Character Change in Elsewhere

     Elsewhere, by Gabrielle Zevin, is about a fifteen year old girl hit and killed by a cab. Liz, the girl killed must understand her new life in Elsewhere, her after and before life. In Elsewhere, time travels backwards, so every day, Liz gets younger. When she first gets to Elsewhere, she hates everything about it. All she wants is to go home, but without realizing it, she will going to find almost everything she wanted on the Earth.

     When Liz gets off the boat bringing her to Elsewhere, she is surprised to see her grandmother and wonders whether it is all a dream. On the ship there, she didn't understand anything that was going on at all, and when she did realize that she was dead her heart split into two. Liz spent hours at the binoculars that let her watch her friends and family. I noticed that watching the people she loved every minute of every day hurt her more. When she left the binoculars to work her avocation as a dog interviewer, therapist and welcomer for new dogs in Elsewhere, she found happiness. I think that her job numbed the pain because she was focusing on other problems that weren't hers. It brought her attention away from what she could be doing if she was on Earth and living in the now, or then.

      Another thing that helped her was Owen. Owen arrested her for going to the Well, a forbidden place where you can make contact with people. After this incident, Owen did Liz a favor and they became fast friends. Owen was still getting over is wife from Earth, but he fell in love with Liz anyway. They both got younger, and they always stayed together. Though they might have looked different, I believe that their hearts stayed the same. This unexpected love, along with the love from her grandmother filled the holes in her heart and stitched the two pieces together. This book explained to me that anything can happen. Any love, and any happiness.