Awkward

Fiction | Graphic Novel/Book | Middle Grade | Published in 2015

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

Apologizing for Our Mistakes

Peppi, the protagonist, makes a big mistake that launches the main conflict of the graphic novel. Though Peppi struggles with the best way to apologize, she never considers not apologizing for what she did. The graphic novel emphasizes the importance of owning up to mistakes and apologizing for the hurt they cause, even when the person who made the mistake didn’t hurt anyone on purpose.

Weeks after Peppi shoved Jaime, she says that it “still makes me burn” (7), colorfully describing feeling ashamed of her behavior. This feeling is exaggerated by the fact that she notices that everyone “either ignores [Jaime] or makes fun of him” (9). Isolation and bullying are two common experiences in primary and secondary school, and they can have negative effects on those who experience them. Knowing that she hurt someone who is already being tormented haunts Peppi.

Peppi knows that she must apologize to Jaime for both her sake and his. Her mistake doesn’t reflect her character. She is a nice and thoughtful person who wants to make amends and have people feel included. She also knows that her mistake hurt Jaime, who was laughed at as she ran away. Jaime’s mom spurs Peppi into action: She doesn’t judge Peppi for her mistake, but she smiles when Peppi says how sorry she is and redirects Peppi to tell Jaime that.

When Jaime finally gets Peppi’s drawing of her apology, he reveals that his mom taught him that there are “bad people who hurt others for fun” and “good people who do it by accident” (128). In other words, some people hurt others on purpose, and others, like Peppi, make a “mistake” (128) that hurts someone inadvertently. The most important thing is that a person realizes what they did, owns up to it, and makes amends. Even though Peppi panicked and didn’t mean to hurt Jaime, she knows that the hurt still happened. Apologizing for her mistake allows Peppi to understand Jaime better, and they start to bond over their shared interests.

Later, Jaime raises his voice at Peppi when he is shocked that she would help someone hide the remote for the science club’s plane. Like Peppi, Jaime acts spontaneously out of heightened emotion, but he realizes that yelling at Peppi may have hurt her feelings, so he goes to her house to apologize for his outburst and acknowledge his actions. The novel’s point is that everyone at some point makes a mistake that harms someone else. Rather than pretending it didn’t happen or ignoring it, we must own up to what we did and apologize to the people who were hurt, even if we didn’t mean to hurt them. This way, we can build healthy, trusting, and safe relationships.

The Relationship Between Art and Science

While there are many types of conflict in the text, one of the most important is between the art and science clubs. Both clubs initially stereotype these disciplines and believe that art and science are mutually exclusive, but by the end of the novel, they learn that these fields are complementary.

The art and science clubs see their interests as opposites. The science club sees the art club’s work as frivolous; conversely, the art club thinks the science club is reckless and rude. These perceptions are rooted in stereotypes: artists as spacey dreamers and scientists as power-hungry and rash. Peppi says, “We haaaaaate the science club. They’re across the hall from us, always causing trouble” (13). The physical positions of the club rooms on either side of the hall from one another also mark them as symbolically opposite.

Part of this tension is born from externally created inequalities: Science is seen as more valuable to the school because they get awards and make the school “look good” (13). As a result, science club is funded well, while art club never has enough resources to do what they need. When the principal’s competition puts the two clubs in direct competition with one another, this exacerbates the sense that the school cannot support both interests. The zero-sum contest for a table at the fair furthers their assumptions that their two clubs have nothing in common and need to best the other in competition to prove their superiority.

While the two clubs fight, Peppi and Jaime are isolated from the conflict. Because of his parents, Jaime already knows that art and science go together. His mother is an artist and his dad is a scientist, pursuing what they love in a complementary fashion. Both subjects interest and impress Jaime, and in turn Peppi, when Jaime shows her his father’s workshop and his mother’s studio. Unlike Jaime, Peppi must learn that the relationship between art and science can be collaborative. Miss Tobins shows her how her mermaid drawing can be scientific if she thinks about the anatomy a mermaid needs to swim. Later, Miss Tobins teaches her about Leonardo da Vinci, an accomplished Renaissance scientist and artist. Miss Tobins stresses that science and art “really aren’t that different” (190), which inspires Peppi to think up a collaborative project that emphasizes the interconnected and complementary nature of art and science. She ends up proposing the idea of the planetarium to both clubs. At first, the clubs struggle to see how they can both contribute and compete even though they are supposedly working together. However, once they actually start working on the project, they pool their strengths together rather than use them against one another.

Ultimately, their work on the planetarium helps the clubs see that even though their subjects seem to be in competition with one another, they actually have a much closer and more collaborative relationship.

The Importance of Academic Community

One of the reasons the adults in the text—like Miss Tobins, Mr. Ramirez, and the principal— lament the antagonistic relationship between the art and science clubs is that it endangers the cohesion of the school’s academic community. Having community in middle and high school is extremely important for adolescents, as it can provide number social, mental, and academic benefits, such as creating safe environments for students to grow and socialize in, feel understood, and learn to collaborate and support each other. One of the most important themes in the graphic novel is that it is better to build community than to be in competition with one another.

When Peppi starts at Berrybrook, she immediately wants to find belonging. One of her “cardinal rule[s]” for “surviving school” is to “seek out groups with similar interests and join them” (12). Peppi joins the art club because she likes to draw. As a community, the art club has pros and cons. On the one hand, “it’s amazing to be here with other artists, trying things” (84). The club gives her a judgement-free place to practice doing what she loves with other people who enjoy the same thing. On the other hand, even Maribella admits that the art club has done “nothing to contribute to the school community” (27). When the drama club asked for help with backdrops, the art club didn’t contribute. Even after the club begins their comic project, Maribella gets continuously frustrated because art club members ignore this project to do their own drawings or to skateboard outside. When Maribella gives them the news that the school loved their comics and wants a sequel, the members immediately complain about doing more work, saying that their hands still hurt or that “comics were too haaaard” (152) and they prefer to go back to their independent drawings.

While the art club provides a space for people to pursue their interests, their insularity is harmful. It is important for individual communities to forge larger connections. Early on, Maribella argues that “the spirit of the annual club fair is that all clubs receive equal recognition for their hard work” (14); she wants school-wide recognition for the art club but is uninterested in giving the same recognition to other groups. This is a misunderstanding: Participating in a community event like the school fair is not supposed to draw attention from other people to your own accomplishments. As the principal says later, “the point of the fair is to celebrate and support the accomplishments of your fellow students” (180). Clubs cannot simply have a table at the fair and expect to be praised: The fair is meant to be reciprocal. Groups are expected to contribute to a collective that betters and supports everyone. As a result, that group’s actions might be celebrated, but being celebrated and getting attention is not the point of the fair.

Eventually, Peppi convinces the art and science club to contribute jointly to a project that benefits the entire school community. Instead of engaging in isolated activities that earn awards or get attention, the two clubs create something that makes everyone in the school happy. By learning the importance to joining together to build academic community, the art and science clubs support each other in new ways, like defending Peppi and Jaime against the kids who tease them.