After January Essay, Research Paper

There are critical periods or turning points in everyone s life. Discuss the way Alex s Coloundra vacation affects his life. This is the topic question asked for this essay. This topic is a key theme of the novel After January because it is a time of change or a turning point in Alex s life and highlights the decisions we all have to make.

Before the book has begun Alex has received his TER and has now begun the long wait for his acceptance into the course he wants to study. The TER has the potential to change Alex s life dramatically. If he isn t accepted into the course he wants, he will have to make another difficult choice and decide what else to do. This decision has the capability to dramatically change his life, for better or worse. It s as though the future is held here. Held at bay, held at arm s length. This quote seems to best express how these few weeks can be a major turning point in Alex s life.

Alex decides to take a vacation with his mother to their beloved beach house in Caloundra. Alex waits out his days in Caloundra for his university acceptance. He then meets Fortuna through a car failure and they begin a friendship. This friendship grows into a love of Fortuna and of her family. This changes Alex s whole mindset, he s not just waiting out the summer for his acceptance, and he doesn t want to leave Caloundra because he feels that things are going right for once. For the first time a girl has really liked him back and this changes Alex a great deal, his confidence is boosted and he is truly happy. Fortuna s impact on Alex signifies a major turning point in Alex s life.

Alex and Fortuna do many things together throughout the summer, they go to markets together and Alex has Fortuna s family over and they have dinner with Alex and his mother. I think this is around the time Alex realizes that the he really does love Fortuna and the thing he wants most is to be with her. By developing a love for her, Alex s character matures and he learns to focus on the more important things in life.

Everybody has to make major decisions that will affect the rest of their lives. Alex makes many decisions later in the book that could change his life forever, he decides to stay in Coloundra after his mother leaves, to be with Fortuna. Alex does get into the course he wanted (Arts/Law). He also makes the decision to go back to Brisbane and go to university. At the end of the book they also decide not to sleep with each other and just sleep together. Dealing with these issues and making big decisions marks a point of change on his life.

Alex s vacation to Coloundra has been a very major turning point in his life; he met his first girlfriend, fell in love and got his acceptance into university. This vacation really showed him his path in life. The changes we saw in Alex over the duration of the vacation were, he became much more secure, confident and he was making decisions for himself for the first time.. I believe that Alex meeting Fortuna was the best thing that had ever happened to him and she improved the quality of his life. In conclusion I would like to say again that everyone has important decisions to make in their lives and these decisions become turning points in everyone s lives