The amazing thing about life is that many things work together to complete the serenity involved in society. People work together to get things done. Mother Nature, although she sometimes works against the population, is many things working together. Animals work together. But out of all the things that work together to make the world what it is today, the most amazing pieces of life that work together are themes.
Themes are the cornerstone for human life. Our emotions, decisions, and actions are all determined by the outlying themes of human life. Themes are not always noticed in the real world, but when one is reading a work of literature such and James Frey’s My Friend Leonard themes can be spotted from a mile away. Themes that are included in this book are the ability to overcome, love, and hope. All of these themes intertwine to create a little background info and portray a message the author is trying to convey throughout the story.
The ability to overcome, in this case, is described as kicking something out or to overcome a situation. It could also be described as a comeback. Overcoming can range from something as severe as getting rid of cancer to something as minor as walking up a flight of stairs. To most, it’s fairly obvious that getting rid of cancer would call for more of a celebration than walking up a flight of stairs. While kicking out cancer does call for a celebration, the person who took the stairs instead of the elevator might say that the simple task of taking the stairs is a milestone in their journey to weight loss. That’s the brilliance of overcoming situations. Overcoming situations can apply to almost any part of one’s life. In the book, My Friend Leonard, overcoming situations is an extremely common theme.
First up is the main character, James, who is based on the author, James Frey. Frey struggled in his early adult years with many things including drugs and alcohol and all the interesting things one can do with the two of those. Frey was addicted to both of those and that got him into a bit of trouble. Before he knows it, drugs and alcohol got him into trouble with the law but before he went to jail, Frey went to a rehabilitation center to seek help. Eventually, Frey gets out of jail and is depressed because of love (which will be discussed soon). Unlike others who are addicted to drugs and alcohol, Frey decides he wants nothing to do with them and gives them up. Frey buys a cheap bottle of ridiculously dangerous wine from a liquor store and decides that if he ever wants to end his life, that would be his out. Luckily for Frey, the addiction slowly deteriorates and leaves him with a small sense of power. That sense of power came from overcoming the situation at hand.
Like Frey, Lily was addicted to drugs and alcohol. Lily and Frey met in the rehabilitation center before Frey went to jail. The two became close and soon start to date. But after the two get out, Frey is put in jail and Lily is cast back out into the world. Being alone after overcoming an addiction is never a good thing and unfortunately for Lily, she was alone. Parents, gone. Boyfriend, gone for now. Other family, almost gone. The only person Lily had to fall back on was her grandmother who had a fatal illness. Literally the day before Frey gets out of jail, Lily’s grandmother dies and sends Lily into a panic. She calls up Frey in jail to tell him the news while bawling her eyes out causing Frey to be scared. As stated, being alone after overcoming an addiction is never good and it is evident that Frey knew that. He was scared for Lily’s life and he had a right to be. After Frey gets out, he drives back to the place Lily is staying only to find that she has killed herself. Lily was not strong enough to overcome this situation and it ended up costing her the life Frey would have given anything for.
Love is a common theme in most situations. Love drives us as humans to do crazy things whether we like to admit it or not. The crazy actions taken because of love can either be good crazy or bad crazy. About 49% of the time, the actions are good crazy, 49% is bad crazy, and the last 2% is just plain crazy. In the book My Friend Leonard, those statistics are pretty spot on. Frey is subject to both types of actions mentioned earlier.
As mentioned in the previous theme, Frey’s lover killed herself because she couldn’t handle the situation on her own. Suicide is never a good thing no matter what is said about it; especially if the person is someone close like Lily to Frey. Frey would definitely agree with that. The suicide of Lily drove Frey into a depression that in turn almost caused him his life. If Lily hadn’t killed herself, Frey would have never gone and bought the wine that easily could have killed him. Heck, if Lily hadn’t killed herself, this book probably wouldn’t have been written! The actions Frey took after Lily killed herself would be filed under the bad crazy as the actions almost cost him his life. Luckily for Frey, death didn’t occur.
Once again, Frey is the victim of the love bug but fortunately for him, the actions would be considered between neutral or good crazy. This situation, albeit similar, is just a touch different from the last situation mentioned. Instead of the love being between Frey and a female, it’s between Frey and his friend Leonard. No Frey isn’t gay (even though that’s a good rhyme). Frey met Leonard while in rehab while Leonard was overcoming his addictions. The two became friends and Leonard soon asks Frey to be his son figure. Frey says yes and opens up a window of opportunity to Leonard. After Frey gets out of jail, the two get back in contact and Leonard is soon making frequent trips to come visit. Leonard watches over Frey like any good father would, monitoring his every move through his mob friends. Leonard keeps tabs on Frey to make sure that he hasn’t done anything he would regret just showing how much Leonard loves him. Not only does he do that, but Leonard gives Frey a superfluous amount of money, a job, and a chance to be normal again. Love makes people do crazy things.
What is hope? Hope is defined as a feeling of expectation and desire for something to happen. The lives of millions revolve around hope whether people know it or not. If one is driving to work, deep down inside they are hoping they don’t get into a crash. A student might be taking a test that she didn’t study for and she hopes that she will do well despite her lack of preparation. Around birthdays or Christmas, kids and sometimes adults hope they get exactly what they want. Hope is one of the biggest themes that most experience which is why it isn’t surprising to see hope in My Friend Leonard.
Leonard portrays hope while also showing love towards James. While reading this book, one of the most admirable characteristics of Leonard is selflessness and his ability to care for the ones he loves even when it might be hard to love them. Right from the beginning, Leonard cares for Frey. He puts Frey’s needs above his own which is him showing selflessness. Here’s where hope kicks in… Leonard has his own problems but cares for Frey and HOPES that he will get better. Why is this so important? Leonard has his own problems to deal with but because he cares for Frey he doesn’t share or express them. Later in the book, the audience finds out that Leonard is gay and battles with some depression and anxiety. Leonard probably doesn’t share this information because he doesn’t want to stress out Frey any more than he already is. He knows that if Frey gets anymore stressed, crap will hit the fan and Frey could get worse than he already is. Leonard hopes that Frey will get better and decides that sharing his problems will make things worse. Those actions just go to show the hope Leonard had throughout the novel.
Next up is Frey. This certain situation kind of goes along with Leonard’s situation in the previous paragraph. Frey really wants two things with his life at this point: to stay sober and to stay alive. With this, Frey and Leonard are both hoping for the same thing. They both are hoping for Frey to get better and to eventually “move on” with his life. Not only does this demonstrate the want to overcome but it also demonstrates hope. That just goes to show how hope and the want to overcome play off each other.
The crazy yet cool thing about themes is that they all play together to form a message or convey more in-depth information. All the main characters in the book My Friend Leonard play a role in some type of theme. Frey demonstrated the ability to overcome by kicking out his addictions, love by loving Lily, and hope by wanting to get better. Lily in a way demonstrated the ability to overcome or the lack there of and played a part in Frey’s love life. Then there was Leonard who played the fatherly figure for Frey demonstrating love and showed hope for the healing of Frey through the tough times. The connection between the three themes is fairly simple yet displays a more in-depth message. When addiction strikes, one hopes to overcome said addiction and in the occasion where the addict finds love, they may want to change to be a better person for the significant other. Another cool thing about themes is that when they are all put together, there is an underlying theme. In My Friend Leonard, hope + the ability to overcome + love = Motivation.
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