The Role Of Bias In Maya Van Wagenen's 'Popular'

“For now, Betty Cornell has become my new soul mate, and I am married to her every word. For better or worse” (Page 14). In Popular, by Maya Van Wagenen, she writes about her life as it is happening, which means all the events are as told. Although this may be true, Van Wagenen still uses bias in the novel. She has opinions discussed in the novel that only she feels while her friends and family feel a completely different way. When talking about her popularity status and life at school this is used because other students may not feel the same way as the point of view told. Throughout Popular Van Wagenen shows bias through pathos, persuasion, and the point of view the story is told from. Pathos is used in the novel to show Maya’s emotions about …show more content…
“One of the most important things for any teen to realize is that she is always on display” (Page 67). This is persuading the audience to believe that a teenager should always be aware of their surroundings because people are always looking and they care, even if they do not know the person. Maya is writing this novel about going from an outcast to becoming the most popular person. Throughout the novel, there are “Maya’s popularity tips,” which is her telling the audience what to do or what not to do in certain scenarios. One of these tips is, “Popularity is more than looks. It’s not clothes, hair, or even possessions. When we let go of these labels, we see how flimsy and relative they actually are. Real popularity is kindness and acceptance. It is about who you are, and how you treat others” (Page 254).When writing this tip, she is attempting to persuade the audience to believe her definition of popularity. At the end of the novel the definition of popularity is revealed by many students Maya had interactions with. She then tells the readers from her experience that popularity has nothing to do with what a person is capable of or what they own, but what is on the inside is what counts. Although this may be true for her, some people may think popularity has everything to do with what a person owns and nothing to do with the generosity a person has. This is biased because it is persuading us to believe Maya’s definition of popularity, even though the true definition is not mentioned. Readers are also persuaded in this novel when, at the end of the novel, Maya talks her best friend Kenzie into asking everyone to prom. She makes Kenzie promise to ask everyone without dates to the prom in one large group, and after Kenzie promises, she quickly bails. Maya is persuading the audience to be on her side and wants them to understand what Kenzie did wrong. This bias shows because Maya is trying to make the audience feel