Leaving Paradise

           The novel that I have chosen to talk about is Leaving Paradise by Simon Elkeles. This novel is about a girl named Maggie Armstrong and a guy named Caleb Becker. Maggie Armstrong got hit by a car one night that physically changed her, and most of all everyone thought Caleb was the one who hit her. 'What happens when the person who damaged you for life, becomes the person you trust the most?'



            After reading this novel, I have learnt about two moral values, one of them is that 'You don't need to be perfect to be loved by someone'. This moral value is proved by Caleb, himself because no matter what kind of physical condition Maggie is in, he still loves her unconditionally and accepts her for who she is. He doesn't care if Maggie won't be able to walk normally for the rest of her life and he also doesn't care if Maggie won't be the 'perfect' girl because to him, she's already perfect and nothing can change that. We must not judge someone by their physical appearances as nothing matters if you have a pretty face but an ugly heart.



             The next moral value that I have learnt is that  'To always tell the truth'. In the novel, Leah Baker, Caleb's sister, did not tell the actual truth about what had happened on the night of the accident, the truth about who hit Maggie. Because Leah had failed to tell the truth, her brother, Caleb was accused and had to spend a year in juvenile detention. So, we always have to tell the truth no matter how ugly it is because if we hide the truth, someone else will have to pay the price for the things that we are supposed to be punished for.




-Adri Irman