Themes and messages

1a) The main theme of the novel in my opinion is teen pregnancy and the time after. It is shown through both Sam’s girlfriend Alicia and Sam’s mother, both of them had a child as sixteen years old girls, and Sam is both a father to a child as sixteen years old and a son of a woman who gave birth as a sixteen years old. Alicia’s parents represent the people that look down on teen pregnancy. The novel show the different sides of teen pregnancy and both the struggles and hard work, and some of the good sides. As we see in the novel, Sam’s mother still got an education, but she could not follow some of her dreams. Alicia has a hard time while being pregnant, but in the end it seems like her life turned out ok and she had gotten a good education as well.

1b, In my opinion, Nick Hornby try to show the difficulties of being a teen, in general as well as teen pregnancy. Sam is struggling with chancing from a teenager to an adult. I also think that he is trying to show that everybody makes mistakes and then do the right thing; such as Sam did when he ran away but realized that he had to go back and take care of his child. I think there are many thing Hornby is trying say, but mainly how difficult the transformation from a teenager to an adult can be.