Comfort

Title: Comfort

Author: Carolee Dean

Plot:

The book Comfort by Carolee Dean is about people’s different comfort zones in their relationships, ambitions and working lives. The quote that supports this is “History repeats itself over and over again… Unless you force it to do otherwise,” as found on page 216. The three main characters were Kenny, Maggie and Roy.

Fifteen-year-old Kenny Wilson was quite talented in poetry, but he had to give up a lot of his school time to help his Mum, Maggie who worked in her cafй. His desire was to pass the University Interscholastic League (UIL) competition to win a prize so that he could leave Comfort and go for Dallas, to start a fresh life (page 72). Cindy Blackwell was another talented writer at Kenny’s school, who encouraged him to enter the UIL competition. As Cindy helped Kenny with interpreting poetry, he learned the power of words.

Although Kenny loved his Mum, he didn’t like her working him in the cafй at the expense of giving up school time. There were certain things that Kenny enjoyed in school, such as being part of a football team and practicing for the UIL competition. Maggie made Kenny quit football (page 3). She didn’t value education as much as Kenny did (page 70). She had strong control over Kenny’s emotions - “I hated the way she made me feel and I hated myself for letting her jerk around my emotions like she always did” (page 71).

Kenny’s dad, Roy, an alcoholic was sent to jail for attempted robbery (at Smitty’s Liquor Store). When he came home from prison, he felt sorry for Kenny missing out on his childhood. In the story this was expressed in different events: “I’m gonna make it up to you, son” (on page 84 when Roy said to Kenny how he regretted not being around because he was in prison); Roy helped Kenny to go to a poetry competition when Maggie wanted him to do chores around the cafй instead; Roy cared for Kenny when his mum threw a bottle at Kenny and cut his cheek (page 141).

All Maggie cared about was building the cafй’s business and making Roy a famous singer. However, Roy preferred a normal job instead of Maggie planning his life for him. Every time he got a job, Maggie would sabotage it, which made Roy angry. She would do this so Roy would sing in the cafй according to her plans. This indicates that Maggie was a manipulative person. The last straw of the relationship between Roy and Maggie was when Maggie wanted Roy to perform in a TV show. This made Roy drink heavily, to relief his anxiety and pressure. He again attempted robbery at Smitty’s Liquor Store to get enough money to get away from Comfort (page 204). Unfortunately, Roy was shot dead while carrying out the robbery.

Setting:

The story is set in a country town in Texas called Comfort. The main setting was at the Comfort Cafй, where Kenny (and Maggie) worked and Roy sang. It was a pretty run down cafй and behind it was the house where the family lived.

Some of the story was set in Kenny’s school, where he socialised with Cindy and practiced poetry with her. Other scenes include various university campuses where the University Interscholastic League Competition took place. There was also Smitty Liquor Store where Roy was shot.

Theme:

The theme of the book is about the study of people’s own comfort zones in relationships, ambitions and their working lives. Carolee Dean titles the book with the word “Comfort” to aptly describe people’s own comfort zones.

Kenny’s comfort zone was working hard in the cafй for his Mum, but he realized he wasn’t going to get anywhere from it, so he wanted to break out of it (pages 168-169) to start a fresh future for himself. His original plan was to earn a scholarship and run away from Comfort.

Although Kenny first wanted to run away from Comfort, there were three things stopping him as the story unfolded. First he did not want Roy Junior, his younger brother to go through what he has been through with his Mum (page 134); Cindy becoming pregnant (page 119) and couldn’t go with him; and his Dad died toward the ending and made Kenny promised to make something out of his life and don’t run away from it like a coward (like Roy). In the end, Kenny changed his mind about leaving Comfort even after winning the UIL competition. He felt that he needed to make a stand instead of running away like his father. He didn’t want Roy junior to miss out on his childhood with him (like his father). He was also winning his fight with his mum to continue with his education to go to university.