Referat At Risk By Alice Hoffmann - Characterisation and Interpretation

At Risk

By Alice Hoffmann

Characterisation:

Amanda:

She is a happy, eleven-year-old girl, who already has found her true vocation which is becoming a professional gymnast. She loves school, and earns top-marks, although she doesn't have to study as much as many other children at her age. She loves her family and even when she knows how bad things seem, she is not really afraid of death. The thing she is concerned most about is missing school during her last few weeks, and only when she couldn't really breathe anymore, she gave up the dream of the gymnast finals.

Ivan:

He is an astronomer and scientist, who always seem to have a possible solution for everything. That's the reason why he suffers most of all, he has always protected his family in every way, but when they found out Amanda has AIDS not even he could safe her. He is a strong but peaceful man, and even in the final period of Amanda's fight he tries to find someone he can blame for this situation.

Polly:

Polly is a professional photograph and she's very successful. It seems she loves her work more than everything, but from when she found out Amanda's sick she didn't work anymore. She fights against the prejudices and fears of others, but soon she realizes this won't lead to anything but anger. She's desperate, and everything seems so strange to her, as if it was only a nightmare.

Charlie:

Although he's just eight, he is very well informed about anything, including AIDS. Like young brothers are, he teases Amanda and makes his parents worry when he brings animals of every kind at home. He is very happy, but too intelligent to ignore Amanda's problem. He feels neglected, but soon he handles with it and understands, that now Amanda is the centre point in their family. He shows greatness when he accepts this, and until his sister dies he placed his own desires in the background, supporting his family as much as possible.

Plot:

Picture an ordinary American family, living right next to Boston in a small city. They are four, Polly the mother, Ivan the father, Amanda the eleven-year old daughter, who has all signs of becoming a teenager, and Charlie, eight years old, who seems only to be interested in dinosaurs, amphibien, and nature.
Amanda is a very succesfull girl, with certain goals she wants to reach. She is a gymnast, and probably the best in her town, so she competes at any tournament with success. She visits a kind of summer-school, because she has the ambitions to be a very good student too.

One day, after another successful competition, she breaks down and gets high fever. Polly tells her it would be better the next morning, but not this time.

When the fever holds on, she takes her daughter to the local doctor and friend, Ed Reardon, who takes blood and stool samples for the laboratory. A few days later, he has the terrible news for Ivan first: Amanda has AIDS, she was infected when she had a surgery five years ago, and a transfusion with contaminated blood had been given to her.

From now, as expected, things start getting difficult. Amanda is too young for being able to accept this drastical change of her life, she doesn't even know much about AIDS. Her first question is how long she must stay away from school. Her brother Charlie is much better informed about AIDS, he knows more than his parents and his personality towards Amanda changes from the typical aggressive between children to a very sensitive way.
Another problem appears, soon Amanda's disease gets public and so many parents are concerned of their own child, sitting right next to an HIV positive child in school. Even Polly's partner in work, Betsy Stafford, whose son Sevrin is Charlie's best friend since they were three, avoids contact with the whole family. She even forces Sevrin to change to a private school. All these things are very difficult for Amanda's parents and also Charlie, who feels neglected and no longer loved. The fact that Amanda seems not to care much about the situation, because she is too young, makes it even worse for Polly, who feels alone although her husband is as concerned as she is. Ivan starts calling a help-hotline, found by a group of gays in Boston. But he does that without his family's knowledge, but that's the way he feels as best as he can. To Polly, he seems more and more to be a stranger, he doesn't trust the usual therapies and searches for natural alternatives.

Amanda starts going to school, and her best friend, the coach's daughter Jessie supports her in every way, but Amanda starts thinking about her disease and death. Amanda gets weaker and weaker, so the coach has to do a difficult decision. Because of the risk of the girl getting injured because of her weakness, he tells her sadly that the following competition would be her last one. Amanda cries and is desperate, because ever since gymnastics was everything for her. She makes her routine, the best she ever had. And from then, she knows she wouldn't ever be back on stage, just watching her mates competing. She feels weak and tired. So Dr. Reardon examines her, finding out she has a serious lung disease, which forces her to stay in hospital.

At the same time, Ivan's friend Brian from the hotline gets sick and is about to die. So he's going to see him in Boston, in an unbearable status. He is loosing his only friend, the only person he could talk to in this situation.

Amanda has a last wish, which is to get rid of her braces she has worn now over three years. It is hard for Polly and Ivan to fulfil her wish, because their dentist refuses to treat AIDS patients. This makes Ivan developing cruel intentions, he wants to take a shotgun and visit the doctor. But he finds an alternative, he calls Brian who immediately finds a solution, a different doctor who really helps Amanda. After the procedure she looks in a mirror, unable to do anything else than smiling. So she knows she would have been beautiful.

Amanda's status gets critical, her lungs are filled with fluid, and she suffers a high-grade pneumocystis. Dr. Reardon insists in taking her to the hospital again, but Amanda and her parents refuse. It will be her last few days, no matter if she is at home or in the hospital. Amanda makes her testament, and the few things she loves go to her parents, Charlie, her grand-parents and her best friend Jessie.

When she has gone, Charlie takes her gym bag with his mother's camera and rides to the secret pond, where he and Sevrin sometimes went to see turtles.

He thinks about not forgetting her, he'll always say if he's asked that he has one sister, Amanda. He will even tell his kids everything about her, so she will live forever in all their hearts.

Interpretation:

The story of a young girl who has AIDS is tragic, but the way this novel is written makes the reader feel with the girl, with her family. The author chose a story, which surely happened many times in real-life. It shows the intolerance and the fears, which even the young class-mates of Amanda have. The parents are helpless; they just have to wait for her daughter's death to come and although they try to make it as easy as possible for her, that seems not to be enough.

Reading this story is not fun, and the heaviest thing is, that it seems so much real.

Personal Comment :

Although I've seen many tragic films or books, and although I think I'm tough and immune against things worse as this story, reading this novel made me feel almost depressive. It is one thing to be sentenced to death, but another thing is if the person is only eleven years old, successful and hopefully to reach many further goals. The deep sadness her family suffers, the problems they have with the community seem to be expected, but not as tragic as this.

For me, this is the best novel according to this topic I read, although sometimes during reading I almost refused continuing, not because it was boring but too touching. I recommend this novel to everyone, who is only a bit interested and concerned in AIDS.