Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson - Essay Example The protagonist Tyler Miller has a hard life. His father works all day long and he is not the kind, understanding father his children would have wanted him to be. He has to face a lot of pressure at work and that is what makes him take his frustration out on his family by being intimidating and controlling. Tyler’s mother who is a pet photographer, cake baker, and a genuinely nice woman makes every attempt she can to keep her family together but her attempts fail and with every day that goes by she becomes more depressed. Hannah is Tyler’s younger sister who is just starting high school and whom he completely adores. His only friend in school is Calvin â€Å"Yoda† Hodge who later becomes the love interest of Tyler’s younger sister. He is in every way an average guy with an average dysfunctional family. Tyler is sick and tired of being a nobody in his high school and at the end of his junior year he decides to change that by doing the â€Å"Foul Deed† which involved doing graffiti on school walls. But things don’t go exactly as he planned and he gets caught. He is ordered to do community service all summer by helping janitors in his school. He also has to pay for the damages so he has to sell his car and take a landscaping job for the summer. After this incident Tyler develops a reputation as the trouble maker and due to his hard job he also develops the physique which in turn makes him more attractive to his secret crush, the sister of his main tormentor who also happens to be the daughter of his father’s boss, Bethany Milbury.... Initially he is happy that he is invited to enjoy along with the popular crowd of the school but after the party where Tyler’s love interest Beth, her brother Chip and his friends get drunk and Tyler is left driving them home, he is accused of doing some unspeakable stuff to Beth. Being rich, Beth’s family is easily able to take a lot of steps to punish Tyler for the crime he has not even committed. He is not only tormented by his peers at school but he is also distressed when his father treats him like a criminal. This is a great book for several reasons. Firstly Laurie Halse Anderson did an exceptional job portraying the average youth. Tyler’s narration is heartbreaking, honest and funny. What makes Tyler such a remarkable character is that he is by no means perfect. He has been an outcast nerd his whole school life and he lacks the courage to stand up against his tyrant of a father. He also doesn’t have the determination required to be able to take char ge of his life and change things for the better. Tyler loves his mother and sister and he is enraged when he sees his father pushing them around but he doesn’t take any action against it. Tyler’s father is demanding and he forces Tyler to take all the advanced classes in school. Tyler knows that he can’t do well in the advanced class and even though he faces continuous trouble with his studies, never once can he muster the courage to make things straight with his father. His reason for not doing so is that he thinks talking with his father would do no good so he does not even give it a try. When he faces all the trouble at school he starts planning ways to escape his problems instead of