I disagree with this statement to a certain extent in that, Simon, a young man in his late teens should be enjoying his life by going out to parties and seeing his friends, but instead of that he has been living a quite cheerless and unhappy life because his father, Derek died a few years ago.Now because Simon does not have a stable life it would seem to the reader that he would want to bond with his mother, Debbie and his baby sister Jane, but Debbie has sent him to a boarding school where he hardly sees them.With Simons dad dead he wouldn't want a replacement for a new father because it would show he is trying to take the original dad's place, but Debbie on parents day turns up in a big, white Range Rover with a man. Joe. Evidence of this is page 20 it says,"There was a gap in the middle around the Range Rover, Mum and the man."This suggests that Simon has seen the man and also has a slight suspicion that Debbie and Joe may be starting a relationship he defiantly does not approve of. When Simon comes home he notices many differences in his mum, two examples of which are shown in the form of speech on page 20,"4 times in three weeks she'd gone out,""Hour long phone calls,"His mum had also bought lots of new clothes. Items such as frilly blouses, frilly skirts and leather boots were much out of character with Debbie, and so this showed that there were many changes occurring with the transformed mother; possibly suggesting that she actually was seeing Joe.Simon got called out from the school, his mum wanted to have lunch with him. In page 32 the evidence says,"Wood?" said Slogger. The head wants to see you."Soon after Debbie and Simon start to talk and she finally comes out with,"I am getting married again Simon."I think there was only one main reason to why Debbie took Simon to lunch and that was to try and get him in a good mood for what she had told him.Another reason why I disagree with the statement and that is because how is Simon supposed to see the points of others if the others wont see his point. Debbie without notice blurts out she was getting married again and Simon wasn't even informed that they were dating let alone getting married.Further more Debbie wasn't even going to enlighten Simon that she was going to move to Cheshire with Joe and Jane and the only reason why did was because Simon said,"I can't come home. Ever.""That's one of the things we've got to talk about. I'm selling the house."An explanation of this is Debbie obviously knew getting re-married was going to affect Simon's life because everything was going to change for him, and Debbie didn't want to hurt Simon more than she had done.Then she started to talk to him again, asking what he wanted to keep for the new house in Cheshire, but soon after that she began to choose what he kept and threw away. Reciting two important lines from the book,"Your Hamsters, give them away.""What about your Model Railway? Sell it. Give it away. Give it to Billy Turner."This is showing the reader that firstly she was asking Simon what he wanted to keep but then she made the suggestions for him.However, although Simon has been through a lot it suggests to the reader that he has to move on and try and accept what has happened. Debbie wants to get re-married she loves Joe and they have a very strong relationship which she said she never really had with Derek. Also when Derek was still alive he was planning to leave Debbie and the family. There is a line said by Debbie which showed that she wasn't happy the way things were without Joe,"You were fine Simon, I was lonely"This tells the reader that she wants to move on and start a new life.In addition, I agree with the statement because once Simon arrives at Joe's house in Cheshire, he turns very unforgiving and very short tempered with Joe. For example,"What are you going to do with the cats?""Keep them. ALL"This showed that Simon again is being very selfish and shows he wont listen to anyone and won't take anyone's points into account. It also puts forward that however hard Joe tries to start a fresh with Simon he turns his back on him and that he hates him for what he has done, which is marrying Debbie.An extra point to why I agree with statement is because when Debbie did come to Parents Day to see how Simon was doing all he could think about was how his mum was going to embarrass him, and how she was going to make a fool of herself. This happened when she started to play tennis against the Games Master. It may also suggest to the reader that Simon will not see Debbie's point of view, which is she was enjoying herself.A different point regarding why I agree with the statement is Simon will not see the point of what he did wrong. Joe had drawn a picture of Simon and once the painting had been finished he egoistically ripped the picture off the wall and ruined it. Verification of this is page 128. It says,"Simon""That picture was worth a hundred pounds.""I don't care"This showed again, however hard Joe tried he could not get Simon to accept his presence. This may also suggest to the reader that not only did he rip up the drawing, it may suggest he wants to rip up Debbie's and Joe's relationship.My conclusion to this essay is the following. Although Simon has been through a dreadful event he must pick himself up and try to see what other people want and not just him, i.e. his mum wanting to marry Joe.
