rules of the road

When tragedies strike, how well do you handle them? In the book Rules of The Road by Joan Bauer, Jenna’s life is affected by her dads lack of parenting and guidance due to his drinking and the other tragedies in her life. Such tragedies are that her dad is a habitual drinker and one of her friends dies in a drunken driving accident. Then Jenna’s grandma has Alzheimer’s disease. All of these tragedies affect Jenna's life.

What would you do if you had a dad that hardly ever paid any attention to you? Two of the possible resolutions are that she could move out or she could stay and keep away from her dad plus she could keep a roof over her head instead of renting an apartment. If she did stay the issue is that her dad drinks a lot and cannot be trusted to be left alone because he would be a wreck and probably hurt or harm Jenna. That is why Jenna has decided to leave and is on a road trip with her boss.

Jenna and her boss meet up with Jenna's friend during the trip. Jenna’s good friend was killed by a drunk driver during that trip. One of the resolutions to her losing her friend is she could move on and forget about him. If this were to happen to me I would not be able to bear it because that would be one of my best friends dying in front of me. The person that killed him is just some stranger that was an idiot for drinking and driving in the first place and now you will never get it back.

In addition to all of Jenna's problems her grandma has Alzheimer’s disease and that is not good because her grandma is the only one that cares for her. I can relate to this because I lost my grandma due to cancer and I loved her very much.

So as you can see there are three static characters in the novel Rules of The Road. One is her dad and that has a drinking habit. The other is one of her good friends has died in a tragic accident. The last is that her grandma has Alzheimer’s disease. All of these events made Jenna a stronger.