The employment of transference of meaning in illuminating the themes of this novel clearly encourages the readers to take a look beyond the stereotype of
idealized childhood that some people think that it only deals with joy, and to realize that children also deal with problems just as pressing as those that adult
face. As people’s priorities shift as they grow older, they have a tendency to downplay the crises of childhood as unimportant. The crises in the novel are very
real and important to the children as they are reflected in the themes of Katherine Paterson’s
Bridge to Terabithia
.
4. Rebecca Stead’s
Liar and Spy
This research only focuses on identifying the types of transference of meaning, their realizations, and how transference of meaning illuminates the
themes in Rebecca Stead’s novel,
Liar and Spy
. It is a coming-of-age novel by Rebecca Stead published by Wendy Lamb Books, an imprint of Random House
Children’s Books which is a division of Random House Inc. This novel was awarded School Library J
ournal’s Best Books List, Publishers Weekly Best Books List, and Kirkus Review Best Children’s Books List in 2012.
The story involves Georges, a seventh-grader who is named after his parents’ favorite painter, French post-impressionist Georges Pierre Seurat. When
his dad loses his job as an architect and tries to start his own business, his mom pulls double shifts as a nurse at the hospital. The family is forced to downsize,
moving from a house to an apartment building. Georges has not many friends at school and he is often bullied by his schoolmates, Dallas Llewellyn and Carter
Dixon.
In his new apartment building, Georges befriends with 12-year-old Safer. He tells Georges that a man in the apartment below Georges, whom he calls Mr.
X, may be smuggling dead bodies in and out of the complex. Safer draws Georges into his elaborate surveillance plan and the boys monitor Mr. X’s place regularly.
Safer even urges Georges to help him break into Mr. X’s apartment but he refuses. However, he finally learns that Safer has been lying to him. Safer never
suspects Mr. X of anything. In fact, Mr. X is a normal guy, and Safer is his dog walker. The surveillance, the break-in and the elaborate story are all just a game.
Georges is angry at Safer and feels foolish. In the same time, Georges also finally admits to himself and to the readers
that his mom has not just been working a lot of night shifts. She has got a serious infection and is in the hospital as a patient. He finally agrees to face his fears and
the reality of her illness and visits her. To overcome his fears of bullying, Georges also devises a plan, with the
help of some of the other less-than-popular kids, to trick and silence Dallas. His idea brings the nerdy kids together and helps them develop a sense of community.
Then, Georges speaks to Safer again and tries to understand the reason for the boy’s deception. He never feels secure enough that he does not like leaving
the apartment building because of the fear of the outside world. Finally, Georges helps Safer and also his classmates to overcome their fears and anxieties as well.
5. Previous Studies
