An Early Analytical Diatribe of Lorraine

        In the text there are two main characters, John and Lorraine (and/or Mr. Pignati, depending on your outlook), however, I primarily want to focus on one of the leads, Lorraine. As a stark contrast to John she is a more laid back and blunt personality. Although I don't believe that too much personal development has been made, her little tidbits of dialogue dispersed throughout her inner monologue is well written.

       During the duration of the story they show some of Lorraine's personal life through monologue describing her past experiences, with stories of her mother, the librarian and even other characters she's met. To some extent it can be inferred that her poor habits were influenced by John as he constantly puts her into situations that were created from John's malicious intent. She smokes, drinks and lies because of John.

       I honestly do NOT like her as a character. She seems far too one-note for me. Keep in mind, I love heroine protagonists, although separated by gender I much more often can find myself relating to female characters rather than the usual male protagonists seen in many forms of American literature. However, just because she's a girl doesn't make her a good character. As I stated she is flat, lifeless and generally a pushover. With a so-called "rebellious personality" whom never of which acts any bit of the sort.

       Lastly, as a tangential conjecture, I would like to comment on John, whom as a character was written decades ago yet still manages to meet every checklist of a cliche teenager character. Someone needs to warn all young-adult novel writers that barely anyone reading their book is an "insane prankster character that does wacky cool things". And even if we were, they still manage to write the most incompetent, worthless and one-dimensional characters of all time, with John not even being close to an exception.