Metamorphosis by Betsy Franco

Module 6 - Poetry, Drama, Media, & Graphic Novels

"Read three of the following selections:"

Plot Summary

Through journal entries, drawings, and inspired poems, our narrator Ovid relates his tumultuous junior year of high school. His sister has left and now his parents are cracking down on his freedoms in an attempt to make up for things they felt they did wrong with her. As Ovid makes revelations about his peers throughout the year, they each get a poem penned to them comparing them to the mythological being they most resemble. Ovid keeps his self-flagellation habits in the closet, and by the end as he goes through his metamorphosis indicates that period of his life may be done.

Critical Analysis

There are a lot of deep subjects only briefly touched upon in this novel. Ovid self-flagellates, but his friends around him each have their own problems too. Alexis smokes weed, Nathaniel cuts himself, Myrra was raped by her father, and there are many other huge revelations about the deep secrets of his peers throughout the book. However, each one of them only gets a few pages of mention, maybe a poem, before the narrative moves on to the next point of interest. This lack of depth leaves a lot of questions about each character, even as it also reveals them.

The setting of this novel at an average high school in contemporary times gives Ovid a lot of resources for art and transportation and communication. If the setting were adjusted, the characters might change slightly, but the general plot and format could remain the same. The description of each friend as a different character from mythology and presentation of this in poetic format could be done in any setting. The small community semi-urban California setting brings in a variety of experiences for each of the characters, which Ovid relates through his journaling and poetry.

Ovid spends a good portion of the narrative longing for the girl Mei. When he gets up the nerve to ask him out, but she rejects him, Ovid reveals the conversation with the voices in his head. After he tells them to "SHUT UP!" he re-evaluates his situation and comes to a revelation. The completion of Ovid's metamorphosis is revealed through his epiphany, "The whole thing suddenly didn't seem worth beating myself up over. It just didn't. Not this time, anyway." However, this gets such a small treatment within the book, that readers might walk away wondering what the metamorphosis was and when it happened.

I'm not entirely up to speed on all of the mythologies and the original Ovid's writings, but this book would provide a good jumping off point for students to delve into the original Roman mythologies to see where characters and events might line up. The descriptions of the teens as modern day interpretations of various mythical beings is engaging. The author includes a few pages at the end to describe the historical Ovid and his works which helps to understand the historical context which the character Ovid would have gained through his own reading. Readers could then, if they wanted, explore the original Ovid's writings or further historical writings.

Bibliography

Franco, Betsy, and Tom Franco. Metamorphosis: junior year. Somerville, Mass.: Candlewick Press, 2009. ISBN 9780763637651.

---

---

Reviews

From Kirkus:

Since his brilliant, meth-addict sister, Thena, ran away from home, Ovid just wants his now-overprotective parents off his back, to express his art freely, to understand why he wants to hurt himself secretly and to make sense of high school. Other juniors "wrestling with the messes the gods got us into" include musician Orpheus, obsessed with his girlfriend; incest victim Myrra, trying to find what's left of the girl in her; Alexis, a female Icarus flying too high on weed; and Sophie and Caleb, a cyber Psyche and Cupid. Like his Roman namesake, Ovid captures it all in his private notebook, filled with prose entries in realistic teenspeak, beautifully crafted poems that provide a back story and surreal black-line illustrations, which the author's son reworked from his own high-school notebooks. While the brevity of Franco's first YA novel may disappoint readers who want these archetypal yet complex characters in more detail, this accessible, modern retelling resembles the original by springing from story to story and exploring love and its ability to confound all reason.

From VOYA:

Ovid is an ordinary high school junior with an extraordinary name. Back when his parents were much more carefree, they named him after the Roman poet, and he has paid for it his entire life. But the event that really turned his life upside down was the disappearance of his drug-addicted sister, Thena. Suddenly Ovid receives all of his parents' attention and is being forced to fulfill their frustrated ambitions for his sister. All Ovid wants is to write, draw, sculpt, and hang out with his friends. And because he is Ovid, many of his friends become to him Greek characters in their own modern-day myths. Suddenly they come alive in his poetry with names like Orpheus and Proserpina and in his art, exploding out of the mouths of bears and carrying homes on their backs. Franco takes Greek mythology and morphs it into a tale for today's world, complete with mistakenly dialed cell phones and teens animating the world around them. Although the book is brief, it is not an easy read because of the literary references and the large cast of characters. The art melds well with the story and the other way around. Ultimately it is about being accepted for who you are, regardless of the century you live in. -Lynn Evarts.

From School Library Journal:

Franco pays homage to the poet Ovid's retelling of Roman myths. Her Ovid, a high school junior, is a budding, brooding artist, still reeling from the departure of his meth-addicted sister. His formerly permissive parents are smothering him with concern and attention as they desperately try to ensure that he does not travel the same road as Thena. Ovid writes poems about and draws his high school as Roman myths with students and adults playing the parts of Pluto, Midas, Athena, Ceres, Proserpina, and a host of others. Only readers well versed in mythology will catch all of the references. Mere mortals will need a handy reference source to get the full impact. The pen-and-ink drawings are interesting but sometimes border on the bizarre and don't all fit smoothly into the story. Regardless of readers' levels of knowledge of Roman religion, the story of a teen feeling imprisoned by overly concerned parents and abandoned by an addicted sibling will resonate with many young adults.-Anthony C. Doyle, Livingston High School, CA

From Booklist:

Seems like we're all just groping our way through a labyrinth, fighting our personal minotaurs, morphing into who we really are. Lots of YA novels explore archetypal myths in ordinary life. Here, the cool teen narrator, Ovid, may be on Facebook or texting his high-school friends in northern California, but he also recognizes the parallels between his life and classical mythology. Franco blends references to the classical canon with fast free verse and casual prose, and the wry combination of contemporary technology and archetypes will appeal to teens, even if they don't get all the nods to the mythical stories. One character resembles a female Icarus, ready to crash and burn after a meltdown, and Ovid's own sister, hooked on drugs, is part of a tragedy of mythical proportions. Occasional ink drawings mix human and animal elements, as in the hilarious view of a platypus doing yoga, and show the wildness in everyone.--Rochman, Hazel