Last night I finished a book by Ellen Hopkins titled, Perfect, and I realized that it doesn’t matter
how much I read books by other authors because Ellen will always have my heart.
She first touched my soul, mind, and heart when I read Impulse in 2008 and I can remember holding that book, grasping each
word, as if she wrote it just for me.
Five years later, I find myself reading the sequel, Perfect, and her words chilled my senses
and lifted my soul. I can’t imagine what kind of reader I would be without
Ellen Hopkins; it’s knowing that there is an author out there that continuously
looks for ways to help her readers experience what they were so scared to admit,
teaching us to fight through each struggle by helping others, and finding
acceptance in yourself. It has taken a long time to find acceptance in my own
being, but knowing that I can find serenity each time I read her words allows
me to fall out of my shell and shout.
It’s always been a dream to meet Ellen Hopkins, and last year
(September 24, 2012 to be exact) my friend, Sarah, took me to the Rockville
Town Library for a book signing. Sarah had found out about the book signing
about three hours beforehand and we dropped everything to make this happen. We
got there late, and found a seat… I thought I was going to faint. I was shaking
as if it that the was the only normal way someone could react to seeing Ellen Hopkins in
person, in the flesh, just talking to her readers as if she knew them her whole
life. As people began to line-up to get there books signed, I began to feel
more nervous than ever. As I held on to Impulse
I could see my grip leaving imprints on the cover… I knew I was going to cry,
but I wanted to be strong. When my time came, she smiled at us and thanked us
for coming. I placed the book down in front on her hands, flipped to the last
page, saw the words “…a perfect paper airplane.” and broke down. So horrific
with myself; I felt like no words could ever amount to say “thank you” to her.
She looked at me with sadness in her eyes, and just hugged me, entirely.
Moments go by as I try to finish what I started, and I ask her to sign the last
page in memory of my brother. Her pen glides as she starts, and I follow each
movement until I read “For Greg, Always Ellen Hopkins 9/12”.
It’s moving knowing that my hands still shake when I re-live moment… so finally I can say, Thank you Ellen Hopkins.
So it’s the morning after finishing another one of her books,
and I do the usual of researching every last article about the book, looking
through her website, and wishing I didn’t read the book so fast. Now I have to
wait until Smoke comes in mail, and
it feel like it’s going to be a lifetime to have her words in my hands again. Luckily,
I am unmotivated to do anything else but look back at old papers when I
remember that last year wasn’t my first interaction with Ellen Hopkins. Back in
2009, I had to write a literary analysis from a biographic or historical
perspective and ended up writing about both by using her books as they reveal
both life experiences and current events involving young teen issues. I wrote
her an email, and she replied that same day.
Below is the paper I submitted. Again, I don’t think I can
ever thank you enough.
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Cynthia Chaves
English 122
April 28, 2009
FREE VERSE:
Far From
Hardly an Embodiment
"Some
books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and
digested: that is, some books are to read only in parts, others to be read, but
not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and
attention." stated Francis Bacon. Books amaze the mind and carry thoughts
that hide behind and further once to read again. Ellen Hopkins carries traits
that crave the mind and shows how things can be encountered. She develops her
novels off life experiences and research of actual feeling in young lives in
past couple decades. Ellen Hopkins strong approach toward her writing reveals
both a biographic and historical relevance from painful life experiences and
efforts of research to teenage standpoint.
Ellen
Hopkins has become a famous author for her depictions of life in the current
era for young teens. She has written three novels based from her daughter's,
Kristina, story of meth addiction and the struggle it brings to the family and
friends around her. Ellen Hopkins brings her life experiences into her novels
and portrays the similarities of CRANK,
GLASS, and IMPULSE.
In the novel CRANK, Ellen Hopkins's
semi-autobiographical verse novel tells a story of her daughter Kristina.
Hopkins chronicles the chaotic and often disturbing relationship between
Kristina, and vastly addictive drug called the monster also identified as the drug
crystal meth. Kristina is introduced to the drug while visiting her nonexistent
father during a summer in Reno. She begins to realize her father as a drug
addicted parent who lives in a grimy apartment, this where Kristina meets a
young boy named Adam. Adam wills soon enough introduce the monster to Kristina,
changing Kristina and allowing Kristina to possess an alter-ego named Bree.
Bree is separate from Kristina in the ways that Bree is able to do things and
not think about the retributions they will bring to Kristina’s existence
including invite the attention of deceitful boys. Soon after, her grades
plunge, her relationships with family and friends degenerate, and she becomes
dependent on the monster just to get through the day.
Hopkins has stated in several
interviews about her experience and the effects it has had on the book. Hopkins
states in an interview, “GLASS is the sequel to CRANK, which I
started completely for me. Writing from my daughter’s point of view helped me
understand the decisions she made and my part in them” (Carter). Discussing
that Hopkins’ writing is based on life experiences which she expresses the
emotions that writing CRANK was “recreated even more painful memories
than the original. Yes, writing it was it was cathartic.” (Carter), which maintains
accurate to her interviews with The Trade. Some characteristics that have come
from Kristin’s life experience are the reality of her alter ego who demands herself
to be called Bree. "Alone,
there is only one person inside. I’ve grown to like her better than the
stuck up husk of me. (Hopkins 7), Kristina
allows Bree to permeate and set new rules which are devoted by the monster. With
the addiction, growing Bree manipulates Kristina and with nothing to lose this
alter ego re-emerges as she comes back home only to have left Kristina behind
and Bree in her place.
Hopkins explains how it was dreadful to see
her daughter become Bree and states, “Bree was a persona created by Kristina.
She became this person when she partied for a couple of reasons. The first was
she believed if she got busted they wouldn't know who she really was. The
bigger one in my opinion was that it was easier to do things contrary to her
belief system by morphing into someone else” (Carter).
The book as a whole vindicates Hopkins’
family and their characteristics, for example in the book, CRANK,
Kristina talks about her family and feelings of distance between them. She
states that she feel like she has no mother, no step father Scott who is heavy
handed, no older sister Leigh caught in uncertain sexuality, no younger brother
Jake who is spoiled and shameless, no perfect daughter speaking herself and
truth of knowing she is not quite sane on issues (253).
These characters all hold parallel and imitates to Hopkins'
family members, Hopkins may change their names and some traits, but how they
interact provides evidence of Ellen Hopkins’ life familiarities as she defines
them in her books and explains
CRANK, is based on the author's real
experiences of her daughter's drug addiction to methamphetamines. The author's
note at the beginning of the book attest to this. The characters are
adaptations of real people they knew (or the daughter knew) and real
experiences of the family. This must be a way for the family (especially the
mother) to vent and heal (Musing for Amusement).
Once looking
through Hopkins experiences of her daughter she then holds another approach
toward screening the novels from a historical perspective. She gives
ironically fictional, yet true-to-life, glimpses of society’s challenges for
the teens of today. Ellen Hopkins' novel has a persistence of the lives of young teens and
issues they deal with like suicide. One of Hopkins’s novels, IMPLUSE, in placed in Aspen Springs where three
teenagers Conner, Vanessa, and Tony meet due to their suicide attempts
(Hopkins). These characters have been
written in sections for each person, so it allows the reader to have an
experience to know each side and their story and why they each attempt suicide.
Hopkins chooses this topic because of suicidal relations occurring in her area along
with common teens everywhere.
Hopkins did
research on this novel based off the small valley where she lived. “My
daughter, Kelly, worked in a place like Aspen Springs, so there are threads of
true stories... Vanessa in particular is very real to me, as I have a friend
who is bipolar and in the past suicidal. I also have a young friend who is a
cutter. So thru talking with them, I have been “in the head” of someone who has
those problems” (Hopkins. charter). Hopkins’ research is clear with what the
Nutrition Health Center has stated that suicide has become the third leading cause
of death in young teens and stating that about every hour and forty-five
minutes a suicide has taken place in America (Teen
Suicide Statistics). The
historical claim of this present epidemic advocates suicide is a major issue
that Americans ongoing deal within their daily lives.
Hopkins’s has observed the problems
around her and dealing with young teens and she gives persistence to the
readers about the situation and what changes you can make to better yourself
and others with this condition. Looking through her novels allow people to have
a better look into young teens, she has the research and collages of how to
understand its reasons that conflict within these teens. The suicide rate has
increase 8%, the largest rise in 15 years, and this outbreak is changing
history (Teen Suicide Rate). While this has continued Hopkins
has developed IMPULSE to communicate toward the lives of suicidal teens
and show prospective to how great this has gone partial to causing deaths in
young Americans. The consistency that Hopkins uses when alternating the points
of view between three characters in the actions between them, she explains in
her home page "books are not
about the things that happen to…characters, but rather about how those
characters react to those things” (Page Title). This is seamless description
of Impulse, and how a tragic yet hopeful journey into three optimistic and
damaged kids’ cores makes
the story easy to follow and become a voice to provide for. Hopkins main
thoughts of contributions towards her readers, “I feel it's important to be a voice for people who
experience problems like addiction or thoughts of suicide, and hopefully help
them realize they're not alone and that there's help if they just go looking
for it” (Page Title). Ellen Hopkins proves the fact of current tragedies in young teens in
America in current perspective, and to see inside these trouble teens “Act on your impulse, swallow the bottle, cut a
little deeper, put the gun to your chest" (Hopkins 4).
After
analyzing Hopkins perspective in her novels CRANK, and IMPULSE can go
either way; as a biographic approach or a historical approach. She does so by
gathering research of updated topics like suicide and describing novels based
off her life experiences like drug addiction. All these notions have a larger
purpose; Ellen Hopkins writes to help, however she can. She continues to
write these books as her source of help to anyone who is willing to accept it.
Once analyzing Ellen Hopkins, it is clear that she claims both topics in her
novels and are well defined to assent real life experiences and the current
issues in teens.
Works Cited
Carter, R.J.."Interview: Ellen Hopkins: Sculpting the Words Behind Glass”
The Trade. September 21, 2007.
Burlee LLC. 22 April 2009. < http://www.thetrades.com/article.php?id=5916>
Centers for Disease Control. "Teen Suicide Rate: Highest
Increase In 15 Years." ScienceDaily
8 September 2007. 28
April 2009 <http://www.sciencedaily.com
/releases/2007/09/070907221530.htm>.
“CRANK.”Musing for Amusement. 23 February 2009.5 May 2009
< http://musingforamusement.blogspot.com/2009/02/crank.html>
Hopkins, Ellen. Crank. New York:Simon Pulse, 2004.
Hopkins, Ellen. Impulse. New York:Simon Pulse, 2007
Hopkins, Ellen. 28 April 2009.”Re: please help!” E-mail to
author: Cindy Chaves. 28 April , 2009.
Hopkins, Ellen. “Page Title.” SimonSays. 1 May 2009.
<http://www.ellenhopkins.com/>
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