Identity, Love And Truth Exposed In Caleb Becker's Leaving Paradise
832 Words4 Pages
Can you imagine making one mistake that altered your entire life substantially? Have you ever been hit by a drunk driver? How about had all of your life taken from you? Maybe you cannot relate to that, but in the book Leaving Paradise that’s just part of the berserk events occurring. Caleb Becker spends an entire year in Juvenile Detention for intoxicated driving. While driving intoxicated, Caleb hit his sister Leah’s best friend Maggie Armstrong. Maggie gets out of a years worth of rehabilitation from the tragedy and can barely stand to even think about Caleb. However, Paradise is only so big, Caleb and Maggie are bound to meet eventually and must face their adversary, each other. In Leaving Paradise the search for Identity, Love, and Truth affects the characters tremendously. A drunk driver in this novel hits Maggie Armstrong. I believe that if it weren’t for her accident, Maggie would have never found her true identity including…show more content… I believe that because of the accident, Maggie and Caleb were able to find each other’s search for love. Before the accident happened, Maggie had quite a large crush on Caleb. However now, Maggie doesn’t think any punishment on Caleb is punitive enough because she cannot get over the fact that he hit her. However, after Maggie gets over her fear of Caleb she realizes that she still likes him just as much as she did before the accident, and Caleb realizes he likes Maggie as well: “You’re telling me you have the hots for the Maggie Armstrong? Your next-door neighbor? The girl who walks weird because you ran over her leg with a car” (Elkeles 185)? It was a shock to everyone that Maggie and Caleb could actually like each other after all they have but each other through and they definitely got bullied for it. While overcoming many struggles and hardships, and losing many friendships in their lives, Maggie and Caleb found each other, and their search for