Characterization and Foreshadowing in This Lullaby

So far, This Lullaby is a wonderful novel. It is nothing like any book that I have read before! It is insanely engaging and once you begin to read it there is no way you can stop.

The characterization in the novel plays an important role in the plot. The main character, Remy, has atrocious and careless opinions about love. When reading, we are exposed to the events that have taken place in the past that have shaped the opinions she has. Remy's mother has been married and divorced a total of four times previously, and in the first couple of chapters we learn about Don, her future husband. Barbara's actions made Remy the way in which she is. She has no illusions about love anymore. She says that it comes, it goes, it leaves causalities or it doesn't. She has a believe that people weren't meant to be together forever, regardless of what songs say. Because of this, Remy holds the thought that she is "an angry,bitter bitch". Her brother, Chris, used to share the same perspective about love but since Jennifer Anne, his present girlfriend, came into his life, his views have drastically changed. This hurts Remy because after all of these years, Chris was the only one who had shared her cynical, sick view on love. But after he turned his back on everything, Remy feels betrayed and that Chris is a "chump". Since Chris suddenly believes in love and she still does not, she is a terrible person.

Mentioned previously in the novel, we hear Remy say to her friends how she has changed. Remy no longer smokes, does not get "falling down drunk" at all, and she no longer sleeps around nearly as much as she used to. She says that she's not wonderful, but is a bit better than she used to be. Moving on the novel, Remy states that she has changed for Stanford for a few reasons. Her teachers did not believe in her much and just thought about her as one of the others. Being an obstinate person, Remy always works harder when she was up against something or when someone assumed that she couldn't succeed. These are the reasons for the changes in personality for a positive future.

So far in the novel, there is a lot of foreshadowing on future events. The way Dexter continues to per sue Remy causes me to be suspenseful of what is going to take place in the future (if anything?) regarding their "relationship." Remy has made it obvious a number of times that she has NO INTEREST in Dexter. She has told him off, ignored him, tried to shut him up, and called him annoying to her friends. But Dexter continues in his attempt to grasp Remy's attention, hopeful of the future. This makes the story interesting and really draws readers in to take in the elements on each and every page, as they continue there journey through out This Lullaby.