Whirligig Thesis

In the novel Whirligig, by Paul Fleischman, is a novel about Brent a teenage boy who only really cares about being popular who decides to take his life while driving home from a party but instead he takes Lea Zamora’s life and as punishment Lea’s mother asks Brent to build a whirligig representing Lea at every corner and we see interleaving chapters with people coming across the whirligigs and how their lives have changed because of them. In the important event of Brent killing Lea in a car crash we see a positive effect and consequences on Brent because of this event showing the key idea that all actions have consequences. The positive effects being Brent Learning that we never know who we really are until we step away from other influences around us, that in the journey of life we’ll go through rough patches however it’s how we get out of them that counts and that

Because of this we see Brent realising that a career path he may be wanting to take is teaching because of the way other people’s lives will benefit by him sharing his knowledge “Brent watched the boy at work--and cast off all worry about hurricanes. After the storm, new whirligigs would appear.” This shows that Brent feels satisfied after teaching the children how to build a whirligig and that he knows that the things he has taught them will stick with them forever and they’ll use the skills they’ve learnt to also keep Lea alive. When the children first arrived and started talking to Brent and asking him question questions about what he was doing and what they can do to help