each morning I wake up to the same sickening shock… A stump.” After the surgery, Mia's values are humbled, and she finds herself unattractive and hideous due to her missing leg and hair. I deem

The novel, Zac and Mia illustrates this by using the main character, Mia and portraying her struggles to fit in after undergoing surgery which affects her looks and her perspective on herself, positioning me to relate to the issue alongside Mia. Following the surgery, Mia faces difficulty finding where she now fits in as she loses her purpose and what made her popular, her looks. She was conflicted about whether or not she still fit in with her friends due to her newfound flaws. “They are fish, I realise. I see them in their spotless bowl swimming around in shallow circles.” Mia envisions her friends as the perfect, flawless people she once was, living freely with no problems in contrast to her, where she perceives herself as unattractive, imperfect and trapped in a cage of her own insecurities. My insecurities and struggles to fit in relate to Mia is similar, as I immigrated to Australia from a poor, underdeveloped nation, Vietnam so as you’d expect, life was completely different from where I originally lived. The language they spoke here was different and everyone understood each other, except me. I found myself in a similar situation to Mia, as every other kid got to play and talk with each other, young me found myself alone in the corner or with the teacher speaking words that I couldn’t understand. Further later in the story, Mia expresses that everybody has flaws and that nobody is perfect, “We’re all crabs, marching. So many