Stephanie S. Tolan, the author of Surviving the Applewhites, could have chosen any musical for the applewhites to do but she chose for them to do The Sound of Music as a musical because of how the theme and family compares to the movie. The Von Trapp family had lots of order in the beginning, weren’t allowed to have fun, and had lots of rules. This was very different to the Applewhites who had very little order, respected each other's creativity, and didn’t have many rules at all. Something similar about the families was that someone came to their family and started to live with them. Jake came to the Applewhites and Maria come to the Von Trapps. In both The Sound of Music and Surviving the Applewhites someone needed a change for the better.
