Touch Me
The novel Touch Me by James Maloney explores a variety of themes that are extremely evident in our own lives and our society today. Through the forging of relationships, development of characters and experiences throughout the novel, themes such as social conformity, masculinity, death and the forging of friendships are expressed and explored. The theme of social conformity somewhat runs throughout the whole novel "Touch Me" it creates a centre or a basis on which the rest of the characters or storyline are built. A prime example of social conformity is evident when examining the experiences between Xavier and his footy mates. Xavier's football mates are typical 18 year old boys, they are somewhat self centred and don't seem to like venturing out of there own small friendship group, they relish in the familiar and seem to reject the unknown, when Xavier is dropped from the football team to the seconds his relationship with his other football mates appears to slowly fade. Xavier works hard to keep in shape and maintain his football skills so he feels in place and up to scratch with the other members of the team. When Xavier starts to develop feelings and a relationship with Nuala his football friends rea
He is able to learn how to see outside the square he lives in and embraces and develops new experiences in his life. The theme of masculinity and normality is evident in Alex's character and experiences, as it is discovered Alex feels out of sync with people and things in his life seeing as he missed so much school with his disease. But for there to be growth there must also be a struggle. He is also extremely shy and likes to concentrate on his schoolwork. Through the grief of Alex's death Xavier is able to calm his own actions and learn new life lessons. By dressing like a boy Nuala appears not be conforming but it later becomes evident that her own false sense of security and her desperation for social conformity is being displayed by her dressing as a boy. As the book develops we find that his relationships begin to further develop with new people out of his normal group such as Alex and Nuala. Although this appears bad at first it later becomes evident that through making decisions such as this in regards to relationships he grows as a person. James Maloney's novel "Touch Me" explores a variety of themes that compel and move the reader to various emotional levels. Xavier attempts and succeeds at a re-establishing his relationship with Nuala, realising how much she really does mean to him. Alex is a quite hard working young man, but doesn't fit the mould of Xavier's other friends as; Alex is not as good-looking or muscular as other boys his age as he suffers from an illness. At the beginning of the novel Xavier talks about how he doesn't really speak to Alex due to the fact Alex doesn't play any sports like he does. Though newfound friends are not the only things to consider when looking at the theme of relationships in the novel "touch me". The theme of relationships play a large part in the development of the story in the novel "Touch Me". I hope this essay has helped the reader to further understand themes explored throughout the novel "Touch Me" .
Common topics in this essay:
James Maloney,
Xavier Albecker,
Touch Xavier's,
Touch Nuala's,
Alex Nuala,
James Maloney's,
novel touch,
social conformity,
throughout novel,
,
theme masculinity normality,
throughout novel touch,
dressing boy,
football mates,
football friends,
newfound friends,
explores variety themes,
james maloney's,
masculinity normality,
theme masculinity,
|
Acceptance Essays
