Family Matters

Authors note: I have wrote this piece to compare the theme family from two different books. Their similarities and their differences and how their actions reflect on the people they love.

Imagine two teenagers having major trouble with their families, losing their family at such a young age. I have been reading two books; the names of these two books are Sarah Bishop and Perfect. These two books have to deal with the theme of family. There are many ways these two books are similar but there are many ways they’re different also. Aria is a young girl, a modern day rich kid, but she also has some major problems as well as Sarah did in her time.

First, these poor girls have lost their families in some way. Whether it’s them passing away or just getting sent away. Aria is a sixteen year old girl that has been banned from her house. Her mother and her brother never wanted to see her again. She has been left alone in this big world not knowing what to do. She has to figure out where she could stay and how was she going to get food. Until her boyfriend Sean comes to help. This was what a sixteen year old girl shouldn’t have to worry about. Sarah is a fifteen year old girl that has lost her brother, and her father. Her father had been killed for liking the king. Her brother has been killed because he went to war to fight against the king; he had been killed in a British prison. She is also out in this world alone, not knowing where she should stay or what to do. She has adapted to it but Aria has not. Aria walks past her house everyday on her way to school while Sarah doesn’t even have a home. Her home was burnt down by the men that killed her father. Aria has been tempted walking past her house everyday to go and stay there. These girls have a lot on their plates for just being a teenager.

Another reason these girls have something in common is that someone in their family’s have turned their backs on the rest of them. In Sarah’s case her brother had turned his back on the rest of his family. They were all on board with what the king was doing and suddenly he broke the news that he was going to war to fight against the king. This had really disappointed his family and they hadn’t really been on board with him even going to war, let alone he was telling them the day he was leaving for war. Aria’s father had disappointed her family. Aria kind of had a part in that to. That is why she was living on the street. Her father had cheated on his wife and Aria had seen him kissing one of his students. She had promised her father that she wouldn’t tell her mother. Her mother had gotten a note from somebody that had also seen her father with the student and had told her about the affair and also about how Aria knew. Her mother had kicked her father out of her house and had banned Aria from coming home. These two girls had a lot of betrayal that had happened to them; it led to them fending for themselves.

Although they have many similarities they also have many differences. Aria had gotten kicked out of her house because she betrayed her family. She had done wrong to her family and she was getting punished for it. Sarah was a young girl living during the revolutionary war; she had the normal jobs of the women. Her father and her brother had gotten killed because of the war. Even though her father wasn’t in the war he was still killed by soldiers who were. Sarah had done nothing wrong to her family, she didn’t deserve any punishment but she still got some. Another difference is Aria’s boyfriend had let her come and live in his house until she could find somewhere else to stay. She had been treated well and Aria is just happy that she has a bed to sleep and a roof over her head. She had been just given all that even though she had done something wrong. Sarah has no place to go in fact she has been living in a cave in the forest. Finding her own food she has to work to have a shelter and to be eating food. It’s pretty sad for a girl that had done nothing wrong to have to sleep on a hard rock floor. How is it that Aria gets everything handed to her when she’s bad and Sarah has nothing, she didn’t even do anything wrong.
Finally, the last difference is that Aria’s family is very ashamed of her, Sarah’s really appreciated her. This was because Sarah had done everything that her family every wanted her to do. She cooked for them, she cleaned their house, and she took care of them. She was the women of the house which meant she had to do everything that an adult female would do. She really had earned every ones appreciation for her and she respected them because of that. On the other hand Aria had not been appreciated. She kind of helped her father on destroying their family. They would never be the same because she withheld a secret that she should’ve shared with the rest of her family. Her family was very ashamed from her actions they said that they would have felt better for her just to come forward about the truth. It wouldn’t have been her fault it was her fathers. Now, that she had her father’s trust she broke the two people that she loved the most.

In conclusion, these two young girls have had some differences but they are also very much alike. They had to take responsibilities for their actions at a young age. Some of their actions really hurt their families. That is why the major theme of this book is family. They helped their families but they also hurt them to. They found out that everything they do can hurt the people they really love.