In Joseph Weisberg's novel 10th grade, Jeremiah Reskin recalls his story of the events that happened during tenth grade with the use of bad grammar and attempted humour. Jeremy had not believed in large social clicks, therefore wanted to stay low key with very few friends throughout his sophomore year. A problem with that plan had occurred since Jeremy had a lingering crush for Renee Shopmaker, who had been deemed the hottest girl at Hutch Falls High. Before attempting to hook up with Renee, Jeremy meets a group of (partly) social outcasts such as himself, leading to him being identified as part of their "click".

World Issue: Self Identity

Throughout teen's lives, there will always be a challenge to find their own identity, (espeacially during high school). High school is a crazy period in a teen's life where they have to discover their own interests, career path, and also form friend groups to help them survive through school. Self identity is a big obstacle for teenagers because it is ultimately what is going to help teens progress with their lives to adolescence.

Throughout his 10th grade, Jeremy learns to adapt to many different social environments that in the end help him develop as a character. He at first had not wanted to be identified in just one group but rather as someone who was neutral with everybody. Although he was independent and a bit quirky, he had a lingering crush on Renee Shopmaker, who had a bigger group of friends unlike himself. Throughout the story, Jeremy began to become close to a group of peers similar to himself with similar interests. Within that group, it was the first time Jeremy had went to the extent to bring down another person in the means of making them laugh, which had been a significant change despite his motivation to be in good terms with everyone. By the end, Jeremy had slowly made his way into Renee's group and was trying to fit in with new types of people. He had been more influenced to follow their actions with the means of showing he was a part of their group and also to possibly impress Renee.

(Listen without audio because the music is quite annoying) This brief video shows the classification of people of different ages to display different interpretations of one's identity. This is relatable to Jeremy's story as he had been partly classified as a jock for playing soccer, but not to the extremes of being a bully as jocks are tended to be linked as.

Conflict Within the Story

The main conflict within 10th Grade is person vs self, with the fight for identity within Jeremy. It had began when Jeremy first entered 10th Grade, not really having a name for himself along with classification in no particular group. With many battles within himself involving self-identity, his conflict partly ends after finding a place in Renee's group after bonding with his prom date Lenea.

(1:50-4:55)

This video is very relatable to Jeremy's situation with identity. The guy in this video explains in depth of the social circumstances that teenagers face to find their own identity, and explains the importance of building friendships to bring forth those traits. These are similar scenarios that Jeremy had to face in his 10th grade.

Theme

The search for identity + feeling of love and/or attraction = one's ability to go to extremes to be identified in a group for the chance of love

Explanation: When teenagers are trying to figure themselves out, there are influences that can lead them to act a certain way. An example of such desire could be that Jeremy had gotten close to Renee's group in result of having to find himself during that time, and in addition having a love interest with Renee that had influenced him to act like those within the group. This can be applied to many teens in the world today because most of what teens do is following an influence from another peer that they admire or are in a click with.

How does self identity affect plot?

The 1st important event within 10th grade would be when Jeremy meets Gillian's group. With the result of finding part of his own identity, It had been the first time Jeremy had been settled into a group, having a long term effect on Jeremy's social outlook for the future.

(Up to 1:45)

The 2nd major(ish) event within the novel was when Jeremy had first been brought to Neirbeck Woods by Gillian (and others) so they could smoke pot. Jeremy had been completely opposed to joining them with their joint despite the influence of his peers.

The last sort of important event which leads to the end of Jeremy's story was his social development with Lenea. His story led to him making it into Renee's group, but yet not with the girl he had suspected.