Monday, October 25, 2010

All the Days of Her Life, Lurlene McDaniel


All the Days of Her Life is an
interesting drama about a young
girl's life that will keep your eyes
glued to the pages. Lacey Duval, the
main character of the story, is a 16-year-old girl dealing with the dramas of high school while trying to hide a big secret from the rest of the world. She has been a diabetic since the age of eleven. She has to give herself shots of insulin twice a day everyday and hates the whole business. "The needle made her feel like a prisoner, even though her doctor always said it made her life easier."(1) Lacey feels trapped. There is nothing she can do about her parent's divorse, the death of her of friend katie, or her disease. Lacy is also driven to become part of the "in crowd" in school to win the attention of the handsome, most popular Todd larson. To be like the other girls, Lacey feels like she needs to be just as skinny as them. She believes to be pretty and win Todd's attention she must be slim and have the perfect body. Lacey started skipping her insulin shots to drop some weight. She also started to become bulemic and anorexic at the same time. As a diabetic this was especially unhealthy for Lacey, and though she saw the results, she began to feel them too. One day at play practice, Lacey passed out and was rushed to the hospital. She was okay, but it almost cost her her life. When she had to return to school she had to face the students who all knew her secrets and what she had done. When she came back, she realized who her true friends really were. She did not win Todd over, but her true friends threw her a welcoming back party and were all glad she was back, they did not care about her secret. Her best friend, Terri, who was there for her all along told her nothing was worth losing her life over. "She'd been given a second chance for all the days of her life."(153)
1. Do you think that kids really have these types of pressures in school, to be part of the "in crowed?"
2. When something happens to a person that is life threatening, we begin to realize what is important in life. Has anything in your life ever made you stop and think, whats more imprtant?

1 comment:

Rafiq O. 1-2 said...

1.) Yeup. I'd be surprised if a school DIDN'T have those kinds of pressures. But like that poem we read today "from Self-Reliance" It talked about how we all need to express our individuality and authenticity etc...

"...imitation is suicide...."