Many people have different meanings of the word "fair". The book The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp, is about how high-school-er Stutter tries to open up one of his classmates, Aimee, to the "real world". I believe that the characters in this book are treated unfairly in many ways and put in many unfair situations.
Many kids parents might say "I don't care" but the main character's parents really don't care. They don't care about them. The first example of this is when one of the main characters, Stutter, blacks in the middle of town after a night of drinking and driving. "And that's the last thing I remember before waking up under a dead tree..." (Page 69, Chapter 15). His parents don't call him or worry about him at all. He never said he was staying with a friend so they have no idea where he is and they clearly don't care. Another example of parents not caring is when Stutter goes to Aimee's house for the first time. "As for the inside of the house, it's an absolute sty-clothes piled on the backs of the faded sofa and recliner, fast-food sacks gaping open in the coffee table..." (Page 108, Chapter 25), This shows her parents don't care about how they live or their health. Aimee also does her mom's job on her own most of the time and get barley any allowance out of it. Stutter and Aimee's families need to care for their children and make sure they have the support they need. These kid didn't do anything to cause being put in this situation, so why should have have to support themselves?
A lot of people also do things with out asking other's permission, which is exactly what Stutter does to Aimee. One example of this is when Stutter decides he want to help Aimee become less anti-social and be able to stand up for herself. "See, by letting her help me, I'll be helping her. She gets confidence and I get the satisfaction of bringing confidence to someone who needs it..." (Page 104, Chapter 24). Even though Aimee does open up that could also be worse for her. Before Stutter "helped" her she had a certain way of thinking that could help her have more structure. Stutter has no structure and a girl like Aimee needs a lot of structure in her situation. It was very unfair that jsut because she wasn't like Stutter means he has to "help" her.
Stutter and Aimee's parents don't care about them but Stutter also doesn't care about Aimee. Even though he thinks he's helping her and all he really ends up hurting her worse than he could have ever imagined. After they start hanging out Stutter and Aimee start to date. After they graduate Aimee has plans to move to St. Luis and want Stutter to come with, but after just having a visit with his estranged father he hesitates. He knows that he is going to end up like his drunk, unemployed, and horrible dad and doesn't want to bring Aimee down with him." (Page 284, Chapter 64). Stutter is completely wrong. He was the one who made her motivated enough to move and now he's going to bail. This is unfair. You can't help someone in a time of need and bail on them when they most need you.
Reading and writing about this book has made me think that if yo don't want to end up exactly where you started, you need to treat others fairly and make sure you are treated fairly to. What you do is what you'll get and that's exactly what happened to Stutter. It also makes me think about how there are everyday things that aren't fair, but sometimes you just have to try your best even if it doesn't work out.
