Jasper Jones Essay

In Craig Silveys outrageous novel Jasper Jones, the younger characters are faced with a loss of innocence. They have to find out the hard way the world is not what it’s portrayed to be. Throughout the novel the characters are dragged through violence, destruction and death and uncover the truth about mysteries and lies. Body Paragraph 1 Throughout the novel Charlie the protagonist, has lost most the innocence out of all the characters and has to learn to truth about a lot of things. Over the â€Å"hottest summer in Corrigan† Charlie is confronted about many truths including the truth behind the myth of Mad Jack Lionel and the truth behind his mother’s hurtful behaviour. However the truth that has the biggest impact on Charlie has to be the dark secret that jasper exposes Charlie to. Charlies visions of the world, his way of life are about to change forever. Charlie’s exposure to Laura’s suicide and the events leading up to it force him to confront the darkness in the world and as a result he loses his last shred of innocence. The truths Charlie comes to realise and the actions he takes are shown near the end of the novel when he says I â€Å"finally have the right words in me.† Body Paragraph 2 In the novel jasper is seen as an outcast by most of Corrigan, and is treated this way as well. Jasper has already matured to a certain point but there are still things that he hasn’t realised the truth about yet. Jasper has to overcome the truth about his mother and the truth about Mad Jack being his grandad and the truth behind Laura’s suicide. Laura’s suicide took Jaspers last bit of innocence from him he had to find out who committed this terrible crime and he wanted to bring them to justice. Jaspers mentality changes throughout the whole novel and when he finally admits Laura’s gone. Jasper decides to leave Corrigan for good and this is a sign of maturity. Body Paragraph 3 Jeffrey Is Charlies best friend and neighbour. Jeffery is Vietnamese living in the 1960s in an Australian town, and he has to grow up with adversity and  realisation of the truth that he is an outcast because of his race. Jeffery has quite a lot of maturing to do, supporting this is the extremely stupid conversations he and Charlie sometimes have. Jeffery has realised that it doesn’t matter what anyone says to him he had to believe in himself and Jeffery got his time to shine. He has come to realise the horrible truth that his family is not respected and is seen as a lower class of society and come to realise that whatever race you are dictates your â€Å" status † in the community. His mentality also changes throughout the entire novel. By the end of the novel he believes in himself and has earned his respect in the community. Body Paragraph 4 Eliza doesn’t really make an appearance in the novel until about halfway through, but by that time we are shown that Eliza is already quite matured and grown up. Eliza has to realise that her sister committed suicide to escape her violent father and Eliza come to the realise the truth about human nature that it isn’t all nice smiles and hellos people hurt other people on purpose just because they want to. Eliza shows just how grown up at the end of the novel when she sets her house on fire to try to escape from the harsh memories. Conclusion In conclusion all the characters in the novel were greatly affected by Laura’s death it lit a fuse that made the whole town explode into utter chaos and Jasper Charlie and Eliza were stuck In the middle of it. In addition all of the character had to grow up in their own way just to survive in this small outback town.