The Unseen Forces
In the chapter Weeksboro, Maine, Alex is trying to get her friend Steph a boyfriend. Steph is representing the science and logical side of life, the concrete things which can be measured, the tangible. She doesn’t want to have a boyfriend, she doesn’t believe in love, an unseen force. On the other hand, Alex represents the intangible, love, imagination, and hope etc. The theme in this chapter is unseen forces, what Alex represents, but by the end, they both believe in. The two girls go to the spot where the whirligig is, and Alex starts guiding Steph through a guided visual journey, wishing to the Whirligig that Steph gets a boyfriend. As Alex is wishing, Steph starts to go along with it, she’s still sceptical about it, but she really listens to what Alex is saying. Alex tries to convince Steph that the whirligig is powerful and can help her. “Thoughts are powerful. They’re the seeds of events. By thinking something, we can help make it happen.” Page 25. This quote is important, because it describes the idea that something intangible (imagination, creativity, the idea), has to be there first in order to create something tangible (science, math, inventions). This relates to the question, “Why do we only focus on the tangible or the material in our culture?” We need both tangible and intangible objects in our lives, because that’s how inventions are created. Every great invention came from an idea. After Alex is done her visual guide, Steph finds love, the brother of the boy who was spying on them. Proving that unseen forces can overpower the tangible. “But just in case unseen forces do exist, I pay my respects to them by keeping the whirligig painted and repaired.” Page 32 . This quote confirms that Steph believes in the unseen force that the whirligig held. It changed Steph’s life and helped her find her “heart’s joy” and now she believes in its higher power. In conclusion, the two- intangible and tangible need to work together for humans and ideas to move forward.