The Change of a Distant Heart
The novel, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, and the film of the same title tells the story of high school students and the affirmative and negative changes they experience during these formative years. High school can be a hard time for teenagers, and especially for main character Greg. More than struggle, he was just trying to make it. He was an awkward teenage boy who couldn’t bear to call people his friend or anything that meant he was connected to them on an emotional level. Greg was so distant from everyone until he let Rachel into his life; she made him become more conscience of, accept and understand his feeling. Greg has trouble embracing others’ love and acceptance of him because he cannot accept himself. His mother is overbearing and forces him to do what she wants regardless of his wishes. Despite this, when she makes him hang out with Rachel it is to the benefit of both of them. Because Greg only begins hanging out with Rachel after his mother tells him she has he refers to Rachel as the “dying girl”. At the beginning of their relationship there is no interest on either end of this uncomfortable acquaintanceship, but it is interesting to watch them grow and learn together. Greg, before Rachel, lives his life so that “during…show more content… However, this change was the gradual process throughout the story as all those little things between Rachel and him build up to create his big change. His tears and sadness make the audience feel his hurt. If he had been unphased by the death of Rachel it definitely would not have the same heartbreaking feeling from the audience. The author and directors did a great job of making the change of his character very subtle until it was needed to be obvious to conclude the story. Despite the repeated statement it wasn’t a love story Greg’s affirmative change made for a tremendously emotional
