That Summer
Haven is a 15 year old girl. She has long wavy brown hair. Haven is 5 feet 11 inches tall and very skinny. She describes herself to be "boney and have acute angles, like a jigsaw puzzle." She always wishes to be shorter and have curves to her body like her sister Ashley. She is very self-conscious about her looks. She is so self-conscious that she sometimes even dreams about growing to be the size of a giant and towering over her home city. Haven will also slouch or fine ways to adjust her body stance to make herself appear shorter.
Haven lives at home with her mother and her sister. She blames both her mother and sister for making her feel nervous. They are both good at overreacting and making a big production out the littlest things. Haven’s sister’s name is Ashley. Ashley is the eldest of the two girls. Unlike Haven, in high school Ashley was known as the “popular girl.” She dated the captain of the football team, had lots of friends, and was a varsity cheerleader. Currently Ashley is planning her upcoming wedding and spends endless hours on the details. She is so preoccupied with the wedding that she leaves little time for her sister and Haven doesn’t feel comfortable confiding in her. However Haven will share some of her thoughts and feelings with her mother. Her mother tries to make Haven feel loved and important because she is concerned with how her recent divorce may have affected Haven.
After the divorce, Haven’s father, Mac McPhail moved out of their home and has recently remarried. He is a sports anchor for Channel Five and married one of his co-workers. She reports the weather and Haven’s dad refers to her as his “Weather Pet” which Haven thinks is obnoxious. Haven’s dad picks her up every Saturday and takes her out to eat to catch up on the week and what’s new in her life. For the most part Haven seems to enjoy the outings with her father. So far, Haven spends little time with her step mom.
Besides her family, she’s spends time with her neighborhood friend named Casey Melvin. Casey is an outgoing carefree kind of girl ever since she went to summer camp. She is a good friend to Haven.
I think this is what all makes Haven different from the other characters in the story because everybody is short compared to her, she doesn’t have that many friends, and she only has one other person that listens to her problems.
The conflicts in the book That Summer are about how Haven, the main character, struggles with her physical looks and family problems.
Haven struggles with the way she looks like how tall she is and how skinny she is. She tries to find ways to make herself appear shorter. Personally I love being taller and I embrace being tall. Instead of trying to hide the fact that I am tall, I’m comfortable wearing high heels. Haven struggles with this conflict because her personality type is being very shy, self-conscious, and not being comfortable speaking her mind. Haven struggles with her feelings of self-consciousness throughout most of the story, but in the end she realizes she is not the only tall young women in her city which help her feel better about her self-esteem.
Haven also deals with a few problems involving the members of her family. To begin with, Haven has to deal with the fact that her mom and dad are divorced and her father has remarried. She also has to deal with her older sister getting married and moving out soon. And finally she has to deal with not always getting along with her mother. Haven doesn’t do anything about these family issues because she feels like her mother, father, and sister don’t listen to what she has to say. I would deal with family issues like hers differently. Like if I found out that my parents were getting a divorce, I would try to stop them, and if I was not getting along with my mother, I would try to talk it out with her. Plus, if my sister was getting married, I would be so happy for her and would want to support her. I would try hard to express how I feel about their differences until I know they heard it. I think that Haven handled her family problems the only way she knew how to because of her personality type- the fact that like I said before she doesn’t speak her mind.
The last conflict in the book involves Haven trying to figure out why her sister Ashley decided to break up with her previous boyfriend, Sumner. Haven does not understand why Ashley broke up with Sumner because she seemed so much happier when they were together. When Ashley was dating Sumner, she seemed so much more laid back, kind and excited about things. Now she seems to be preoccupied and on the edge. Haven decided to deal with this dilemma, once she started hanging around Sumner more. Haven could tell that Sumner really liked her sister and she knew that Ashley really liked Sumner, so she tried hard to get him to explain why they had split up. But, Sumner just wasn’t very comfortable about sharing his feelings.
If I were Haven, I would have confronted Ashley first. I think she should have told her sister how she felt about Lewis and about how she thought that her personality had changed when she was around him. I think she should have told Ashley that she acted differently around Lewis, and that she didn’t seem as happy as she was when she was with Sumner.
As the story gets closer to the end, Haven does finally confront Ashley about her wanting to marry Lewis and the end gets kind of interesting. Read the book That Summer to find out.
