In the book the Honest Truth, by Dan Gemeinhart, the protagonist, Mark, a boy diagnosed with cancer, learns that loneliness and death is not the solution.
In the beginning of the story Mark is a very unique boy with cancer, despite being sick Mark runs away from home with his dog Beau, to go on an adventure to climb Mt. Rainier as a promise he made to his grandfather before he passed away. Mark being a sick kid he knows he is going to die sooner or later and is scared of death but wants to die as soon as he can. However throughout the story his perspective on being alone and death changes. For example, at the start of the story when Mark first runs away “I want to be alone” [pg19]. This shows that being a sick child he wants to be alone. Even though he is still twelve years old he wants to be alone since he knows he will die sooner or later anyways. Later on, he finds himself being followed by a group of teenage boys and gets robbed. In the text it said “I closed my eyes and let myself die” [pg66]. This evidence points that Mark wants to die. Furthermore, this proves that him being a child affects him because if he were to be an adult he wouldn’t have gotten robbed by the group of boys.
As the story continues, Mark starts to struggle trying to walk to his next destination. For the first time during his adventure he starts to get sick. However, instead of eating his medicine he pours them on the ground“I turned my medicine bottle upside down and watched the white pills fall onto the parking lot, looking like snowflakes on a snowy day” [pg121]. Mark did this because he wanted to die, he knew that his pills would help his trauma and sickness but he still dumped them because he wanted to die. The long walk to Mt.Rainier had finally become too overwhelming for him. The protagonist continues on and finally gets aid from a man who saves him after he passes out near a river due to the cold and harsh temperatures. Thanks to this man he finally reached his long awaited destination, Mt.Rainier.
At the end of the story, Mark gets help and life support at a hospital with his family and friends. After climbing up the enormous mountain he learns that being alone doesn’t do any good to you or the problem. According to the text, Mark learns he wants to go back home, and that there is no such thing as alone when he almost falls while trying to jump over a crevasse. This part is significant to the story because he realizes that he doesn’t want to die anymore. For instance, he says, “I don’t wanna die” [pg255]. Additionally, he also says “there is no such thing as alone, that’s the truth”, [pg258]. Finally, Mark makes his way down the mountain with the lesson he learned, the lesson also motivates him to climb down the mountain carefully and get treated for his disease at a hospital with his friends and family.