ELEMENTS OF CREATIVE WRITING: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Before I Fall is a young adult novel written by Lauren Oliver. This novel is about a popular high-
school girl named Sam as she is forced to relieve the day of her death every day for a week and
making nontypical decisions along the way in an effort to understand what is happening to her
and change her unfortunate fate. It also shows Sam’s journey through the five stages of grief.
Characters: The main characters in the novel are Samantha Kingston, Lindsay Edgecombe,
Juliet Sykes, and Kent McFuller.
Samantha “Sam” Kingston - The main protagonist and narrator of the story. Sam is one of the
mean girls who bullies other people. She is very famous, but she is also very insecure because
she has been bullied herself. Throughout the novel, the character develops, and her heart
grows. She is not the same person she was at the start of the novel, and she learns a lot on the
last day of her life.
She changed from being bullied to being a bully. She does not consider herself to be a bad
person because she defends her actions as an attempt to "keep on the laughing side." When
she dies in a car crash, the world places her in a kind of prison, forcing her to relive her death
day before she redeems herself and is able to move on.
Lindsay Edgecombe - She used to bully Sam when she was younger. She was also best friends
with Juliet Sykes when they were young. She is extremely influential and has spent a significant
amount of time intimidating others to maintain her place at the top of the social hierarchy. She
also has secrets that make her more insecure than anyone might have predicted.
Juliet Sykes - a lonely character with no friends. She was Lindsay’s best friend when they were
still a child until Lindsay blamed her for an incident she didn't commit, causing their friendship to
end and Juliet to become an outcast. She is regularly bullied and goes by the nickname
"psycho." She was the one who committed suicide.
Kent McFuller - Sam's childhood friend. Kent is trustworthy, dependable, and supportive. He
does all he can to assist Sam. Kent’s character did not change in the story.
Setting: The story is set primarily in a small town in Ridgeview, Connecticut where Sam and her
friends attend Thomas Jefferson High School. There are also parts that happened in Sam’s
house and Kent’s house.
Conflict: The main conflict of the novel is when Sam faces the dilemma of figuring out how to
avoid reliving the same day over and over. She must also decide what choices to make in order
to prevent Juliet from hurting herself. I also think that one of the conflicts in the novel is Sam’s
inability to move on without reliving the day of her death over and over again and her inability to
find peace.
The conflict that is present in the novel was protagonist vs. self where Sam needed to find what
is the reason why she kept repeating the same day that she died. She needs to realize the
mistakes that she made and make the right decision. Sam needed to find her true self.
Plot: In the beginning of Before I Fall, Sam and her friends are driving home from a party.
Lindsay was drunk and did not pay too much attention to the road. Then suddenly they got into
an accident. Sam appears to die in a car crash and the next day she wakes up again. After
Sam's painful death, she seems like she is falling and a scene of her bullying a girl flashes
before her eyes. She wakes up in her own bed again, realizing that it is the same day when she
died, February 12, and that she is doomed to relive it. She starts reflecting more on her actions
and what is important as she goes through the motions of the day, repeating the day before,
also leading to her death.
Sam discovers that all of her choices have an effect on which events replicate themselves and
which events are unique. She is faced with the challenge of deciding which options to pursue
and knowing what will happen if she makes the wrong choice. Each chapter represents one of
Sam's seven lives on the same day.
Point of view: The story is told from the first-person point of view by a 17-year-old car crash
victim Samantha “Sam” Kingston. It is told in first-person limited omniscience narration, which
means that Sam uses "me" and "I" and that the reader just sees Sam's thoughts. The reader is
drawn in close to Sam’s feelings and thoughts, which are important to understanding the novel
as a whole.
Style: Lauren Oliver has a unique writing style that is different from others. She combines a
variety of writing skills to produce a style that blends smoothly and is simply beautiful. One part
of Oliver’s writing style that can be noticed in this novel is irony. She also used imagery to
captivate the readers and enable them to imagine what is happening in their minds.
Tone: This book is full of changing tones. The tone that the author set for Sam continues to
change as the story progress, there is a significant change in tone from the beginning to the end
of the story. In the beginning of the story, Sam was described in the author’s tone as rude. She
was rude to everyone, and she didn't care if the words she used were kind or insulting. The tone
and mood of the whole story was depressing and redeeming. The tone that was set to Sam
from the beginning influenced how the story will end. As the story goes on, Sam realizes the
mistakes that she had done and what are the things that she was supposed to do. This helped
with the shift in Sam’s tone. The story may seem depressing but as the story progress the tone
becomes redeeming of oneself.
Theme: I think that the theme of this novel is about suicide, personal growth, and redemption.
Suicide is the main theme of this novel. As Sam and her friends, bullies Juliet and saying that
she does not have place in this world. Bullying is one of the reasons why teenagers commit
suicide nowadays. The author shows that terrible consequences happen to victim but also to the
offenders. Personal growth and redemption start when Sam experienced reliving her last day
over and over until she redeems herself. It took seven tries in her time loop to get it right. As the
days repeats itself repeatedly Sam tried to change some events to prevent death. On the 5 th day
she found an opportunity for personal growth. Since Juliet was committed suicide that led to her
accident. Juliet is the key to Sam’s redemption. On the last day or in the 7 th day Sam realizes
that to save her soul she must save Juliet. At the end Juliet said to her “You saved me” but Sam
knows that it was the opposite, it was Juliet who saved her.