Crank Ellen Hopkins Analysis

Who Played the Game of Life? In life, there is a list of rules people must follow; however, it’s their choice if they follow them or not. Kristina from the series, “Crank,” by Ellen Hopkins is just one example of a person who is devious by breaking rules more than once. Kristina is a 16-year-old girl who visits Albuquerque for a visit to her dad. While she is visiting, she meets a boy named Adam and falls deeply in love. Both of the men she spends time with, her dad and Adam, are currently addicted to crystal meth, and with just one try, she is also addicted. That addiction follows her home, leading to an incident where she is raped. With a baby on the way, Kristina fails to care for the baby by never stopping her drug use. She meets several
Unlike Holden, Kristina failed in more than one way; it started when she took her first snort of Methamphetamine. Before she took her visit to her dad’s house, she received mostly A’s, “Straight A’s, huh? Got your brains/ from your old man” (Hopkins 24). Kristina was an honor student who went down the wrong path in life. She applied herself in life, and had goals that she wanted to reach, goals that meant everything. Yet, she blew them away when she took her first snort for a boy. Kristina mentions in the book that her life was good before she got addicted, “Life was good/ before i/ met/ the monster” (Hopkins 1). Just like Kristina, Holden too did drugs; it may not have been Methamphetamine, but it too was as addictive, he smoked tobacco, “I’m quite a heavy smoker, for one thing- that is, I used to be” (Salinger 7). In life, there are ideas that are expected such as not doing drugs, legal or illegal, however, both broke that expectation. Kristina broke that expectation during the summer before her junior year, while Holden did too. He might have stopped smoking, but he already shattered that expectation, however, Kristina couldn’t stop. Kristina had goals that she wanted to meet, but Holden never did. Holden was not unintelligent, he could have passed more classes if he applied himself, “... I was flunking four subjects and not applying myself and all” (Salinger 6). Holden could
Kristina creates a new version of herself named Bree, when she meets someone new that’s how she introduces herself, “There is no perfect daughter,/no gifted high-school junior/ no Kristina Georgia Snow./ There is only Bree” (Hopkins 5).Bree is her version of herself when she goes out to party and does drugs, while Kristina is her school and home version. As Bree gets more addicted to Methamphetamine Kristina disappears. Kristina made the mask of Bree, because she wanted to separate her school life from her personal life, little did she know that Kristina would disappear. Before her visit Kristina never once thought about doing drugs, “In school I was never confronted/ with drugs, surely never sought them out” (Hopkins 66). To many innocence is everything, Kristina made Bree to lose her innocence, but didn’t know it would come with consequences. Kristina was spending time with Brandon, her drug dealer. While she was out buying Methamphetamine he raped her took her innocence, and impregnated her. Kristina made a person to lose her innocence, but Holden wore red hunting hat to keep his. Throughout the book, Holden would put his hat on to act immature, he would also take his hat off during the adult world. Holden tells stories when he wears his hat, ““I pulled the old peak of my hunting hat around to the front, then pulled it way down over my eyes. That way, I