The Sky Is Everywhere Analysis

When reading The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson, keeping Jandy Nelson’s life and times in mind is essential as it gives the reader a deeper understanding of the novel, shedding light onto the grander theme of loss of innocence. For example, Lennie expresses her feelings in free-verse under a stone in Gram’s garden “Grief is a house/ where the chairs/ have forgotten how to hold us/ the mirrors how to reflect us/ the walls how to contain us/ Grief is a house that disappears/ each time someone knocks at the door/ or rings the bell/ a house that… Grief is a house where no one can protect you/ where the younger sister/ will grow older than the older one/ where the doors/ no longer let you in/ or out” (Nelson 73). This shows how Lennie is feeling alone and isolated. …show more content…
Jandy was also faced with life changing events as she moved from her hometown of New York to California. Jandy clearly expresses that this impacted her negatively as her “whole world tipped over.” Jandy loved New York, but just as Lennie, she was stripped away of something so familiar, that it seems impossible to live without. This can lead the reader to believe that Jandy used this experience to write about Lennie, as both situations can be seen as equivalent. After looking at Jandy Nelson’s life and times, the reader can now identify why the situations are equivalent, as they both share one common theme; loss of innocence. The reader can now dig deeper into the text and gain a richer understanding of the words that flow throughout the book. Due to both of their losses of innocence, the reader can conclude that even though Lennie is still living in the same place, just as Jandy did when she first saw the California horizon, she is seeing a whole new world which she is not yet ready to