Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn Essay

Review Brea topic subaqueous by Alex FlinnBreathing UnderwaterBreathing Underwater by Alex Flinn is written as a series of ledger entries. The journal is written by come off as an assignment from the judge who equivalentwise sends him to resentment management after the girlfriend he beat up finally presses charges. The book was published in 2001, before the recent summation in dating violence fables, and it single outs a degree often overlooked, that of the maltreater instead of the abused.Its a delicate subject. And it tells a hard story. Because darn Nick is (obviously) not without his faults, he most certainly has his good points as well. And as I infer I found myself feeling not sympathetic, exactly, but definitely feeling something, more than I thought I would.Initially, Nick is angry at being forced into these crowd anger management classes and he hates the idea of having to keep a journal. He doesnt hypothecate he has a problem, thinks he just needs to bear on to clean up a little so he whoremaster get Caitlin back, get the courts out of his face and constantlyything can be meliorate again. Because we atomic number 18 reading Nicks journal, we are privy to his thoughts, his perceptions and misconceptions. that we are also able to read between the lines and certify that we are missing things, both because Nick is leaving them out and because Nick plainly doesnt command them.The initial entries into the journal are very saturnine and emotionless. Its clear that Nick doesnt want to be daunted with a journal and that he thinks its stupid. But as Nicks story progresses, more and more emotions leak onto the pages until Nick is unfeignedly keeping a journal and using it as a agency to organize his thoughts and face up to painful memories and truths.This is a book with stupefying character growth. We learn enough about Nick throughout the kind of the story to know that his life is not as easy or g grey-headeden as his school friends a lways believed it to be. And Caitlin knew this, which is perhaps the reason that she stayed with him for so long, forgave him so many times. But, even though Flinn offers up Nicks back story, allowing us to get to know who he is and what life experiences remove shaped him, she never excuses or justifies his behavior, and ultimately Nick is not allowed that either.The group anger management class ends up being the best thing that ever happened to Nick, both because of the sympathetic and understanding instructor, and because Nick can see himself in the doings of some of the other members of the class and he doesnt like what he sees. For such self-assessment to come from a 16 year old who then takes it and applies it to making himself better is amazing. Nick really grows as a person and while I dont think Caitlin should ever take him back, I also think that he would not soft allow himself to fall back into the patterns of an abusive relationship. He really gets it.This is a story th at needed to be told and needs to be read by more raft. I dont think enough people know about this book and I dont think its one that should be missed. Its painfully hard to read at times. Nick doesnt hide the nasty things he express to Caitlin, because in the beginning, he doesnt think there is anything wrong with what hes done. And then, as he begins to recognize what was wrong with his actions, he starts to chance upon more of his internal motivations for being so cruel and the thought to action correlation begins to make more sense.Flinn is brave for taking an oft told story and telling the unspoken side of things. It would be easy, in a novel about an abuser to make him either evil and terrible or to justify his behaviors to the point of absolution. But abuse is not a error and its rarely so simple as to be the actions of the really evil. And Flinn has captured that beautifully. Nick is human. He is flawed and over time, he begins to accept that and fake toward a change.TH IS is what Contemporary is all about. Finding these novels that capture a importee in the human experience and open your eyes to it, make you recognize it for what it is, make you learn and grow as a person and assistance to open windows of understanding into subjects otherwise closed to us. Every side has devil stories and it is a brave writer who can so masterfully tell the unpopular one.