Carnations

About A Boy:

This is Fritha and here are my discussion questions: (I've read up to page 200)

1) Do you think that Will is as satisfied with his life as he leads us to believe, or is his life incomplete? What's missing?

2) Its pretty clear that Marcus admires Will but do you think that Will actually likes Marcus? And if he doesn't like Marcus why does he let him come over to his flat day after day?

Zack-

I think that will is satisfied with his life right now because he really doesn't know anything else. He has brainwashed himself to believe that his life is the perfect one, because he doesn't have any responsibilities and doesn't ever have to deal with any pain or sorrow that could come from a meaningful relationship. His life reminds of the book Brave New World, in which the characters in the society are completely shielded from any possible emotional pain or complications, which is exactlly what Will has managed to do. I think that until Will finds someone that he really loves and cares about, he will believe that his life is all he can ask for and be quite satisfied with it. However, I think that he will grow to really care about two things in his life. The first is Marcus, for whom he gets a real kick out of protecting from the bullies at his school, and giving advice on marcus's love for Ellie. Will is becoming increasingly caught up in all of Marcus's affairs including his family's problems, even spending christmas with his family, and although he protests and acts as though he doesn't like it seems to be growing on him. The second is Rachel. Will has fallen completely in love with her and says so on page 210, "He wanted Rachel to be his wife, his lover, the center of his whole world.." I think that right there shows that he is definitely beginning to change and I think Rachel will cause him to fully change his ideas. Unless Rachel leaves him in which case I would imagine he will become even more protected and afraid to love anyone.

In response to the second question, I think that Will doesn't exactly love Marcus, but he enjoys the feeling of taking care of him and he really has nothing else to do. He says he got a "natural high" from buying Marcus the adidas shoes, and he also as I said before doesn't mind giving him advice on Ellie. Will is slightly annoyed by Marcus's complete ineptitude at understanding sarcasm, but also seems to find it a little bit funny like everyone else. In short, Will thinks Marcus is decent company and enjoys taking care of him.

My questions are, do you think Rachel and Will will stay together? and do you think Will will change his feelings, and if so, how? We probably shouldnt start on these until weve finished the first one. Also were only supposed to respond to one sooo i guess ignore my second paragraph.

In response to my question about Will and Rachel, I think that they will stay together. Clearly will is completely enthralled by Rachel and would never do anything to end their relationship, unless he thinks that he is in too deep and could only get hurt, which seems unlikely since he already said he wanted her to be the "center of his world". I think that Rachel also has found something in Will which she really likes. She makes excuses for him, and find a meaning in Will's seemingly aimless life. She says about Will, "There is something there. You didn't make it up about Marcus. You're involved, and you care, and you understand him, and you worry about him..." I think that his lack of aim was the only thing that was missing and she has found it.

 Fritha-

I think that Will does feel as though his life is incomplete. He creates an illusion of his perfect life without responsibilities and the pressures of normal life yet I think he has an underlying insecurity about his life and accomplishments. This insecurity is revealed when he falls in love with Rachel and says “when he met an intelligent, cultured, ambitious, beautiful, witty and single woman at a New Year’s Eve party, he felt like a blank twit, a cypher, someone who had done nothing with his whole life apart from watch //Countdown// and drive around listening to Nirvana records”(192). It is clear that he has doubts about his lack of achievement and begins to see the boring nature of his life. I think that Will truly wants to have a relationship with Rachel yet he recognizes that he is nothing of interest to offer her.

I think that by lying to Rachel by saying that Marcus is his son, Will has essentially set their relationship up for failure. Like I said before, I think that Will has real feelings for Rachel and because he was so insecure about his achievements in life, he felt the need to lie which reveals his dissatisfaction with his own life. Usually, when a relationship is started with dishonesty, there is something that is inevitably going to go wrong. Rachel will probably find out that Marcus is not in fact Will's son and will immediately leave him.

Mike- I think that Will doesn't really realize his life is incomplete until he meets Rachel. I think before, he thought that staying in his 'shell' would work and would keep him safe for protection, and though he could see that being in a serious relationship comes with responsibilities //and// vulnerabilities, he couldn't understand the positives, because he'd never really been in one. I think he did subconsciously realize that his life was incomplete, though- and that's why he kept letting Marcus in. Because he felt like he was missing something, and helping Marcus out made him feel like he was doing something meaningful.So I think that Will has kind of blinded himself towards his own emptiness, and built up his own wall of reasoning so high that he can't see what's on the other side, but I think, in a way, he can still hear it. And hearing it is nagging at him, and so he lets Marcus in and tries to be a better person- that 'natural high' he gets from bying Marcus shoes, it's the same thing we all feel when we do something for someone we care about-- he just doesn't know how to describe it. I agree with Fritha that finding someone he was inexplicably and undeniably attracted to, like Rachel, knocked a big whole in his wall of reasoning-- but I also think it's a testament to the fact that will has changed that he has such a hard time lying to her. Even though he does eventually mislead her, at the beginning of the book he had no problem creating a whole counterfeit life in order to get a girl, and at this point he feels extremely guilty about misleading her. I think this does show that Will has started to realize that what he has isn't perfect.

I kind of already know that Rachel and Will stay together, but I can pretend I don't and say that I think they Will stay together because of how much Will casres about her. I agree with what Zack says- she sees something in Will that he doesn't even see himself, and he is so devoted to her that I don't think he will mess up.

My questions are: Is Ellie really a good friend for Marcus? and Do you think Marcus will become more like Will?

Fritha: Here are my discussion questions for High Fidelity 1) Do you think that Rob truly loved Laura? Does he really miss her or is he just afraid of being alone?

2) In what ways are Rob and Will (from About A Boy) similar?