Summer Reading Blog: Conflict

     The book I read was Chopsticks, written by Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral. In the book the main characters name is Gloria Flemming. Gloria is a pianist and is constantly on a tight schedule. She becomes very famous and plays at sold out shows. Gloria becomes attracted to her new neighbor, Frank. The more she liked Frank, she became more ill. Eventually Gloria can only play one song, "Chopsticks". The novel finishes with an interesting and intriguing ending.

     Gloria faces many problems in the book. She is constantly being told what to do by her father. Her father is also keeping her from Frank, the love of her life. In the book it displays text messages from Frank and Gloria. Gloria said, "V says we'r too young. He doesn't like you, you know that" Gloria is referring "V" to her father, since his name was Victor. Gloria also has a conflict with herself. After Gloria met Frank whenever she had to play at a show, she would always end up playing Chopsticks. Gloria never meant to, it was out of her control. In the book a postcard was sent from Gloria to Frank. Gloria said, "I'm so sorry I haven't written. It happened again. I slipped into Chopsticks at the Royal Albert in London, and now V won't let me out of his sight... He's got me seeing this awful doctor in Berlin." This evidence clearly shows that Gloria had many problems. The evidence also has shown that Gloria's problems became so severe that they made her ill.

     In my opinion, I thought that it was Frank's fault that Gloria became ill. I feel that before Frank, Gloria was an amazing piano prodigy. Once Frank came along all Gloria thought about was him. She became so focused on Frank that whenever she performed she screwed up. Even though her playing eventually became out of her control it was still Frank's doing. I also wasn't a big fan of Gloria's dad, Victor. I felt that he was always putting so much pressure on Gloria. In the book it said that Victor wasn't good enough, he'll just make his daughter better than him. I felt that once he accomplished that, he fed off of Gloria's fame.