Dear Nobody

The story involves the characters Christopher Marshall and Helen Garton, both aged 17 years old. Chris and Helen are passionately in love, but their lives make an unexpected turn when Helen suddenly gets pregnant. The book starts off when Chris reads Helen’s letters to her yet unborn child, who she calls “Nobody” and he thinks back to the time of last January when everything started. As the story unfolds, Chris and Helen must face the problems that come up for two young future-parents: such as parenthood, grief, loneliness and abortion. The story is set in Sheffield, England, during the early 90’s.

The book is written in different perspectives, Chris tells the story from his point of view, and the letters by Helen are written in parallel as his and Helen’s story is told. The book is divided so that every chapter is a month, a time-scale from January to October. At the end of the book Chris is back where the book started, in his old room with the letters from Helen and there ends the story, so therefore the story is a circle composition.

Chris is the main character of the book; it is mainly his story, though Helen’s thoughts and life is a very important part of the story. Christopher Garton is a student with great ambitions of going to the Newcastle University. Christopher makes huge changes in his personality during the book; from being only a regular guy in love with a girl, he is suddenly forced to go from being a teenager to a grown-up. And for Chris, this is a big step and he is not ready for that step yet. Chrisopher is in love with Helen, and it is their love that the story is based on. Even though Chris and Helen have to struggle with the facts of growing up and the changes that come with, that they have gotten support from both Chris’ father and mother and Helen’s grandparents.

Chris has to deal with the facts of growing up and what it means to become a father of a child, but by getting support from his parents, his journey is made easier. But for Helen it is entirely different. Her parents, in constrast to Chris’ parents, do not support her. Helen, who is unsupported, does get some advice and such from Chris’s parents, but it is her relationship towards her parents that wears on her and makes her turn into herself. She gets lonely and the loneliness makes her write the letters to her unborn child “Nobody”.

In Dear Nobody there are several symbols used, for example when Helen tries to get rid of the unborn child by accidentally falling off a horse in order to save her and Chris’ relationship and future plans, The horse is a symbol of strength and what is uncontrollable, and falling off the horse is a symbol of losing control, letting go and finally accepting what is happening, accepting the child.

Helen and Chris symbolize the male and the female in the struggle of growing up, maturing and deal with the consequences that come with teen pregnancy. Helen’s mother, Alice Garton, symbolizes the mother who gives her daughter all love and protection, and almost tries to protect her daughter from life, but then has to come to the understanding that it is her daughter’s life and her choices, not her own, that count.

Another notable part of the book is the characters’ development. As for Chris, he finally comes to the understanding that he is not ready for either parenthood or becoming a father of his and Helen’s child, Amy. Before Helen’s pregancy, Helen and Chris were only kids themselves, but when Helen got pregnant, they suddenly had to go from adolescence to grown-ups, and as for Christopher, he never really gave Amy a single thought during Helen’s pregnancy, his attention was always on Helen, so when Amy suddenly was there he was torn between them both, and not ready for either of them. Helen on the other hand, finally has had enough when her mother almost forces her into an abortion. Helen stands up for herself and flees the clinic and tells her father the truth, wich is very courageous of her.

Helen went from being insecure and frightened of the changes around her into very mature and ready to take responsibility. All this put the pieces together and finalizes and completes her, and she is ready to take the responsibility of becoming a mother at the end of the book.

Dear Nobody is really a love story, a love story that is filled with all that being a teenager and growing up means, since both Helen and Chris represent the female and male teenager, the emotions and everything else that they go through. Their problems and dilemmas are universal, it could happen on any place on the planet, to anyone, and every teenager can recognize him/herself in these characters. It covers the themes of teen problems, family relationships, abortion and parenthood. 

In conclusion, according to our group’s opinion, Berlie Doherty made the story very convincing and it really worked at all levels, especially for a young reader as ourselves. We do like the book because it shows both the struggle and journey into becoming older and wiser as they say. We also noticed during the book, that even if it’s Chris’s story, Chris keeps his feelings very locked-down and doesn’t share the same amount of thoughts as Helen do. When you’ve read the story you feel closer to Helen than to Chris; who even if he is open-minded, is more of a mystery.

Name:

Fatah Abdurrahman F1F013050Raghil Agustio F1F013054Anna Vindrina F1F013059Dina Rezkia F1F013071