Jake's Transformation

Jake's Transformation

 

Author’s Note: This is an essay involving how the main character in Surviving the Applewhites evolves in the story. I wrote this to demonstrate my understanding of character development or character analysis.

 The outrageous Applewhites family decided to take Jake Semple under their wing. Jake is a thirteen year old delinquent and is the protagonist in the novel. Creative Academy, a home school run by the obnoxious Appewhites family is the only school willing to give him another chance, with the reputation he has. He has been kicked out of every school in Rhode Island and there is a rumor he burnt down one of the schools.

At the beginning of the story, Jake had a negative attitude towards everyone. He was unfriendly especially to E.D. Appewhite. He seemed to have just have anger in him that he just wanted to let out. He would wear all black clothing with red hair all spiked up. He looked like a delinquent. And to sum it up, he even smoked.

Jake dramatically changed his attitude and his behavior however. The first sign I noticed of him evolving was at school when he and E.D. Appewhite were assigned their first project together. At first they couldn’t stand to look at one another, but then they start to accept each other’s ideas and personalities. He learns to get along with her and they both start to kind of have each other’s back. They somehow quickly went from being enemies to getting along just fine. And from there to the end of the book his attitude towards everybody else becomes better. That’s just some of the ways Jake matured through the book. Everyone starts noticing him and thinking of him as a different person. Noticing how much he evolved in such a short period of time.

There is some evidence that Jake’s attitude is improving and it’s a joy to see Jake starting to have a positive attitude towards everyone instead of that nasty negative attitude in the beginning. It’s great seeing him starting to have confidence in himself once again and others seeing his maturity grow.