True Believer

Author: Virginia Euwer Wolff
Original Date of Publication: 2001

Characters
LaVaughn – a girl who is sure about going to college but is confused about everything else.
Jody – a childhood friend of LaVaughn who acts like he loves her but is confusing.
Myrtle – a childhood friend of LaVaughn who joins the Cross Your Legs for Jesus, with Annie.
Annie – a childhood friend of LaVaughn who does not like Jody
Jolly – a friend of LaVaughn whose children, Jeremy and Jilly, LaVaughn babysat.
Patrick – LaVaugn’s lab partner in Biology who is great at memorizing.
Dr. Rose – the teacher in Grammar Built-Up
Ronell, Artrille, Doug – friends with LaVaughn, who along with her calls themselves the Brain Cells.
Lester – the man LaVaugn’s mother grows closer to.

Setting
Although the specific setting is not mentioned in True Believer we get the impression that it takes place in a larger inner city, such as Chicago or New York City.  LaVaughn talks about how she lives in an apartment in the city with her mother in a poorer part of town.  She continues to mention throughout the book how she plans to attend college and get herself out of this particular part of town.  LaVaughn also talks about riding the bus instead of having a car, which also leads us to believe that she lives in the inner city.
In the beginning of the book LaVaughn says she's fifteen and attending high school.  She never says what the name of the high school is, but we get the sense that the school is somewhat divided between the kids who plan to attend college and the students who don't.  LaVaughn is actually placed in a a higher science class and an after school grammer program to help her prepare for college.

Questions and Issues
There are many issues that can be found throughout True Believer that can be related to young adult readers.  One of the issues that is addressed is the idea of teen pregnancy.  LaVaughn's friend, Jolly, became pregnant at an early.  Now, she is struggling with raising her two kids, Jilly and Jeremy, all the while trying to maintain her grades at school.  Violence in schools is another issue that is addressed in the book.  In the book, LaVaughn has several experiences with school shootings. Another issue is religion.  Throughout the book, LaVaughn deals with her relationship with God.  Also, LaVaughn's friends, Myrtle and Annie, are very involved with their religion.  They join the "Cross Your Legs for Jesus" club and try to dictate how people should live their lives.

Themes, Symbolism, and Recurring Patterns
In the book True Believer there are a few themes that are evident.  The one theme that is a major theme that is carried throughout this novels is the theme of God and religious belief.  LaVaughn through this novel shares her growth in her religious beliefs.  In the beginning she doesn't know how she can love a God that has created evil in this world. As LaVaughn grows through the novel she is starting to learn about what she believes in and how she believes in God.  She believes she has to trust God when she goes through rough patches in her life.  Another theme is growth.  In this book there is a lot of growth mentally she goes through. Religion is one, but you also see her growing into the woman she is supposed to become. You see her growth in school and in her social life.

There are two main symbols that are talked about. The main symbol is the fish tank. The fish tank symbolizes looking at life from the inside out. We are looking and reading what is going though her mind.  We are able to understand her thoughts and feelings. The other symbol is the tree and bird nest on her ceiling.  This resembles her dreams. Where she lives now, there are no trees or nests, and this shows her every night where she wants her life to go.  Her dream is to go to college and get a good job and move out of the area where she lives to a place with grass and trees.

There are recurring patterns through the writing of the book. There are a lot of thoughts that are re-written through the novel.  Like the thought of asking Jody to the dance recurred multiple times until she finally asked him. This book is focused on LaVaughn thoughts and thought processes through her life and a lot of the thoughts reoccurs throughout this book.