A Solitary Blue By Cynthia Voigt

Book title : A Solitary Blue
Author : Cynthia Voigt
Publisher : Simon pulse Date published     : July, 2003
Genre (write one): Drama fiction
Number of pages: 250
Book Code         : CYN/PBI/NV/0819
 The stand out characters of this novel are: the first is Jefferson Greene or Jeff, the novel's protagonist. He is like the solitary blue heron. He was deserted at age 7 by his immature and manipulative mother, and left alone by his emotionally distant father whom he knows only as "the Professor". Little Jeffie knows only what people expect of him and goes out of his way to make sure the home runs smoothly and his father, the professor, isn't interrupted or inconvenienced. The second is Jeff's mother, Melody. She leaves him at the novel's beginning. She actually doesn't love him, she only wants him when it suits her purposes or she needs money. The last is the professor, Jeff’s father. He seems brutally cold, consumed by his work and didn’t appreciate his son much.
The most interesting part of this novel is when finally Jeff came to the realization that Melody, her mother,  didn't care about him at all, and that she was spewing lies at Jeff merely to take advantage of him. Later, as Jeff matures, he takes chances to tell his mother he does not like her lying, and becomes more open with his father. Voigt presents this situation with great sensitivity. Jeff rejects his mother because she repeatedly betrays his trust, and he does so only after a good deal of introspection. It was at this point in the story when Jeff and his father began to bond and understand each other better, because they had both been scarred by Melody and her erroneous love. This part shows that it is true that sometimes we hurt those we love the most or who love us the most. Jeff has to reject one parent to save the other.
There is a part of story that is confusing me. It was why Jeff calls his father “The professor” since he was a child? In the story, his father seems to not mind to be called like that. He didn’t even try to get along to his only child. How could it be while he was his first son and his only child? The book said that he just didn’t know how to show his affection to him. It still no make sense to me, didn’t he have a sense of fatherhood? I don’t know why the author seems to manipulate the reader to comprehended the characters greatly by making the reader see things through Jeff's life.
The part that I dislike the most from the story is when on Jeff’s second summer visitted her mother.  Melody doesn't spend much time with Jeff. She has a boyfriend named Max, whom she spends all her time with instead, and she is never home for more than one day. Jeff's visit with his mother is very different from his previous one, and by the end of it, Jeff is forced to see that Melody doesn't really care about him at all.  I think this part shows the negative picture of a mother that reveals a harsh emotional truth.
When I was in senior high school, my friend and I often shared each other about our family story. There was only one of us who rarely talked about herself or her family. She was very introvert. One day I saw her crying lonely. I came to her and asked her why she was crying. At that time, she told me all about her problem that actually her parent always argued each other and would divorce. She was so sad and it was the reason why she was so introvert and never shared her story to us.  Her story is just same as Jeff’s story. Jeff became very isolated and solitary because of his family problem. It was what also happened to my friend.
If I had an opportunity to change the story I would make the climax more complicated which will give the more reasonable story for Melody for being so cruel and selfish to her husband and even to her own son. I will show the readers that a mother will not do such a thing like that just for money as the reason.
The largest issue in A Solitary Blue is the complex problems of family relationships. Cynthia Voigt looks at the dysfunctional Greene family: a timid and remote father, a self-centered and restless mother, and a confused and lonely son.  It emphasizes on mental illness of a child that is caused by the selfishness of his parent. Melody's early abandonment of her child and her later betrayal of his trust and his cold father show that some people, even parents, are never able to love maturely.
The lesson that I got from the story is we should focus on being a decent person first and an activist second, because if you can't love the people in your daily life, you can't be fully committed to the people you're trying to help in far-flung corners of the world. It’s just like Jeff’s mother who abandoned his own son to do the good thing for the rest of the worlds. Being honest about other people's characters, being honest about one's own motivations, good or bad, and being perceptive enough to see these are also another lesson that I got. It has much to do with Jeff's growing process within the novel, a novel in which a child must reject one parent to save the other, and to wrest a whole person from the self-effacing child he had been.