40 pages • 1 hour read
Jordan SonnenblickFalling Over Sideways
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Perseverance in the Face of Adversity
Many of the characters in Falling Over Sideways attempt to persevere despite adversity, most notably Claire’s father, Mr. Goldsmith.
When Mr. Goldsmith suffers a stroke, he must relearn how to use the right side of his body, and regain lost vocabulary. Given that he’s an author, the verbal issues that stem from his stroke seem especially cruel to Claire:
On the morning of his discharge from the hospital, I kept thinking of [a beautiful sentence from one of his books] over and over, wondering whether he would write anything like that again. Write it? I was wondering whether he’d ever even be able to understand anything like that again (102).
Claire is obviously elated that her father survived his stroke. However, Claire feels like the essence of her father is gone: He used to write, comprehend, laugh, dance, and tell jokes, and now he can barely breathe on his own, let alone walk. Her father has a steep upward climb, which means that Claire and her family also have a steep uphill battle in maintaining a positive environment in the house for his sake (and theirs).
With her father’s failures in physical training and few successes, Claire begins to wonder whether she should be “thankful he was alive in this condition” (167). Echoing the novel’s title, her father has fallen and Claire can’t stand that neither she nor her father can “catch” him and make things right. Claire, however, takes to heart her dance teacher’s lessons about adversity and trying harder, and she models perseverance to her father as she practices dance. Her father perseveres for Claire, and by the end of the narrative, both characters receive rewards: Claire dances with her father onstage after he uses his rehabilitation to become stronger, and Claire’s desire to “catch” her father comes full circle as he whispers to her that he’s again there to “catch” her.
The Dangers of Misunderstanding
Falling Over Sideways underscores how important it is not to jump to conclusions. The dangers of misunderstanding someone else appear in many character interactions. One major example is in how the students view Mrs. Selinsky, a tough science teacher, who, through Claire’s first-person narrative, appears to delight in torturing her students by negatively comparing everyone to her “perfect” daughter, Meredith. The students later learn that Mrs. Selinsky didn’t have a good relationship with Meredith. In fact, Meredith cut ties with her mother, and died of liver cancer before they could reconcile. Mrs. Selinsky’s obsession with Meredith comes from personal trauma, and though Mrs. Selinsky should have never slapped Claire’s hand (which she eventually admits to Claire), this revelation helps to paint a different picture of Mrs. Selinsky.
Ryder and Claire also suffer from a major misunderstanding. Ryder and Claire used to be friends, but Claire laughed at Ryder’s weight one day along with other students, and Ryder never forgave her for it. Claire never realized what she had done, so when Ryder stopped being friends with her, it seemed like he had just started being mean for no reason. At the end of the novel, Ryder finally confides in Claire about how hurt he felt. Claire immediately apologizes, and the two become friends again. This interaction suggests that it is better to be upfront with people. When one keeps feelings such as pain and hurt inside, misunderstandings arise.
Matthew and Claire’s relationship also pinpoints the danger of misunderstanding. Both Matthew and Claire argue with their father on the morning of his stroke, and both feel horrible about being the possible stressor for his stroke. The siblings finally admit this to each other and feel immediate relief. Both also finally realize that they did nothing wrong—they didn’t injure their father by being dismissive of him or angry, but it took them talking about their fears to realize this. This misunderstanding links to Claire thinking that Matthew is perfect. Matthew, in turn, thinks that their dad loves Claire more. By sharing, Claire and Matthew understand that their father loves them both.
Finally, Claire deals with a major misunderstanding with her dance friends. They advance to higher-level classes while she remains in lower levels. Several times throughout the narrative, Claire is sad because she thinks that her friends are growing distant. Once she finally verbalizes her feelings, they affirm that they will always be her friends.
The Many Faces of Love
Though Claire often feels like she must face her problems alone, she eventually understands that many people in her life are willing to weather the good and bad times with her. Grandpa and Grandma—Claire’s mother’s parents—immediately offer their assistance after they learn about the stroke. They bring food, shuttle Claire and Matthew to school and extra-curricular activities like soccer and dance school, and provide a positive attitude. Meanwhile, Gram—Claire’s father’s mother—helps her son recuperate. Though Gram has an uncharacteristic moment where she breaks down and Matthew must support her, she rallies and calls Claire a hero for saving her father, telling her never to forget this.
Claire wants to keep her father’s condition to herself, but once friends like Alanna, Katherine, and Roshni find out, they rally around her and offer support. Even frenemies like Ryder, Regina, and Leigh change their behavior once they learn about her father. These instances all show that love and support take many forms, and that letting others in while releasing pain and letting anger can heal. Claire admits after receiving hugs from her dance school friends that, “in a strange way, I did kind of feel loved” (153).
Even tough love helps Claire. Her dance teacher Miss Laura doesn’t sugarcoat how much Claire needs to improve to advance like Alanna and Katherine, bluntly telling Claire that she “the only way you’re going to get what you want is to bust your butt until the dancer you are is the dancer you need to be” (215). Mrs. Selinsky, a tough science teacher, tells Claire that the kids who stood up in defense of Claire are true friends. Claire takes both of these lessons and incorporates them into a workable means of support, both for herself and for her father. She then offers her own version of tough love to her father by lovingly reminding him that he’s not a quitter.
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