"Every Revolution Needs A Leader"

I am currently enjoying the extremely dirty thoughts and words of Nick Twisp, the narrator of Youth In Revolt by C.D.Payne. Nick Twisp is a 14 year old boy, living in California, trying to loose his virginity and impress his girl. To impress, he must act as devilishly rebellious as possible. He burns cars and scares his parents, he lies uncontrollably and scares his friend's parents, he runs away and occasionally does drugs. While reading this story, I started questioning what is rebellion and is rebelling the only way to truly live?

According to Google, rebellion is "refusal to accept some authority or code or convention". According to the Canadian band, Arcade Fire's song Rebellion(Lies) being rebellious is doing things that aren't good, then lying and keeping it from others. According to BBC, rebellion is " often symbolic. They want to look grown up and impress their friends." To further explain, BBC explains taking risks: " teenagers have well-developed emotions and feelings but have still not acquired the ability to think things through."

If you never act out, and never do anything against the rules for all of your life, are you wasting your life?

I believe that wasting your life, has nothing to do with your level of rebelliousness, but your level of happiness.

Are you happy doing what you are doing?

You think your life is unfair...

Over the last two weeks, a few members of our book club and I have been reading Sold by Patricia McCormick. I feel like it is one of the strongest books I have read, next to The Giver, which is my favorite book. Sold sends such a strong message. This message, I feel, is the power of knowledge and choice. In this book, a number of girls have been sold into prostitution, including our stories narrator- Lakshmi. Lakshmi is only 13. She is a young child from the mountains, who has never in her life seen anything digital or anyone American, basically she had never left her small home in the mountains. When she is sold, she is the sweetest, most innocent girl, your eyes have ever seen. She trusts EVERY SINGLE adult in her life, including her step father who gambles away the little money they have. She trusts the rotten women who brought her to the city, and the horrid man that brings her to the 'happiness house' which is just the opposite of happy. It is one of many prostitution houses, filled with dirty air and dirty people. Her fate is now in the hands of a greedy 'mango faced' woman named Mumtaz. Mumtaz will only let Lakshmi leave when she has paid off her debt of 20,000 rupees plus interest.The girls there did not choose to be there, yet they were treated like dirt. One night with a girl costs the same amount as a bottle of coca-cola. She was sold for 10,000 rupees, which is about the same as 333 bottles of coca-cola.

This brings up the other issue of trust. Lakshmi trusts everyone, and this characteristic trust she has ends up getting completely ruined by her year in the 'happiness house'. She once trusted Mumtaz, but that left quickly when she realized that Mumtaz was only out for money and used her for a job no one should go through. She found a man once that hugged her after they had sex, and she trusted he would come back and not leave her a lone with nasty old men. He didn't come back. She trusted the police officer, but he didn't save any of the girls. Once in the book she even says "I don't understand this city. It is full of so many bad people. Even the people that are supposed to be good." This line moved me, because it makes me realize that you can't trust EVERYONE, like Lakshmi did.


The true intentions of some sick people in this world are just disgusting and I feel like it is most unfair that Lakshmi had to experience this so harshly. What Lakshmi faces during this time, is social injustice. She cannot chose her future and she cannot leave what future that has been decided for her. This story really makes me feel so glad and so so thankful that I have the things I have and that I am so fortunate to live in such a wonderful and great city!