Stephen Mansfield's book Keep it to Yourself, is a novel in the category of magical realism. It is aimed at teenage readers and is set in the summer holidays in Pretty Beach Caravan Park. It is about a young woman named Kathy Sharmon and her family going on their annual summer holiday at Pretty Beach. Kathy never wanted to go but she then finds hidden people which are peoples forgotten secrets and then starts to enjoy her stay at Pretty Beach Caravan Park. Through his narrative, the author explores a number of issues teenagers face, such as friendship, acceptance and identity in order to show the challenges they face. This essay will explore these key ideas by focusing on these themes. It will look at the value of friendship and once the trust
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This theme is more aimed at the main character Kathy because she is a grumpy teenager who thinks her life is horrible and later in the novel she realises that her life is not horrible and that it’s her attitude. At the start of the novel it is not seen often because she is moody and rude, but later in the novel when everyone starts telling her and she starts losing things she values like friendship and love she starts accepting that her mum is annoying and strange but she has to deal with it rather than being mean and making her mums illness worse. She accepts that seeing hidden people isn’t such a bad thing and she should use her ability. Your making friends, she could just walk around all day and be bored and glum but she decides that trying to make friends will make her stay less boring. The leader of the hidden people also accepted that she can’t make all the hidden people go back to their home and that he realises that some of the forgotten memories because she is only human. An example of when William accepts that giving secrets back can sometimes be a bad thing. In this scene Kathy meets a back chilling secret that she says she will not tell …show more content…
Not for you to decide, you mean, ‘cause you don’t care about us, only yourself and your friends. But I can decide. And I think it’s wrong. I won’t do it, Bill. I can’t say that to someone.” Willian accepted that not everything goes his way and that he has got to think about the owner before the secret. He responded with “Alright. At least say goodbye to Seamus, before you go,” he said. This was a good thing because now william will think about who should be remembered again and who should stay as a secret. Acceptance is a key theme which aims at Kathy and sometimes william. Kathy is a grumpy teen who thinks her life sucks and hates her family but she then accepts that, that is her family once they don’t really like and include her and she then changed and started to deal with and filter out all the bad things she is imagining. Acceptance is a key theme in this novel because the main characters have to face
This theme is more aimed at the main character Kathy because she is a grumpy teenager who thinks her life is horrible and later in the novel she realises that her life is not horrible and that it’s her attitude. At the start of the novel it is not seen often because she is moody and rude, but later in the novel when everyone starts telling her and she starts losing things she values like friendship and love she starts accepting that her mum is annoying and strange but she has to deal with it rather than being mean and making her mums illness worse. She accepts that seeing hidden people isn’t such a bad thing and she should use her ability. Your making friends, she could just walk around all day and be bored and glum but she decides that trying to make friends will make her stay less boring. The leader of the hidden people also accepted that she can’t make all the hidden people go back to their home and that he realises that some of the forgotten memories because she is only human. An example of when William accepts that giving secrets back can sometimes be a bad thing. In this scene Kathy meets a back chilling secret that she says she will not tell …show more content…
Not for you to decide, you mean, ‘cause you don’t care about us, only yourself and your friends. But I can decide. And I think it’s wrong. I won’t do it, Bill. I can’t say that to someone.” Willian accepted that not everything goes his way and that he has got to think about the owner before the secret. He responded with “Alright. At least say goodbye to Seamus, before you go,” he said. This was a good thing because now william will think about who should be remembered again and who should stay as a secret. Acceptance is a key theme which aims at Kathy and sometimes william. Kathy is a grumpy teen who thinks her life sucks and hates her family but she then accepts that, that is her family once they don’t really like and include her and she then changed and started to deal with and filter out all the bad things she is imagining. Acceptance is a key theme in this novel because the main characters have to face