Character Clues

Character Analysis

Occupation

These characters don't have actual jobs, it's true, but they are all defined by a role or niche in their high school world. We are given little bits of information about where characters fall in the high school social hierarchy in order to help us understand who they are and how they fit into this world we're hanging out in.

Here are some examples of what we're talking about: Graham "plays drums" (1.41) and has shoulder-length hair; Cody is "a senior and an incredible sprinter" (1.38); and Sydney Mills is "insanely hot, she's one of the best athletes in school, and she comes from a wealthy family" (8.6). This all works as a sort of short-hand, and from it, we know that Graham is the sexy musician type, Cody's the classic hot athlete, and Sydney rules the roost, possessing everything that stereotypically comes together to make someone super popular.

What gives with this? Yes, it's dabbling in stereotypes. More than that, though, it frees readers up to really focus on Emma and Josh. With the peripheral characters established by the social positions they occupy, we can dig deeper into our two main characters.

Clothing

Just as occupations (socially speaking) help us get a sense of how characters fit in and who they are, clothing also helps us get a sense of who we’re dealing with in this book. So because Emma's an athlete, we often see her wearing a sports bra and running clothes, and to make sure we understand that Josh is a skater boy, we get the image of him standing in Emma's doorway "tapping at the doorframe with the scuffed toe of his sneaker" with "the same floppy reddish-blonde hair and shy smile as always" (1.6). Their clothes, then, remind us of who they are.

Following this, Sydney shows up to Josh's house in "a sky-blue strapless dress that falls above her knees" (57.21)—to go to a bonfire. This puts her in contrast to Emma and her sporty ensembles, while also letting us know that Sydney cares about how she looks. And for his part, Cody wears "a dark blue T-Shirt with 'Duke' written across the chest" (34.2), letting us know that he has his eyes on the prize—his own prize, that is.