Analysis Of Along For The Ride

Summary

Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen is about an eighteen year old girl, Auden West, who finds herself in a small coastal beach town Colby. After receiving a cheap picture frame, from her brother in Europe, Auden decides to stay with her father, stepmother, and new baby sister. Unlike her peers, Auden doesn’t have many social skills. Auden was always very good at school, but she never learned how to have fun. Her parents attitudes and their separation caused her to grow up fast. Both her parents being writers, and her mom being a cynical English professor at Weymar College, Auden was always looking for acceptance. After arriving in Colby, Auden is skeptical about her relationship with her stepmother and her father. Auden soon gets hired

Auden’s mom told her that “People don’t change” which leads Auden to believe that her father can’t change (14). Auden’s mom also states, on page 14, “If anything, you get more set in your ways as you get older, not less.” On pages 62 and 63, Auden’s parents have a disagreement before they go to a restaurant for a family meal. The book continues to read, on page 62, “Oh, boy, I thought. Change a few details-professorship for business, committees for employees-and this was the same fight [Auden’s father] had with my mom all those years ago.” It also states, “People don’t change, my mother had said, and of course she was right.” Throughout the book, Auden’s stepmother and her dad have differing opinions. Auden continuously reminds herself that people don’t change. When Auden and Eli go on a paper route, Auden stops by her house, and hears Heidi and her dad arguing. Eli explains to Auden that “people change” while discussing her parents’ argument (266). Auden answers, “‘Or they don’t… ‘Sometimes, they don’t.’” Auden’s dad leaves the house to stay on his own after the argument with Heidi. While babysitting, Auden realizes she should call her dad to push him to make a change, only to realize she should change her ways as “a quitter [herself]” and go after Eli (369). On page 380, it states, “The second message was from my dad. He was back at home with Heidi, giving it another shot, a decision he’d made the night of the prom, when he

While changing, Auden obtains knowledge to get back up and try again, when she fails. Much like that, she also learns that life can give more than one chance, and sometimes it takes more than the first chance to get it right. Many things happen in life, and sometimes we aren’t given more than one chance. And when we do have a second chance, sometimes we make it right, but sometimes we botch that chance too. Before eating at the restaurant for the family meal, when Heidi and Auden’s dad were arguing, Auden’s father had a second chance in a situation which was very much like an altercation Auden remembers with her dad and her mom. Auden also realizes that her dad has a second chance not to leave his new family on page 302 after she visits him in his new living abode. On page 368 she calls her dad to address this second chance. “‘It’s just,’ I said, ‘you have the opportunity for a second chance here.’ ‘A second chance,’ he repeated. ‘Yeah,’ I said.” Then it continues, “‘But you won’t even take it. You’d rather just quit.’” Auden then presents herself with the fact that she was giving up as well. On at the end of page 369, it reads, “Sometimes, you get things right the first time. Others, the second. But the third time, they say, is the charm. Standing there, a quitter myself, I figured I’d never know if I didn’t get back on that bike, one last time. Auden failed and she needed to try again, but she was also presented