Gayle Forman's If I Stay

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What would you do if you had to choose between life and death? In the book, If I

Stay by Gayle Forman, seventeen-year-old Mia Hall has to choose whether to die to be with

her family or to live without them. This captivating book takes place during the most

decisive 24 hours of Mia’s life, but it features moments from her past through flashbacks.

Even though If I Stay is young-adult fiction, it teaches readers of all ages about the power of

love, the effects of choices, and the influence of fate.

Aspiring cellist Mia Hall is the protagonist of this breathtaking novel. She has hopes

of attending the Julliard School in the fall, but her dreams are put on hold when a

catastrophic car crash takes the lives of her family and puts her in a coma. Through …show more content…

She can’t imagine living without her

family, but she knows that they would be disappointed if she chose to die because of them.

As Mia walks around the hospital in an apparitional state, she learns, “If I stay. If I live. It’s

up to me.” (Forman 88) Mia wants to live to see her friends and the other members of her

family, but she knows that her life will be more difficult due to her being injured in the car

crash. Another choice Mia faces in If I Stay is choosing between staying in Oregon with

Adam and going to Julliard in New York. Mia learns from her mother that with some

choices, you win and lose at the same time. Mia’s mother tells her, “I'd understand if you

chose love, Adam love, over music love. Either way you win. And either way you lose.”

(Forman 211) Gayle Forman keeps the reader in suspense as Mia goes through the pros

and cons of life without her family.

Throughout the novel, fate influences Mia and her decisions. Mia’s family died in the

car crash, but miraculously, Mia is put into a coma and given a choice. Mia’s dad sums up

fate perfectly by saying, “I just think funerals are a lot like death itself. You have

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