Wrapping it up

So here's we are at the end of what seems to have taken a lifetime. Peter is dead, Josie is in prison, and Patrick and Alex are together. Time to go into some more depth. Peter finally realized that he really couldn't live like that anymore, hating his imprisonment from the very beginning. For a while, he clung to the hope that he might get off easy, but the weight of a life sentence was too much for him. Besides that, Dr. Wah was right, Peter welcomed death. On a side note though, I still think that I am right about the suicide note. The book mentions nothing of it (or perhaps I missed it) so that either means one of two things - either Josie will eventually kill herself, or the note is just from a suicide note that someone else (in real life) had written, and the author felt that it should be included. 

The suicide note just seems exactly like Josie's type. In the last section, the note refers to life as a DVD, and Josie watches the DVD that Matt made earlier on as a comforting measuere. It also talks about being popular, yet misunderstood, which is essentially Josie's character in 3 words. Speaking of Matt however, the whole thing about Josie shooting him adds MUCH more depth to her character. My initial impression of her as a whiny teenage drama queen who nobody "gets" (except Matt when he's drunk and horny) was thrown out the window. She hates the lie she lives in, and she hates the popular crowd to the same extent as Peter. 

That leads to my final point towards the suicide note being Josie's. There are several parallels between Josie and Peter - they began as friends, worked together, and both shot Matt - so why wouldn't the final parallel be the two of them committing suicide. In fact, it would make some sense if she did it in response to hearing about Peter's death. 

As a last note, I would hate to go to Sterling after the shooting. The memories would have nothing to do with it, however. I think that it is unreasonable to think that privacy and rights should be restricted, when the problems can be averted through less tolerance for bullying and more active counsellors. Sacrificing freedom for order is sacrificing faith in the human spirit.