Independant+Novel+Study+4

Drowning Anna Sue Mayfield Varada S. 173-232

Scarred. Emotionally Torn. That is how the author makes us feel through the intese words and images she paints in Drowning Anna. After every page, she makes your heart weep a little more for Anna and hate a little more toward Hayley. This is Sue Mayfield's main tactic to get you to keep reading on as no matter how disturbing the book becomes she wants you to keep going on the journey through Anna's life. Another tactic she uses is putting in miniplot twists. At the beginning of the novel, when Anna commits suicide you think that she will most definitely die. But soon thereafter, her mom arrives (unexpectedly) and takes her to the hospital where you think the doctors will magically make her better. But after she shows no sign of getting better for a while you again start thinking that she will die. Another unexpected event Mayfield adds is when in Anna's diary and through Melanie's story (her best friend) she reveals that Hayley suddenly starts to be nice again, and then you start thinking that Hayley and Anna are going to be friends again until Mayfield turns Hayley mean again. Through this I think that Mayfield has also tried to convey a message. Although at times it is hard to decipher what it is, I think the very basic message is "Don't be a bully" but a more in depth message would have to be that how even though Anna has been bullied and shows that she is very sensitive, Hayley too is also very sensitive. Most bullies only bully because they are not very self-confident. In a way, I think that Drowning Anna is a book in which the author is trying to prove that when not self-confident people get into a argument it could result in something that was never intended to happen. Again, this is how I interpreted it, and other people may have different point of views.