Rules of the Road

Imagine having a drunken Dad and a bipolar Mom, you would pretty much have
to take care of yourself alone. No one to wake you up in the morning, no
one to cook meals for you, no one to be there for you when you are sad,
and no one to help you with the tough life that you already have. This
is how Jenna from the book Rules of the Road , feels all and everyday.
Joan Bauer uses many symbols and a lesson in this comedy.

In the book Rules of the Road, there are many important symbols.
On is the wheel chair. This represents Mrs. Gladstone and her old age.
Another symbol in the book is Jenna. She represents Mrs. Gladstone In a
different way. Mrs. Gladstone even said to Jenna in the book that she
reminded her of herself. She acts like her, looks like her, works at her
store and more. The last symbol that I would like to point out is
Jenna’s Dad’s favorite alcohol drink. This symbolizes her dad
alone. this drink scares Jenna. She just cant even look at her. This is
when Jenna’s dad is drunk (all the time) and she is scared of him. But
she holds it all in. Jenna seems like a very calm person so that’s why
she doesn’t show that she gets really scared of this drink and also of
her dad when he is drunk.

This story has symbols but is also a comedy. The story starts
out in normalcy when Jenna is working at her average job in her home
town. The conflict arises when Jenna’s dad comes to meet her and he is drunk. He says that he is just on medication but he is drunk. This is where things start to head down hill. Another part of the mild conflict is when Jenna’s mom wrights she the letter that threatens to kill her, this scares Jenna a lot. The conflict gets resolved when Jenna and Mrs. Gladstone go on the road trip together. This helps Jenna forget all of the stress in her life and focus more on relaxing. The return to normalcy is when Jenna and Mrs. Gladstone return to home and go back to the normal life’s that they were living before they went on the road trip.

This comedy also has a lesson. I believe that the lesson is that you should always stick with your family no matter how bad they treat you. Jenna’s mother was mean and threatened to kill her constantly but if Jenna would have stayed home and didn’t go on the road trip then she could have probably had time to work things out with her mother and make things right again. Also her dad was a drunk and she shouldn’t have gone away and then have him arrested. What she should have done was stayed home with him and try to make him less of an alcoholic. She should have helped him become a person that drank less. On the other hand Mrs. Gladstone is like family to Jenna also. Jenna spends the most time with her. Jenna drives her around and I think that Mrs. Gladstone feels a family type of bond between Jenna and herself. So if you think about /it both ways, Jenna would have done the right thing by staying with her parents but also by leaving with Mrs. Gladstone. The point is that no matter how bad family is they love you and you should always stay with the ones who love you the most.

Jenna was a girl from an unloving family and she had the choice to leave it all. When the choice came around she hoped in the car with her boss and left. But in the end she came back to her family. The story Rules of the road by Joan Bauer is a comedy. This comedy includes many things such as symbols and a heartfelt lesson.