Guru Granth Sahib

There is a line from the holy book, Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji which means that ‘it’s not what it looks like’. For instance, if you see a chair, you only ‘think’ that it is a chair but if you notice, it’s a piece of wood formed as a chair. Moreover, if we cut the chair we get small wood particles, but if you closely see it under a microscope, you will see it is made up of particles called atoms. This example truly implies the book, ’Before I fall’ by Lauren Oliver as well. Samantha Kingston, the main character in the story has it all; looks, popularity, friends, until everything is gone. February 12thshould be just another day in her dazzled life. However, it turns out to be her last. Her life is shattered in seconds, but to her astonishment she wakes up again the next morning to the same day, February 12th.Living the last day of her life seven times, she untangles the mystery surrounding her death and notices the true value of everything she is at risk of losing.

As teenagers, we are so much in our own bubble that we forget what we have to do with life –We have to live it. We think our families are our enemies and love the popular and fake people surrounding us.

At first, Samantha is shallow, cruel, often judgmental like any other popular teenager. But after her death ,  the people she knew for years , in those seven days were the people she  knew least about .It almost felt like she was meeting two different people . She grows and changes in ways large and small, until she realizes why she has been given a chance to repeat this day over and over.

‘All that glitters is not gold’, Samantha comes to know the true meaning of this phrase in context of fitting in. In order to fit in a particular friend circle ,we do certain things we actually don’t intend to do. We pretend to like or dislike somebody just because our whole friend circle does so.

She realizes that everyone has a story. The funny thing is in these seven days she learnt the things one could learn in a lifetime, but what’s the use of it now? After she is dead? As Samantha would have said, “It’s never too late.” What if she was dead? She lived those seven days just as one could live their lives. Furthermore, she saved a life, an innocent one along with finding a way out of the time loop.

Lauren Oliver, the author of the book, has written numerous Young Adult Novels. Her father himself was a non-fiction writer. Before I fall, was her first novel which was a bestseller. Samantha is similar to the author in plentiful ways. Just as Samantha, Lauren has an incredibly close group of four female friends whom she has known since high school. She even has their names tattooed on her back.

As a child, when Lauren had trouble falling asleep, she would try to envision in as much detail as possible, in search of a perfect day. She would walk herself through all the textures, sounds and smells of the day. But in real life there is little time for reflection and we do not always or ever have the opportunity to weigh the consequences or alternatives of our actions. But the idea of giving someone that opportunity—a character, a girl like the girl the author was in high school, dreaming of perfection –stuck with her.

The idea reflected in the book, of otherness of people had been experienced by Lauren in real life. In 2008, Lauren ran into a boy, Jon, she had grown up with. She had “known” him her whole life. She knew stories about him and she thought it was the same thing. And even though she barely spoke throughout the twelve years in school together. She was fairly confident she had a solid understanding about who he was. But when she ran into him several years later, she was shocked to discover that Jon was almost the exact opposite of the boy she had always thought he was.

The truth is, often we let people become a projection of our own desires, fears or wishes. We hate them or love them in relation to the stories we invent about them. We stop seeing them for who they are. We see them instead of how we believe them to be.

This whole book was written to answer one important question, ‘What really matters?’ It’s not making fun of people or just thinking about yourself, or fitting in. Life is made up of perfect little things, it’s made of your greatest hits and tallest misses, and that is what truly matters.

By Ananya Singh