In All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven, depression is defined to be a common thought in people's lives, even if they had a good life but event or person could change everything.“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places” said by Ernest    Hemingway is presented in the first couple pages, meaning that lots of people have experienced depression in their lifetime and even I admit I've experienced it as well.
In the beginning a boy called Finch is up in a bell tower and thinks to himself If I jump off this tower it would be an ugly way to die so he decides not to jump and then he sees another person with him and he notices that it's one of those popular girls, Violet Markey. Thinking she might jump herself Finch starts talking to her about random topics and as they come down from the bell tower he asks “Do you think there’s such a thing as a perfect day”?(pages 5-11). Well I thought about this question as well and I do believe in a great day but I wouldn't think that any day would be exactly perfect.
In All the Bright Places Violet Markey, a beautiful, popular, smart girl is blaming herself and lying about how she feels about the situation, is now with one of the counselors to see hows she’s doing and if she's going back to her normal self in any way before the accident with her older sister in winter(pages 20-22). Lots of people experience of others deaths or have to deal with the emotional encounters of a non living corpse. They also don’t act like themselves once it’s right in front of them especially if it’s someone close to them. You’ll try to forget it but it keeps coming to mind “What could I have done to help?””Was there anything I could have done to prevent this from happening?””Why did it have to happen to him/her?” These are some things I would think if it has been someone I knew who was very close to me but could go deeper in thoughts like suicide, and blaming yourself. Just like how Violet feels about her sister’s death.
Just about everyone has one of those depressing childhood stories,like Theodore Finch. On page one hundred eighty-five he has a flashback of when he was young and seeing the cardinal that kept flying into the glass screen door, try to get to its home that was once where the house now is. Not wanting it to die he begs his mom to let it inside but she won’t.Then one day the final blow and he was down, Finch had felt like it was his fault for the life of the little bird. This was the first time he got into one of his moods of depression.
In All the Bright Places Finch seems to be a wild random person, but can be serious to certain standards, while Violet is a calm sweet girl but when it comes to it she can also be a bit wild herself. When wandering Indiana for a school project with Violet they came to the blue hole, which is told to be a bottomless water hole. When they decided to go for a swim in the water hole, trying to find the bottom Finch was taking his time and Violet starts to worry. When Finch realizes he was gone for way too long he returns to see Violet crying. When she sees him she gets really upset making her worry about him, and starts yelling and throwing rocks into the water (pages 224-227). Just like Violet I feel like I can change my mood at any moment from nice, and generous to a rude, greedy person, and just like other people they can change their personality for certain people and different situations. Sometimes it's just so they can try to hide a certain feeling deep inside themselves to avoid the help from nosy people.
Overall I believe that this book connects to those readers who are having a hard time with life.Especially young adults, who are trying to find there way to be successful and mean something. Finch and Violet show us that we all have our problem including family, classmates, teachers, friends, and romantic relationships.