The High School War

The 'messages' in this book is very blatant and very clear.

1. Young men are violent, thinking with their fists and paying no attention at all to would their violence could result in.

2. The young women, on the other hand, are kept in the dark as much as possible and try to be peacemakers whenever they can.

3. The concept of 'if you're not with us, you're against us' is very strong.

4. Hate increases over time.

What happens is this. Rivalry between Palisades High School and Sweet Valley High School goes far beyond a basic rivalry. It moves into hate and violence as both schools wage a war against each other starting with simple things like throwing eggs at houses to slashing tires to a full-on battle with no quarter given.

Elizabeth works on a team to try to deescalate the level of hatred, working with girls from the other school but it's the power of reason against the power of hate by the boys.

It also puts males into stereotypical violent beings and girls into stereotypical almost powerless beings trying to make peace. Yes, it's definintely over the top but sometimes you need to do that to get the message across.

Then there's the Romeo and Juliet theme going with Jessica cheating on her boyfriend (indicating her totally selfish self-interest approach to life) and cheating on him with a guy from the other school with her agonizing for a few seconds about betraying her boyfriend and her school but then after a few moments getting back to kissing her new love interest.

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