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4. Attentive
Being indifferent towards his physical look does not necessarily shape Luke’s personality to be egoistic or have no care of others. The way he is grown
up as a child who is lack of love and care from his parents does not build him to be likewise. On the contrary, Luke is perceived to be an attentive person. He likes
to pay attention to others and he does really care about the people he loves, such as friends and family.
Luke’s care about his friends is shown by his mind and attitude towards Alex and Caroline. Alex has been his best mate back in Primary School.
Though they have never met for years, Luke seems to frequently think of him, recalling the time when they used to hang out together as for him, Alex is the only
friend who can understand him and has the same way of thinking as him 8, 11. Different from Alex, Caroline is Luke’s girl friend. Actually, their relationship
does not go well due to several things, yet Luke loves and cares about her still. Caro is the one to whom he always wants to talk about his problems, and he
knows lots of things about her 38. The other ones to whom Luke also gives attention is his family; his
parents and his two younger sisters. Luke’s care about Naomi, his youngest sister, can be seen from the way he takes care of her. One day as she gets nightmare,
Luke calms her down and gives her accompany till she goes back to sleep 91. He also helps ‘Queen of the Stars’, the name he used to call Naomi, when Mum
once accuses her of doing something naughty 156. While Luke’s being strict in
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admonishing Molly as she rudely rebels Mum is the proof that he does care about her 100.
Moreover, Luke’s love towards her mum, Margaret, is clearly described through the way he feels much worried about her feeling if she is to
receive the letter of expulsion from his school because he does not want to make her sad and disappointed 120. On the other side, though his dad is unwilling to
talk to him, Luke keeps trying to do good things to break the silence and please him 89.
Unlike common teenagers in his age who are eager to look for some fun by doing things which are deviant from the norm, such as free sex, Luke
prefers to cringe out of it. He does not have any purpose or even slightly thought about sex while he is going with Caro, like what Caro’s dad accused of him. This
kind of behavior merely depicts Luke’s sincerity. He wished it was that simple; he wished he was that sort of kid,
careless and normal, jumping in through Caro’s window because he wanted sex. At least that was something you didn’t have to struggle to
explain, even to yourself – sex was something anyone could understand 129.
Another thing which explicitly portrays Luke’s being sincere is when he earnestly intends to accompany Naomi to go somewhere, though at last Mum does not
allow them due to her lack of trust on him 153. All of the statements above thus give the readers such description
about the characteristic of Luke as being attentive, which also covers several traits
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of it, including care and sincerity. This claim is either supported through various ways, such as the character’s thoughts, reactions, past life, and other’s speech.
5. Loner
In case of relationship with his social surrounding, Luke is a type of loner. He seems to estrange himself from the society, liking his being solitary on
his own. Luke is getting himself difficult to associate. He hardly has any friends, which some people eventually tend to consider his inability to care about anything
or anyone 104. Luke has once ever had a best friend named Alex Hamilton, the only
person he can explain things to, yet at last has to walk him off due to The Hamiltons’ move to another country 90. Afterwards, Caroline is being Luke’s
only friend at Glendale 37. She is the one he always talks to since there is no one else he can tell, concerning with his teacher and parents’ upset and
disappointment towards him 89. Luke’s being in trouble to socialize becomes more visible as he is
coming to such a school party with Caro. Luke didn’t like Glendale parties. He wouldn’t mix in. He stuck to her
like glue and when she managed to get away she’d keep seeing him over her shoulder; no matter how crowded it was, her eyes would
always find him, and he’d be standing on the edge of everything, gazing down into his glass, never saying more than a few words to
anyone 23.
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