The characters Gloria and Frank are very different. In the case of race and family history, opposites attract as shown by Frank a boy from Argentina and Gloria an american from New York. Frank is an underdog who is talented in drawing and artistic pursuits. Gloria is talented as a young piano prodigy who is faced with too much expectations by her dad after the death of her mother.
Their characters are similar in the way that they are very dedicated to each other. When Gloria was having trouble with her father, after he was telling her they were moving abroad, Frank stayed with her until the very end. He kept sending messages to her always encouraging her, meanwhile she sent postcards and written letters.
Gloria and Frank have all types of emotions portrayed through pictures. Gloria has an issue with her father and she is very frustrated at him and his lack of care and understanding for her. Frank is annoyed by the people around him, he is very depressed after not having Gloria with him. He says, “my heart misses you.” They were extremely happy together. When they would be with each other they would always be smiling.
So far in the book, “Chopsticks”, I find the characters are all very one dimensional. With no explicit detail or direct characterization, how could they be? Gloria’s father Victor is the “bad guy” who is forcing her to move abroad to play the piano and follow his wishes. Frank is the classic “troubled teen” who is so in love he gives no effort in studies or school and even goes so far as to get suspended after fighting. Gloria is the “damsel in distress” who is being forced to do things against her wishes and needs Frank to help her escape her problems and be her support. They all stick to one role showing that they are very one dimensional.
Frank is facing many problems. For example, he has had to move very far from Argentina to the United States. He had to leave behind relatives, friends, and his home. Frank has also had to change schools which hasn’t gone well, he goes as far as calling the school a “hellhole”. He has gotten into fights by bullies who call him a “spic” and has not done well in school. He has even gone as far as to get suspended for these behaviors. Overall, Frank faces many problems.
Gloria faces problems with herself and society (people). First, Gloria has to face life with only one parent after her mother died around the year 2000, judging from the lack of her mother in their Christmas postcard as well as the message, “Thank you for your support during this difficult year.” Secondly, Gloria has the confront all the pressure that comes with all the performing as well as her father’s great expectations. Her dad gives Gloria a very strict schedule, her whole day is planned out leaving no time for anything else and only one hour of free time from 8 to 9. Her dad also doesn’t approve of the relationship between Gloria and Frank.
Some problems even get between Gloria and Frank’s relationship. For example, when Frank gets expelled Gloria’s dad forbids Gloria to spend time with him and to top it all off he want to send Gloria to Italy to have her perform abroad for a year. Gloria couldn’t stop her dad from forcing her to go even when she expressed all her issues to him. This caused Frank and Gloria to become depressed without each other. Gloria was even sent to an institute for playing Chopsticks, a song reminiscent of their time together, repeatedly in her concerts as well as all the time she could get on a piano. Gloria had internal problems with herself in those moments but most of their problems were actually external. The book, “Chopsticks”, is a visual young adult romance novel. It is focused on Gloria and Frank who are both talented and live in New York. It is a book left up to interpretation like a movie without sound or subtitles. So far in the book, Frank has been expelled and Gloria has been sent to an institution for mental “issues”.
The themes in this book are all about love and trust. The themes are about the dedication Gloria and Frank have for each other. The themes are young love and friendship between Gloria and Frank. The themes between Gloria and her father victor is obligation, to play and even go abroad for a tour against her will, parent-child relationships, and the price of progress and talent.
At the beginning of the book the plot and storyline seemed simple and uncreative. It’s about two teenagers falling in love, but is it really? After interpreting the book and searching up questions online I realised it might not be “simple and uncreative”. Everything was a little suspicious. Why is Gloria making the pictures Frank supposedly made? Why are they shown with Gloria’s name instead of Franks? Why is the school logo and administrator for Frank’s school the same as the mental institution Gloria is sent to? Does this mean Frank isn’t real?
The message in this book could be interpreted in many ways. It could be that, “love is wild” and strong. Seeing how Gloria and Frank end up being shown together in the end heading to Argentina after Gloria takes a job as a pianist on a cruise line. More interestingly, could the message be about Gloria’s mentality and imaginative mind.
I think the author of this book was trying to let this book be whatever we wanted. We could choose for it to be the average and run of the mill romance with a predictable yet positive ending. In the opposite we could chose for the book to be a book about Gloria a girl who falls for her own imagination and her father who tried to help her. The ending could be a happy one about Gloria and Frank being together until the end or it could be that Gloria committed suicide therefore “freeing her mind”. I choose the latter, but the book could be whatever we want it to be.
