50 pages • 1 hour read
John Corey WhaleyHighly Illogical Behavior
Fiction | Novel | YA | 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
Keeping Secrets Is Not a Solution
Most people find themselves in situations throughout their lives in which a lie could potentially help avoid propelling more pain. When is it okay to keep the truth from someone? Is not telling the entire truth the same thing as lying? The answer to these questions is not always as easy as we would like it to be, and this theme persists throughout the novel.
Lisa and Clark keep a secret for Solomon’s benefit; they suspect that telling him the truth will cause his mental health to regress. Lisa has her own personal gain in mind when she concocts the idea for the experiment, but she genuinely wants Solomon to get better, even before she meets him and develops a genuine friendship with him. The novel therefore illustrates moral ambiguity in its protagonists and sets the stage for a hero’s journey story arc. Keeping the secret of her experiment doesn’t only affect the relationship with Solomon—it also informs Lisa’s relationship with Clark as they grow apart. The characters in this novel grow as they navigate more responsibility for others.
Solomon keeps his own secrets too. He tries as hard as he can to keep his feelings for Clark to himself, and he goes out of his way to make sure his parents don’t see the extent to which he engages in self harm. Solomon is also keeping these secrets so as not to hurt other people, but these secrets end up hurting him even more. Whaley’s plot and characters prove that being upright, honest, and forthcoming in a loving way are valuable in relationships and self-growth.
Escapism Can’t Solve Everything
Lisa, Clark, and Solomon all have their own ways of trying to pretend the world away. Solomon has the most extensive internal world, as he has spent so much time on his own and in his imagination. This imagination has been instrumental to Solomon’s happiness, and there is nothing wrong with it, but it doesn’t solve all of his problems. No matter how rich his inner life is, he can still fall into loneliness and isolation.
Clark also prefers to live within the confines of his day to day, without thinking too much of the future. Avoiding thoughts of the future is Clark’s form of escapism, and it doesn’t make him lazy or unmotivated the way Lisa initially assumes. Rather, it’s Clark’s way of trying to get through his days as happily as he can. Eventually, though, Clark will have to think about his next moves, so he has to learn how to balance his form of escapism with realistic life requirements.
Lisa would certainly believe herself to not have forms of escapism, but she does. Her way of pretending the world away is the opposite of Clark’s: She dreams intensely and precisely of her future. Lisa pushes daily problems aside for the dream of the end goal. Dreams and goal setting are important, but they do not solve Lisa’s issues with people in real time. These characters are still learning how to navigate the stresses of teenage life, and their methods of escapism are important to their happiness and sense of identity. They learn that sometimes the tactic that eases stress can distract from more immediate issues that must be dealt with urgency.
The Nuances of Mental Health Issues
The major theme of this novel is the topic of mental health. Everyone’s goal is to get Solomon well, but definitions of what it means to be “good,” “well,” “healthy,” or “ill” can be diverse and conflicting. Different cultures, societies, and even individual personalities deal with these questions in vastly separate ways. Lisa, for example, believes that friendship is what will cure Solomon. Although friendships have an undeniably important influence on Solomon’s wellbeing, he had already been thinking of going outside before he meets Lisa. In Solomon’s mind, taking that one step outside is the sign of progress and improvement. Meanwhile, Lisa’s mother blames Solomon’s parents for allowing him to wallow at home, but Solomon’s parents are understandably terrified that Solomon will only get worse if he can’t shelter himself.
There is no single solution to a mental health issue. Instead, Whaley encourages his reader to consider mental health from a variety of angles. Solomon is lonely, yes, and can succumb to self-harm. There are things about his quiet home life that Lisa and Clark envy. It is easy to judge Solomon, as his schoolmates have, and as Lisa and Clark have too. It is not as easy to open oneself up to the endless possibilities that accompany mental health. Whaley uses this prevalent theme to encourage his readers to consider the different methods all people can utilize in making the world a safer, stronger space for all types of people.
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By John Corey Whaley
