Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie

In Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie, Scott Hudson often misjudges other students based on their appearances or reputations, stereotyping them, for instance, as the unattainable popular girl, the dangerous ruffian, or the “suicidal” alternative teen. Stereotyping is common in high school, as this is a time when teenagers are experimenting with building an individual identity. Teens seek a way to fit in, questioning who they really are and worrying about what other students think of them. These questions are universal and cause students to categorize each other into stereotypes, which can often become negative judgments based on gender, sexuality, ethnicity, or extracurricular activities or interests. While it’s true that the stereotypes exist for a reason—people do associate with others with similar interests—the truth is that most people fit into different social settings and are far more complex than a single stereotype suggests. Scott’s habit of placing everything in categories, evidenced by his lists in his journal, carries over into his perceptions of fellow students, which causes him to misjudge the true nature of people like Wesley Cobble, Lee, and tragically, Mouth Kandeski. His misjudgments result in missed opportunities for friendship and hinder his growth as an individual.

Throughout the novel, Lubar examines the effect that stereotyping has on Scott and other students. His use of a first-person limited perspective makes Scott an unreliable narrator; Scott views other students through the lens of an awkward, naive, insecure student who wants desperately to fit in. His fear of the seniors in school informs his initial impression of Wesley as the most dangerous person in school and drives him to mislead Wesley when he tells him that perambulation landed in the office. Scott is afraid that Wesley will think him a “goody-goody well-behaved kid of the sort he enjoyed pummeling” (169). Later, when Wesley sits with him during lunch, Scott is terrified that his mention of The Princess Bride will incite Wesley to beat him up. However, Wesley never actually threatens Scott in any way. When Wesley asks for money, he always thanks his victims. When he knocks out another senior who takes a swing at him, he drags the unconscious boy out of the parking lot so that a car won’t hit him. Scott’s assumption that Wesley’s use of the term “borrow” is a pseudonym for stealing furthers his perception of Wesley as a dangerous criminal and makes it harder for Scott to enjoy his company, even when Wesley takes him for a ride on the snowmobile or when he shows up with a limo for Scott’s date. Scott stereotypes Wesley as a hoodlum, albeit one who has his own code of honor and rules. However, as Scott becomes more confident, he notices that Wesley is far more complex than he appears. He shows genuine respect for women, particularly Mandy, and not only reads the book that Scott loans him but asks for more. He also displays compassion for Mouth after the suicide attempt, telling Scott it was “bad stuff,” which is markedly different from the jokes that other students are circulating at school (204). By the end of the novel, Scott realizes that Wesley is borrowing the various vehicles that Scott assumed he was stealing, with the full permission of his father who owns the business that rents them out. Wesley does steal for fun, as when he siphons off gas or intimidates students into giving up their lunch money, but he is also compassionate and literate, far from the uneducated criminal that Scott mistakes him for. When Scott overcomes his biases, he gains a loyal friend and learns a lesson about looking beyond the stereotypes.

Lubar also examines the differences between appearances and reality in Scott’s perceptions of Lee. Lee’s Goth appearance and obsession with death make Scott think she is depressed and thinks about suicide. Because Lee is so enigmatic, Scott frequently misunderstands her intentions. He has so little experience with girls, a fact he acknowledges when he tells Mouth, “I have no idea what any girl on the planet will do” (194), that he doesn’t recognize that Lee is connecting with him because they have common interests, not because she is desperate for friends. He also doesn’t realize that he feels comfortable with her because she is honest, even though there are “twenty layers of meaning in her words” (220), and he doesn’t always understand her. She is loyal to him and willing to overlook his social gaffes that hurt her feelings. His remark that he can’t talk to girls, even as he is talking to her, reveals that he doesn’t view her as important, although his concern that she will think he has asked her on a date to the dance and his relief that she was not the student who attempted suicide suggests that, on a subconscious level, he does consider her as more than a friend. Scott’s perception of Lee changes after he jumps to the conclusion that the “weird kid” who attempted suicide is Lee (197). He realizes that he doesn’t know her at all; all his opinions of her were based on his preconceptions about the Goth subculture. As Lee tells Scott, she has “a zest for life [...]. And far too many unread books” (198).

Lee is extremely grounded and has enough confidence in her chosen identity to discard it on the night of the dance as a concession to Scott, but she realizes that they are “trying to prove something we don’t need to prove” (268) with their role reversal. Scott’s stereotyping of Lee can be dangerous, however, because kids who choose not to conform to the culture of their peers are at risk of being labeled an outcast. The negative connotations of these labels can be hurtful, and Lee’s feelings are hurt when Scott doesn’t take her invitation to the dance seriously, a mistake that is based on his belief that an alternative teen wouldn’t be interested in a popular school event.

Lubar most effectively illustrates the dangers of stereotyping through Scott’s misjudgment of Mouth. As a misfit, Mouth doesn’t fit into any of the social groups, but not for lack of trying. He is eternally optimistic, at least on the surface. His endlessly banal conversations are off-putting to the other students, and his eagerness to make friends make him a target for cruel jokes and bullying. Scott finds it hard to ignore Mouth, but he shields himself against him by choosing to believe in Mouth’s resilience. Lubar’s portrayal of Mouth as a happy-go-lucky motormouth is evident from the very start, when Mouth’s reaction to being bullied at the bus stop is to plead with his tormentors, “Hey, come on, guys [...]. Let’s be friends” (11-12). After the first day of school, when it’s evident by his appearance that Mouth has been bullied mercilessly, Scott notes that Mouth still “seemed happy” (22). At the dance, Scott notices that Mouth “got turned down by at least seven girls in the brief time I was watching. [...] Nothing seemed to bother him” (184). But the truth is much darker; Mouth’s incessant babbling results from anxiety, his desperate need for friends is born of loneliness, and his continual absences from school are due to depression. The inconvenient truth that Scott won’t see is that Mouth’s persona is a lie; by buying into the stereotype, Scott shields himself from Mouth’s pain and releases himself from the obligation to help. Through Mouth’s attempted suicide, Lubar examines how stereotyping leads to a perception of outliers as “weak,” encouraging aggressive students to bully them. Further, bullying starts with judgments, and those judgments send negative messages to victims of aggression. After years of internalizing those negative messages, Mouth tells Scott that he attempted suicide because “nobody likes me” (209). By the end of the story, Scott discovers that the danger of stereotyping is that it narrows the true worth of a person in others’ perceptions, but more importantly, in the individual’s perception of themself.