Falling Apart (novel)
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Falling Apart is a novel by Jacqueline Wilson aimed at teenage readers. It was published in 1989, and is now out of print. However, it can still be purchased on the internet; there are usually second-hand copies available.
The story concerns the relationship between Tina, a 15-year-old girl, and 17-year-old Simon. It is told in the present tense, and the third person. The plot runs along two timelines: the story begins in the present, but a great deal of the novel is retrospective, telling the tale of Tina and Simon's relationship in flashback form.
| Author | Jacqueline Wilson |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Released | 30th October, 1989 |
| Pages | 192 |
| ISBN | 978-0192716293 |
Contents |
[edit] Main Characters
- Tina Brown is a 15-year-old girl from a working-class background, and the protagonist of Falling Apart. She is intelligent, but uninspired by education; she has fallen behind in her schoolwork. She is troubled by the death of her twin brother years beforehand, often experiencing nightmares, and has become withdrawn, with no close friends. Her mother's depression and lack of attention towards her has exacerbated her unhappiness.
- Simon Trafford is the first boy Tina has ever loved. He attends the local public school and is studying for five 'A'-levels. He has a stable family background and good prospects. Tina is his first real girlfriend.
- Adam is Simon's classmate; they have been best friends from a very early age. Adam is a bit of a troublemaker, though a very charming one, and disregards any emotions Tina feels, perhaps because he looks down upon her for attending the comprehensive school; perhaps because he is jealous of the attention and time she receives from his best friend.
- Tim is Tina's deceased twin brother. When he was alive, they were very happy, popular, children, but his death in an accident when the twins were seven has cast a dark shadow over the family.
- Jan is Tina's older sister. In contrast to Tina, she is very focused on schoolwork; she has academic ambitions that may be curtailed by her family's financial situation. She is opinionated and has some feminist ideals. She cares deeply for Tina and tries to encourage her to improve her schoolwork and to develop ambitions; she also tries to protect her from what she perceives as threatening forces.
- Louise is Tina's oldest sister. She is married to Greg and has a baby, Carly. She became pregnant accidentally, which led to the marriage, and although she loves Carly a great deal, her relationship with Greg is sometimes strained, and Louise feels she has missed out on opportunities by having a family when she is so young.
- Tina's mother relies on antidepressants and tranquilisers; she has never got over the death of her son, Tim, and appears to ignore Tina; perhaps even to resent her.
- Tina's father tries to focus on the positives in their lives, and the surviving children in the family, but is unable to lift his wife's spirits.
[edit] Plot Summary
[edit] The present time
At the beginning of the novel, Tina is preparing to kill herself. The trigger for her suicide attempt is the break up of her relationship with Simon, although there are other significant contributions to her unhappiness: her mother has been in a decline since the death of Tina's twin brother, Tim, and the family has crumbled as a result. Tina doesn't have any close friends at school, feeling unable to connect with the girls there.
Tina watches television, and tries to eat a take away dinner, but all the while she is contemplating the nature of death, and the details of how she will take her own life. She has stolen medication, in the form of pills, from her chronically depressed mother. After deliberating over suicide notes, she takes an overdose of the pills and begins to hallucinate, believing that the lurid floral pattern on her bedclothes is spreading over her and strangling her.
At this point, a new chapter starts and the backstory is told by means of flashback.
[edit] The events of the recent past
Tina and her sister Jan encounter two boys from the local fee-paying boys' boarding school, St. Christopher's, on their way to school one day. The boys wave at Tina, but Jan warns her to take no notice of them, believing that the boys from St. Christopher's only see girls from their comprehensive school as 'handkerchiefs' (i.e. to be taken advantage of), and not as people of value in themselves.
Tina meets the boys, Adam and Simon, again, by chance, and begins to talk to Simon. They bond over a conversation about pets and family, which is inspired by a delivery of new puppies to the local pet shop. Tina reveals that she doesn't get on well with her mother. Simon seems to be from a different world; he is upper-middle class, academic, and a sixth-former with prospects of attending Cambridge University. Despite the differences in background, the two get along well and arrange to meet again.
Simon and Tina forge a relationship; they sleep together, albeit outside in an enclosed section of the local cemetery, which becomes their special place. Tina tells Simon that she loves him, which takes him by surprise. She also confides in him the problems that she rarely discusses with anyone: that her twin brother died in an accident several years earlier, and her mother has never recovered, almost failing to recognise Tina as a person at all. Simon is genuinely shocked and concerned at her troubles; they are far removed from his sheltered life, good prospects, and happy family. Tina is bright, but she lacks ambition, and finds herself unable to focus on schoolwork in the way in which teachers demand; she has fallen behind. Simon's rather old-fashioned use of language, and the way in which his speech is littered with academic and literary references, alienates Tina and makes her self-conscious.
We are told that although Tina has had plenty of interest from boys in recent years, she hasn't seen the point of relationships until meeting Simon; he's the only one she has felt affection for, and wanted to become involved with.
One night, Tina offers to babysit for her oldest sister, 18-year-old Louise, so that Simon and she can have a place to themselves for the evening; they have always had to meet outside, because Tina can't face the prospect of taking Simon to her family home; she keeps him a secret from them for as long as possible. Simon is not allowed to take visitors into his school. Simon has expressed his surprise at Tina's sister being married and having a child at her young age, as though it wouldn't happen in his social circles. Tina is worried that he will find Louise's decor tacky and tasteless.
After a few weeks, the Christmas holidays are approaching. Simon fails to invite her to an end-of-term dance. Tina only learns of this event through Adam, who seems to want to cause trouble between them. Simon tells Tina that he will take one of Adam's female friends, Caroline, but that she isn't as pretty or charming or natural as Tina, and she is not under any threat of being replaced.
Simon, as a boarder, has to travel elsewhere in the country to his home. Tina is devastated that he is leaving, and asks him to contact her every day. He gives her an expensive toy dog as a Christmas present, and she buys him a sweater, and cross-stitches its label with a loving message, which takes her a long time. He responds at first but then his contact tails off completely, despite Tina's letters. She finds his family's telephone number through directory enquiries and calls, discovering that Simon has been away with a group of friends.
Simon continues to ignore her when he returns to Tina's town. After she pursues him, he does meet with her, but is ungracious and lacking the gentle manner he had before. He then tells her that he has met someone else and that their relationship is over. The other girl is Caroline, the girl at the dance. Simon tells Tina that Caroline is more on his wavelength, with the same interests, and also with prospects of attending Cambridge, and that Tina in comparison was good fun, but not nearly as significant. Tina is horrified. Simon is unable to cope with the intensity of her feeling, and the realisation of the huge impact he has made upon an already troubled girl; he cries, and leaves.
Tina is unable to accept that the relationship is over, and pursues Simon further. It transpires that Simon only became involved with Tina when Adam made a bet that he would be able to seduce her, which seems to prove Jan's theory regarding their attitudes to girls in a different social class. However, Simon then explains that he lost the bet, because he did develop genuine feelings for Tina and continued to see her. He admits that he was surprised by her depth of character, as though he had thought that local girls had no sensitivity or personality.
Tina is inconsolable; Jan and Louise's extensive efforts to comfort her fail. Tina finds herself unable to stay in school, and unable to function, and in desperation begins to hoard her mother's antidepressants in preperation for her suicide bid.
[edit] Returning to the present
When we arrive back in the present time, Tina is in hospital. She is found in time and is making a slow recovery. Jan is furious that Simon's carelessness led to her being in this state, and has showed him the suicide note addressed to him, but he is too distraught to visit her. Adam comes along instead, and despite his usual show of light-heartedness, it is clear that he realises the seriousness of the situation.
Tina's mother is initially very angry with her, considering her to be selfish, but then appears to soften and feel a sympathy. Tina agrees to counselling. The ending of the novel is rather ambivalent; Tina appears to realise that she is a whole person, despite losing Tim and Simon, and she finds enough emotional energy to joke with her sisters, but she is still far from being completely healed, or completely over Simon.
[edit] Parallels between Tina and Tess
Simon has a habit of making literary allusions, and the one that Tina seizes upon is his comparison of herself with Tess of the d'Urbervilles. He is reminded of Tess when Tina wears a white dress and looks like an archetypal pure woman. He also draws attention to red shoes that Tina wears, explaining that there are little touches of red throughout Thomas Hardy's novel - "it's all very symbolic", he says.
Tina is keen to hear what becomes of the woman she resembles, and Simon laughingly recounts Tess's fate. Although Simon is merely playing with cultural references, as is no doubt encouraged within his social circle, Tina does indeed mirror Tess: Simon treats Tina fairly carelessly, without considering how his actions will affect her, in the same way that the men in Tess's life fail to see Tess as a whole person in her own right, and largely disregard the consequences of the way they treat her until it is 'too late'.
In addition, Tina, like Tess, suffers more greatly because she is working-class - she is not, seemingly, expected to have as complex or intelligent a character as middle-class girls, and she is marginalised and exploited.
