In the book Beastly by Alex Flinn, Kyle Kingsbury is full of himself. His dad is one of the most well known and richest people in the world. Kyle has many friends that secretly hate him behind his back. Yet, he is the most popular guy in his high school, or so he thinks. Kyle and his dad have a horrible relationship because his dad is always busy and never has time for him. Kyle’s dad will buy anything for him, but that doesn’t patch up the hole in his heart. When his dad does talk to him, Kyle always listens. This makes Kyle feel appreciated and important. So, when his dad says that looks are the key to everything in life, Kyle believes him.
One example of when Kyle believes that looks are everything, is when he goes to the dance with Sloane, a girl he doesn’t like. The only reason he asks Sloane to be his date is because she’s the hottest and most popular girl in school. Then, he asks another girl, Kendra to go with him to the dance--who is VERY “ugly” and unpopular--as a joke to embarrass her because he is popular and she’s not. Kendra is not at all embarrassed by this but mad and let down by his choice to be mean. She says that he will be sorry and will get revenge on him. He is very worried, as he should be, because she’s a witch. It is obvious that he doesn’t care about personality at all (even his own) and only about looks and popularity but Kendra is going to change all that.
She takes action by putting him under a curse. He has two years to find someone who he loves that loves him for him, not for the way he looks. If that doesn’t happen, he will stay in the beast form forever. For almost a year he drowns in his sorrow because he thinks it’s impossible for someone to love an “ugly” beast. This time, without the help of his dad, he has to learn that looks aren’t everything.
Kyle is afraid to leave his house when he is a beast. He is afraid that he will be made fun of because of the way he looks. He learns that looks are very important to many people. He calls Sloane and flirts with her, getting her to come to his house so he can break the curse. While talking on the phone, she admits that she loves him. He’s excited and relieved that hopefully Sloane will kiss him and break the spell. But when she comes to Kyle’s house, he gets really nervous. What happens if she doesn’t really love him underneath all that fur? He turns off the light and tries to get her to kiss him before she realizes what he really is. He pushes away all inner thoughts. While touching him, she realizes that he has so much hair. Sloane turns on the light and gets frightened by what she sees. He is a beast. Then, she admits that she only liked him for his looks. He gets scared of what she might tell people and mostly what she thinks of him now. She leaves, terrified of him. He is hurt and confused. Maybe his father is right: looks are the key to everything in life. But what can you do without looks? How will anyone like you?
Kyle is left alone and struggles to live without his looks. He will have to search hard inside of himself to find who he really is. I think he will find a sensitive and nice person. The only reason why he doubts that someone will love him for his thoughts and feelings, is because he could always rely on his looks. He has never had to use his personality to get what he wants. All his life, he has depended on money to cure life’s little problems and he’s never had ANY problems until now; and money can’t fix this. Will he realize that his thoughts and emotions are more powerful than his looks? I don’t know. I hope Kyle will learn that he has to go deep inside himself in order to discover who he is and by doing that, his capacity for love.
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