Theme of "An Abundance of Katherines"

After finishing my second consecutive John Green book, An Abundance of Katherines, I am enthusiastic to say that Green's writing does not disappoint. From my last post, a lot of major events happen. For one, Hassan gets cheated on by his trendy girlfriend by someone whom I am not going to name to prevent a spoiler. End the end however, Colin finally comes to the conclusion that the future is going to happen no matter what efforts you go through to stop it. He realizes that the past can build up to events in the future, he realizes that these events can have nothing to do with events in the future, he realizes that he needs to let his life go and start reinventing a new self.

In our society today, we are often so focused on our futures that we don't concentrate on the present. Teenagers, like Colin, Lindsey, and Hassan, are so focused on their futures at college, in love, and on their career that they don't self reflect enough to reinvent themselves into people can easily achieve these goals while savoring the present.

One of my favorite quotes from the last chapter of this book is: "And when Hassan turned over his full house, Colin all of the sudden realized: you can make a Theorem that explains why you won or lost past poker hands, but you can never make on to predict future poker hands," (Green 389).

This is one of my favorite quotes because this is the big moment when Colin realizes that he will never be able to predict how long his relationships are going to last.

We can apply this to our lives, too. Instead of spending our time being infatuated with the future, focus on the present and the small things that you can do to get you to this goal.

http://johngreenbooks.com/abundance-of-katherines/

This link is a review of An Abundance of Katherines done by several people. This way, you can see what other people also think about the book.

Character Development throughout "An Abundance of Katherines"

Currently in An Abundance of Katherines, Colin and his best friend, Hassan, went on a hog hunt for the hated Feral Hog. While running through the woods, the boys get tired and decide to relax for a while. Unexpectedly, they are charged by a massive beast: the Feral Hog. Colin shoots at the monster and scares it away without harming it. During the process of shooting at the hog, Collin took down a wasps nest. They run away from the angry insects as quickly as possible but still manage to get stung several times. Colin leads them out of the woods and back to the store, where Hassan finds his girlfriend cheating on him. Devastated, Hassan runs toward the cheating scandal at the end of the chapter.

At the beginning of the book, I wasn't too impressed with the main character, Colin. I thought he was overly-obsessive and egocentric. As Colin meets more characters throughout the book, he starts to become more open minded. Colin was very socially awkward and attention seeking. But now he is turning into a less awkward person, with the help of Lindsey and Hassan. Although he still continues to work on his love formula, he learns to learn more about himself and love. I hope to see him change even more as I continue reading.

My favorite line from my chapter was "By slowly, things returned to status quo: Lindsey had a boyfriend, and Colin had a broken heart and a Theorem to finish," (Green 288). This is my favorite quote because it is so relatable; we all have those times when things happen but eventually turn back to normal.

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/an-abundance-of-katherines

The link shows quotes from An Abundance of Katherines that represent some key themes in the book.

How Society Affected Collin in "An Abundance of Katherines"

Society: where people come together to form a community. Now-a-days, society is more of a place where one's opinions and views are altered to "fit in" and be "normal. We have all witnessed this; the most common, someone being called weird for believing something different. The worst part is that none of us realize that this is happening. Society plays a huge role in "An Abundance of Katherines". 

Collin, the main character, is so obsessed with love, he can hardly do anything else besides try to create a theorem of why none of his relationships have worked out. Collin, being the ex-child prodigy that he is, tries to write and rewrite a literal equation and formula to describe the heartaches and misfortunes in his love life. In our world today, love is emphasized as the most important aspect in someone's life. The older you get, the more serious your partner and you should become in a relationship. Collin is so infatuated by this that he is oblivious to half of the world around him. He doesn't make friends easily and doesn't know how to understand sarcasm. If Collin were to stop being so preoccupied by his theory, he could become a much more likable person and would probably find it easier to get a girlfriend if he possessed these traits. 

http://temple-news.com/living/coupling-becomes-obsession-in-society/

The column above is another viewpoint on our society's obsession with love and marriage.