All My Dangerous Friends Louie example essay topic

Themes between the two texts; 'All My Dangerous Friends' by Sonya Hartnett and 'Care Factor Zero' by Margaret Clark, hold many of the similarities. Teen aspects of life are shown through the themes, such as; choices, relationships, drugs and crime. 'Care Factor Zero' is a text about life on the street, as lived through main character Larceny Layton. 'All My Dangerous Friends' follows main character Louie and her new life with a new group of friends.

Although these texts share similar themes they do have very dissimilar stories. There is strong usage of petty crime in both texts, in 'Care Factor Zero' for larceny crime is a way of life, it's her only way to survive. She rips of big department stores with help from two other street kids Cathy and Jane. But shop lifting is the extent of her crimes.

In 'All MY Dangerous Friends's hop lifting is also the main crime, but toward the end of the text when Louie gets to know her friends more this small crime turns into house robbery and group bashing to a untrustworthy man. Drugs are used and experimented with in both books. Louie in 'All My Dangerous Friends' tries dope for the first time with her new friends. They not only smoke it themselves but sell it along with other harder drugs; this is their main business, their cash flow. Larceny from 'Care Factor Zero' has taken drugs but has since then given up as of the bad effects it having on her, she comes into contact with other people who offer her harder drugs such ad heroin but refuses as she is scared of messing up her mind further.

Larceny has few relationships in 'Care Factor Zero's he is a loner, and likes it that way, she trusts no one and only every relies on her self. She uses people to get what she needs and then disposes of them. Louie is quite different to Larceny. In 'All My Dangerous Friends' Louie has a family, and a true friend, but she ditches both, to become the new her self with her new friends.

Louie is a follower, she needs other people in her lives to help her along the way, and she is not strong enough, not defined enough as her own person to be a loner like Larceny. In the end both girls from the two texts have to make choices to escape their situations. In 'Care Factor Zero' Larceny feels she has no choice, no other escape. So when she is cornered by her father, her choice is to give into him or jump, so she jumps, kills herself. In 'All My Dangerous Friends' Louie also needs to escape her situation, she doesn't agree with her friends and what they do, she didn't want to be some one whom nothing mattered to. So she simply left, didn't go back, she stoped seeing them, and resumed her normal ordered life.

Although there is extreme difference in both the texts, there are also extreme similarities. Both the books are targeted at a teen audience and there fore they need to address such issues as; choices, relationships, drugs and crime so that the audience can relate to the story.