Marcus's Opinion Of His Mother example essay topic

The book that I have chosen to do my personal study on is titled "About a boy "by the Nick Hornby. In this essay I will show and examine how two characters that are so very different help one another to get to grips with their real personalities. One of the main characters in this novel, Will Freeman, is a 36-year old "lay about". He has never had to work a day in his life and nor is intending to. This is mainly due to the fact that a Christmas ditty his father wrote paid out big time.

Will lives in a very flash and expensive apartment equipped with all the latest gadgets. His life takes an unexpected turn when he tries to expand his dating pool into the realm of single mothers. So he decides to attend one of their group sessions and to his amazement singles mothers were not what he originally thought. Single parent alone together (SPAT) wasn't full of pretty young woman as will dreamed and hoped it would be but he kept up the act of him being a single father. This is when will character is introduced to Marcus; a 12-year old loner whose life at that present moment was in a tail spin as his mother recently tried to commit suicide.

Marcus has a very tough time at school, as he gets picked on and bullied by the older kids. His only consolation coming from the music of Nirvana, until he meets will that is. Marcus is determined to form a relationship, a bond with will and refuses to leave him alone. He longs for a friend and try as he does to resist, Will gradually starts to care for the boy's well-being. As Will plays Pygmalion, treating Marcus to a shopping spree for the hippest sneakers and CD's. Marcus's self confidence starts to grow.

Especially when he starts to talk to an older girl Elli at his school and assures himself he has fallen in "love with her". Thanks to Marcus and Fiona (Marcus's mother); Will finds himself less concerned with being the star of his own life. That's when he meets Rachel a " bright, Beautiful " single mother with a 12-year old son Ali. Will finds himself falling in love - real, undeniable love for the very first time in his whole life. He wanted Rachel to be "his lover".

To begin with Hornby tells us a little about Marcus's character, and what his home life is like. Marcus is a very shy boy, he keeps himself to himself you could say. Never has he had what he could call a real friend, a best friend. In my opinion this is he own fault in a way as he doesn't make an effort at school by making a friend or trying to fit in with the other children. I feel that he is quite content with, what I would call a claustrophobic home life. Hornby uses lots of speech when describing Marcus's character, mostly between the boy and his mother.

Markus keeps a watchful eye on his mother's life, her relationships with men especially. Right from the outset of the book I was able to tell this "have you split up yet "this is the first line to the whole book from this line onwards Marcus asks his mother questions about the relationships she has just had. Markus shows how caring he is how much love he has for his mother. I think he also is worried about her as she is a single parent and Markus feels with all the men she's had she is bound to get very hurt along the way... Maybe the boy is scared to lose his mother; maybe he feels that if she meets Mr Right she might not care about him just as much as she used to? Markus has a father but rarely sees him, his father lives with his girlfriend Lindsey.

He then goes on to write about Will Freeman "the 36-year old lay about". I could tell right away that will and Marcus's characters were totally different. Marcus was very mature for his age whereas Will acted like a spoiled teenager, but Marcus does admire Will "how cool was Will Freeman". Will is very self confident but Marcus is definitely not. This basically sets the tone of the book, as the two main characters are described. Marcus is a young boy, who keeps himself to himself.

He "just wasn't right for school". School to him was a place he hated he got picked on, bullied but sometimes it was good to get away from his home life and be alone at school. As Marcus is very mature for his age he is also very confused about the adults around him, including his mum Fiona. Throughout the book I got the feeling Marcus is very curious about adults what they do and why, he is an intelligent boy. This is why he has taken a shinning to Will. Will is basically a contrast to Marcus, they are into different kinds of music, watch different TV programs and have a totally different taste in fashion.

At my first read of this great book, I felt sorry for Marcus as a 12-year old boy he should be out playing with his friends, enjoying his childhood, but instead he " woke up every half-hour or so" just because he was worried all about school and adult things. This quote shows how worried he was not only was he worried but it stopped him from getting to sleep. Another reason for my pity for Marcus was that "he knew he was weird" Hornby uses repetition of the word "weird" in this case to emphasize the fact that Marcus was indeed weird. This was also Marcus's opinion of his mother, to be honest I feel his mother wasn't weird, she just wanted the best for him "she didn't want him to watch rubbish TV programs or read rubbish books". I mean it must be difficult raising a child all by herself; she must be feeling the strain by attempting to commit suicide.

Marcus got the feeling his mother didn't care for him anymore when she tried to commit suicide "he read her letter and was no longer interested in what has had to say " Will on the other hand watched all the wrong TV programs. Will was lonely aswell, only in a different way for Marcus. He wanted a partner, a relationship, something? As you can already see there is a contrast between the characters, hornby does this very well in his book as the reader can differentiate between the two and can see the two different personalities showing. In this book Marcus has a big influence on Will and vice versa.

At the beginning of the book Hornby keeps the two characters separate but in a very interesting and unusual way brought them together to form a bond of friendship and trust. As the reader I noticed this straight away. Also this book was written in a comedy all through the book were laughs and jokes a reason why I found it a very good read. In conclusion I feel that this was a very delightful read. I got the feeling that Hornby got inside of each of the characters individually and showed their personalities and how they differed. This was a brilliant book that told you a little about the late 1990's culture and at the end of the book I still had a smile.