Just Listen Songs Analysis

The first song to relate to my book, Just Listen, by Sarah Dessen, is Try by Colbie Calliat. The character I will connect this song to is the main character's sister, Whitney. Throughout the book, Whitney has an issue with her weight. Well really a clandestine with herself. Whitney is a model said to have the "perfect body." Soon after high school, Whitney became very popular in the modeling world, and moved to New York City. Around Whitney's second year in the city, she started to exercise excessively and eat very little. Whitney had been consumed by the disease anorexia. After Whitney was diagnosed, her family started to take care of her again. This lyric is connecting to Whitney's time in New York, "Put your make-up on, get your nails done, curl your hair, run the extra mile, keep it slim so they like you, do they like you?" I think this song does a very good job showing how competitive it was for Whitney …show more content…
This song is all about seeing the bright side of things. There is no other song to describe her. "'Oh Annabel,' she said, and I felt a lump rising in my throat, reacting immediately to her soft, understanding tone, so welcome after this long terrible day. 'I know, sweetie. But it's just one thing, and then you'll be done'" (Dessen 27). Grace, the mother, went through a long depression when her mother died, but she overcame the disease. After that ended, she has been encouraging her girls. The phrase of the song that is most encouraging is this, "Here comes the sun, here comes the sun, and I say it's all right" Now that Whitney has been diagnosed Grace has been very supportive, but also very restraining. Grace won't let Whitney go a lot of places without her, but while they are together, she is very encouraging. Grace also supports her eldest daughter, Kristen, in deciding to quit modeling and go to school. Annabel, the main character, is encouraged to continue modeling by her