twisted by laurie anderson

            I have just finished reading a great book called Twisted by Laurie Anderson. This great book is about a high school teenager named Tyler Miller whose life is basically ruined. He was tired of being the one who was always ignored, and being shoved into the toilet, so in tenth grade, he wanted to make himself noticed. In tenth grade, Tyler took six cans of spray paint and wrote devious messages on the school wall. However, Tyler was careless, and left his wallet, containing his I.D. He was caught by the police after an investigation.

            Throughout this whole book, I was always thinking about peer pressure, because it seemed to be a major theme in this book. Even though Tyler wasn’t directly being pressured by the jocks and most of the student body into spray painting the school, he was being indirectly pressured to do so. The jocks and some other people were the ones who made Tyler feel like he needed to make himself noticed, and so he spray painted the school. I guess now that I think about it, it all comes down to popularity.

            Tyler wanted to be popular just like the other kids, so he did all that stuff, but what if there was no such thing as popularity or social rank? Everyone would feel a lot more secure, confident, and equal. It is because of this invisible force that the student body has to be divided. But should it be? Or is ranking someone based on social status wrong? I honestly don’t know…