Joy School by Elizabeth Berg

Joy School by Elizabeth Berg

Elizabeth Berg's "Joy School" is about experiencing first love. This essay will discuss plot, character, and setting and how they relate to the story and with one another.

The conflict in the story is that Katie doesn't realize that she can't have Jimmy and yet she still dreams about them being together. The action develops from the conflict because Katie always goes and visits Jummy at the gasstation when she gets a chance which contributes to her having hopes and dreams about Jimmy. Katie's friend Cherylanne, soemone she looks up to, tells her not to give up on Jimmy, so she continues to go after him. This just shows that Katie is lonely and wants to connect with someone. Katie's delemma is when she finds out that Jimmy is married and has kids. Katie deals with this by kidding herself that Jimmy doesn't love his wife and that he is interested in her. Katie tries to deny her brokenheart by acting cold-hearted towards Jimmy at the end of the story. She feels that if she is heartless towards him, it will help her overcome her feeling and rid the hurt thats inside. Katie then realizes that Jimmy is right, she will love someone else again. Katie has learned a great deal from her experience with Jimmy. When Katie threw the stone that Jimmy ggave her in the pnd, it was a symbol of her letting go and wating to move on.

Katie is the main character in the story. She is a typical teenage girl, sweet, innocent, and a big heart. She reaches ot to different people and develops unquie friendships with them. She is new in her town and doesn't know many people. She is very lonely and wants to reach out to anyone who will be there. Katie learns a lot in the story. She learned that there is a difference between dreams and reality and what it feels like to let go of your first love.

Taylor is a important character in the story. Taylor went to school with Katie and had gym class with her. She was beautiful and a model. Katie looked at her as a "bigger sister," someone she experiences all those first things with such as shoplifting and double dates. At some point in time Katie felt like she was cool and that she was "fitting in" when she was with Taylor.