"Lirael" Reading Response

          What changes you and drives you to do things?  Over the course of Lireal, by Garth Nix, the characters are changed.  Lirael is about a girl, named Lirael, who is one of the Clayr, and who goes on a journey with her friend, the Disreputable Dog.  The Clayr are a society, made up mostly of women, who can see into the future.  Those who come of age get the Sight, which lets them see the future.  Lirael is the only one who still doesn’t have the Sight even 4 years after she’s come of age.  This book is one of a trilogy about the world of the Abhorsen, a person who lays the Dead to rest.  In Lirael, loneliness and friendship change her and are her driving forces.

            Lirael’s loneliness is her driving force, and it changes her.  In the beginning of the book, Lirael is so lonely that she decides to kill herself.  According to the book, “If she killed herself, Lirael reasoned, she wouldn’t have to watch girls increasingly younger than herself gaining the Sight…And she wouldn’t have to put up with the Clayr who looked at her with pity.  The ones who always stopped and asked how she was.  As if mere words could describe how she felt.  Or as if even if she had the works, Lirael could tell them what it was like to be fourteen and without the sight.”  At this point in the story, Lirael is so lonely that it is driving her to suicide.  She doesn’t feel accepted, she feels like an outsider, all alone, and so she is driven to try to commit suicide.  Lirael does not succeed in killing herself, but she is still so lonely and feels so unaccepted that five years later when she’s nineteen, she hardly speaks.  According to Lirael, “In the last few years, she had rarely said more than ten words in a row, and often she would not speak to other humans for days at a time….All she knew was that talking to the Clayr reminded her of all the things she couldn’t talk about.  The Clayr’s conversations would always return to the Sight, the central focus of their lives.  By not speaking, Lirael was simply protecting herself from pain….” Lirael has been changed by her loneliness by becoming more and more cut-off from other people, and more and more lonely.  She has become more and more silent, a sign of how loneliness changed her.  Both of these quotes show how much Lirael has been driven and changed by her loneliness.

            Lirael’s friendship with the Disreputable Dog changes her and is a driving force in her life.  Lirael accidently creates the Disreputable Dog, or, as she is sometimes called, the Dog, from a statuette that she finds.  While Liral’s loneliness amongst the Clayr causes her not to speak around them, her friendship with the Dog causes the opposite.  According to the book, “Of course the Clayr didn’t know that Lirael’s silence was more than made up for in her conversations with the Dog, with whom she would talk for hours.”  This shows how Lirael’s friendship has changed her from being non-talkative and cut-off from others to someone who will talk without end to her friend, the Dog.  The Dog’s friendship has opened Lirael up and made her see why life is worth living.  This connects with the next quote, which talks about how Lirael is exploring a secret room in the Clayr’s vast library and she feels like giving up. They come across an inanimate guard who tests Lirael to see if she’s a Clayr and almost kills her.  According to the book, “‘Am I a Daughter of the Clayr?’ whispered Lirael, tears starting in her eyes…. ‘…It knew I’m not a Clayr, and it was going to kill me.’ ‘But it didn’t, because you are a Clayr, idiot,’ said the Dog, quite gently.  ‘You’ve seen the hunting dogs, how every now and then one will be born with floppy ears or have a brown back instead of gold.  They’re still part of the pack.  You’re just a floppy ear.’”  Spoken like a true friend.  The Dog is comforting Lirael, and telling her that she does belong, that she is a Clayr.  If Lirael was alone, she wouldn’t have even made it this far.  But her friend, the Dog, encouraged and supported her, and because of this Lirael doesn’t give up, but instead, perseveres.  Her friendship with the Dog drives her on.  Both of these quotes connect back to the claim.  They show how because of the Dog’s friendship with Lirael, she becomes more open and talkative towards the Dog, instead of continuing with her closed ways.  Lirael’s friendship with the Dog drives her to become more courageous and to persevere.

            As you can see, Lirael’s friendship and loneliness are what change her and are a driving force in her life.  But, friendship and loneliness are not only a driving and changing force for fictional characters, but for real people as well.  Whether or not you have friends, and who your friends are is a defining point in your life.  They affect you and who you will be in the future.