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Colin Singleton is described as a general "nerd": scrawny, has a vision impairment,and is a prodigy in absorbing information. He also has an obsession with anagrams and dating girls by the name of Katherine.
( < My interpretation of Colin)
What first sticks out is the vision impairment, which just means he has glasses. He is not literally blind per say but it does seem important to the story in that he generally views his life rather pessimistically and the glasses could mean that he is blind to the potential that he has.
Prodigy is also a strong word that sticks out. As his pessimism is stated before, this is what it centers around. His basic viewpoint on being a prodigy is, "Prodigies can very quickly learn what other people have already figured out; geniuses discover that which no one has ever previously discovered. Prodigies learn; geniuses do," (Green 10). This is an example of what all teenagers who are going to be an adult go through, which is just questioning what they are going to do with their life and how they'll leave a mark on the world.What Colin doesn't understand is that all geniuses had to learn before they could do,and he is at a point in his life where he is still a student of learning.
Another point to analyze is the obsession of Katherines. In almost every language, the meaning of the name Katherine means pure and/or clean. This sets off the alarm for Colin being a vampire figure. He does fit some of the requirements for being a vampire, like being weak and feeding off the love from them, as it is told by Katherine XIX, "You don't need a robot Colin. You need a robot that says nothing but 'I love you'," (Green 40), but he doesn't really use them to gain power and then leave them helpless. The Katherine is the one that leaves him and, as Colin puts it, he is always the "Dumpee". The obsession with girls named Katherine began when he was in the third grade and he had a 3 minute relationship with his teacher's daughter, Katherine. This OCD like obsession with Katherines goes to show how he can absorb information about anything except love which is a theme that will be discussed later.
( < My interpretation of Colin)
What first sticks out is the vision impairment, which just means he has glasses. He is not literally blind per say but it does seem important to the story in that he generally views his life rather pessimistically and the glasses could mean that he is blind to the potential that he has.
Prodigy is also a strong word that sticks out. As his pessimism is stated before, this is what it centers around. His basic viewpoint on being a prodigy is, "Prodigies can very quickly learn what other people have already figured out; geniuses discover that which no one has ever previously discovered. Prodigies learn; geniuses do," (Green 10). This is an example of what all teenagers who are going to be an adult go through, which is just questioning what they are going to do with their life and how they'll leave a mark on the world.What Colin doesn't understand is that all geniuses had to learn before they could do,and he is at a point in his life where he is still a student of learning.
Another point to analyze is the obsession of Katherines. In almost every language, the meaning of the name Katherine means pure and/or clean. This sets off the alarm for Colin being a vampire figure. He does fit some of the requirements for being a vampire, like being weak and feeding off the love from them, as it is told by Katherine XIX, "You don't need a robot Colin. You need a robot that says nothing but 'I love you'," (Green 40), but he doesn't really use them to gain power and then leave them helpless. The Katherine is the one that leaves him and, as Colin puts it, he is always the "Dumpee". The obsession with girls named Katherine began when he was in the third grade and he had a 3 minute relationship with his teacher's daughter, Katherine. This OCD like obsession with Katherines goes to show how he can absorb information about anything except love which is a theme that will be discussed later.
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I thought this song seemed ironic since it's performed by a band name Franz Ferdinand whose grave is what Colin and Hassan pull over for so Colin will forget about Katherine XIX.
In most of John Green's novels, the main character spends their time trying to find something/someone to make them feel memorable; examples would be Pudge from Looking for Alaska trying to find his "Great Perhaps", Q from Papertowns looking for Margo Roth Spiegelman, and Hazel Grace from The Fault in Our Stars looking for her little infinity. To sum it all up, John Green really enjoys sending his characters on quests and An Abundance of Katherines is no exception.
To state the obvious, Colin is the quester in this story. His stated reason to go is that Hassan convinced him to take this road trip with him (which is the place to go) to forget about Katherine XIX. Challenges he will face are him not forgetting about Katherine XIX and obsessing over other Katherines,plus people he will meet along the way who will cause trouble like the other Colin. The self-knowledge he might gain will be his own "Eureka Moment" which was stated in the beginning of the book.
In most of John Green's novels, the main character spends their time trying to find something/someone to make them feel memorable; examples would be Pudge from Looking for Alaska trying to find his "Great Perhaps", Q from Papertowns looking for Margo Roth Spiegelman, and Hazel Grace from The Fault in Our Stars looking for her little infinity. To sum it all up, John Green really enjoys sending his characters on quests and An Abundance of Katherines is no exception.
To state the obvious, Colin is the quester in this story. His stated reason to go is that Hassan convinced him to take this road trip with him (which is the place to go) to forget about Katherine XIX. Challenges he will face are him not forgetting about Katherine XIX and obsessing over other Katherines,plus people he will meet along the way who will cause trouble like the other Colin. The self-knowledge he might gain will be his own "Eureka Moment" which was stated in the beginning of the book.