Questions about the Story

1. Why does Finch keep his condition to everyone?

Finch was a very secretive type of person that’s why he is often perceived as
strange or just what they call him in the movie, “freak”. He kept his condition to
everyone, even if there were people who wants to help him. He is also afraid to tell his
secret to Violet thinking that if he decided to share his burden and dark parts in life to
her, he will just scare her away, or worse, he can harm her.

2. Both main characters were battling for their lives, how are there problems and the way
they handle it different?
They both had trauma. To compensate with the trauma, Violet shows it to
everyone that she is still mourning by crying and being alone. Finch, on the other hand,
had to be a jolly and carefree around people, trying to judge all the insults in order to get
away with his condition.
3. What were the source of the trauma of both protagonist?
Violet lost her sister due to an accident and seem to struggle moving on to that
tragedy, due to this she cannot ride a car. Finch got his trauma, maybe also his condition,
to his dad who has been abusing them when they were young.

4. What happened to the protagonists at the end of the story?

Violet moved on from her trauma through the help of Finch, she also had the
courage to drive a car which she cannot do after the incident happened. On the other
hand, Finch died at the end of the story, still, he became the “bright place” of Violet
which saved her from drowning to her dark experiences. If only Finch could share his
condition to someone he trust, he could have been saved also.

5. What is/are the moral lesson of the story?

There is a lot of lesson we can get from the movie and the characters but the only
thing that was stuck on my mind is that, we need a companion in life where we can share
our burdens because once we kept it on ourselves there will come a time that you cannot
fight it alone. We must remember that no man is an island, we should also seek out to
others that we trust and fight each battles together.
Another quote had caught my attention, it was the quote from a book that Violet’s
sister always says to her, “We don’t remember days, we remember moments.” I think this
quote says that we must always savor every moment with our loved once because we
don’t know when they will be gone in our lives forever. And lastly, we should remember
that there are still bright places in dark times, that there is beauty even in the most simple
and unexpected places, and if there isn’t your “bright place” can be a person, a thing, or
anything as long as it gives you light when you are locked up in the dark.
Difference and Similarities

1. Violet and Finch meet on a bridge instead of a bell tower

Netflix’s All the Bright Places opens on Theodore Finch going on a morning run

when he sees Violet Markey standing on the ledge of the bridge where her sister was killed in
a fatal car accident. He walks up to her and ultimately gets her to snap out of her trance. In
the book, it’s the high school’s bell tower and many other students see both of them on the
ledge. It leads to much of the school to think Violet talked Finch down and she’s some sort of
hero. The change made in the movie is actually a great edit to the story because its
circumstances are in line with both of the characters and the story itself.

2. Violet has a passion for writing

The story of All the Bright Places has a lot to do with Finch helping Violet get back
on her feet after the death of her older sister, Eleanor. The movie gets the broader strokes of
the book right, such as getting her back in the car for the first time and taking her on
adventures that bring out the fun in her again. However, one aspect about Violet that the
movie misses is her passion for writing. In the book, she and Eleanor used to have an online
magazine together, but she’s stopped since her death. Once she and Finch “wander” together,
she gets back into it again and even thinks up a new website called “Germ Magazine”.

3. Theodore Finch Has a fascination with death

The beauty of a book in contrast to a movie is you often get the internal monologue of
a character. And in Jennifer Niven’s All the Bright Places, from the beginning we have some
context into Finch’s thoughts on death. He’s really intrigued by the ways in which people die
and he’s constantly spewing out interesting ways in which people have committed suicide in
the past. And it’s this fascination that brings him and Violet on the same bell tower. The
movie doesn’t make it as obvious that Finch thinks about this, other than his dunk into his
bathtub early on.

4. We meet Theodore Finch’s dad in the book

In the movie, there’s certainly mention of Finch’s abusive father, but it’s treated more
generically. He doesn’t seem to be in their lives at all and might have passed away. Finch
doesn’t particularly remember him, but he does have a massive scar from a beating he took
as a small child. It’s an important emotional element to the story, but in the book there’s
more of a part to play. Finch’s father is a retired famous hockey player who has since
remarried and is raising his young son (who may or may not be his). Finch and his father see
each other often clash.

5. Ryan just doesn't exist in the Netflix movie

Toward the beginning of the Netflix movie, Violet has a conversation with a boy at
the party she goes to for a short time. He asks her when she’s going to stop acting like she is
and go back to before. It’s obviously not a great thing to say to someone and she walks off. I
thought it was Ryan but turns out he was Roamer and Ryan is not in this movie at all. In
Niven’s novel, it’s explained that her and Ryan used to date and since her sister died, they
 kind of just stopped. After meeting Finch, at first Violet tries to go on a couple dates with
him but she’s not feeling it.

6. Finch’s downward spiral after their night out

In the movie, it makes it seem like after he has the falling out with Violet’s parents
it’s all downhill from there for Finch. He stops talking to Violet, throws down his sticky
notes and ultimately commits suicide at the lake. However, in the book there’s much more to
it. At first, he does text Violet back about the whole thing with their parents, and they are
doing okay. But then he gets expelled from school for that fight with Roamer. He attempts
suicide first by consuming a bunch of sleeping pills. Feeling bad about it, he rushes himself
to the ER and gets his stomach pumped. This is when Violet confronts him, and he runs off.

7. Violet swims in to look for Finch at the end of the book

The heartbreaking conclusion to To All The Bright Places is pretty much the same.
Finch dies. However, on the movie there is no particular scene about the death of finch but
on the book, at the moment when she finds his car and clothes at the lake, she doesn’t believe
it right away. She says to herself “People like Theodore Finch don’t die. He’s just
wandering” as she dives in and tries to find him. Later when the police come, they find his
body, ask her to identify him and she’s still in denial of it. She does call his family and break
the news. It certainly would have made for a more brutal finale to the film that might have
been too tough for many viewers to take.

Plot of the Story

 In All the Bright Places, the first-person narration of Theodore Finch and Violet Markey
weaves together a story of their unlikely friendship and love, of saving and being saved in the
face of devastating loss.
We first hear from Theodore, otherwise known as “Finch.” He recounts how he found
himself, on a cold winter day, standing on the ledge of Bartlett High School’s bell tower, six
stories high, contemplating suicide. Six feet away, Violet, a fellow student who Finch recognizes
as “Violet Something,” stands on the same ledge, contemplating the same thing. Finch moves
toward the shaking Violet, yelling loudly so the crowd watching can hear: “Don’t save me!
You’ll kill yourself!” From below, Gabe Romero, or Roamer, yells to Finch, “Get it over with,
freak.” In an even, calm voice, Finch instructs Violet how to get off the ledge. She then helps
him off the wall, smiles, and tells him she’ll kill him if he tells anyone what really happened.
Finch’s best friend, Charlie Donahue, appears. He’s concerned but Finch tells him everyone has
to die someday. In his counseling appointment with Mr. Embry, or Embryo, they discuss what
happened and where Finch has been for the past five weeks.
Next, Violet begins her story, and we discover that she too, meets with a school
counselor, Mrs. Kresney. It is their twelfth meeting since the car accident in which Eleanor,
Violet’s sister, was killed. Violet tells Mrs. Kresney, “I’m not ready” to resume normal activities.
Later that same day, in U.S. Geography, Finch chooses Violet as his partner for the
“Wander Indiana” project. Violet tries to get out of the project, but their teacher tells her it’s time
to “get back on the camel.” Finch then remembers about the accident.
Finch, in an effort to get to know Violet, opens a Facebook account, and sends her a
Friend request which she accepts. But when Finch posts a video to her page of him singing a
song about a boy jumping from a roof, she demands he remove it. They meet up, and Violet tells
Finch that the day on the ledge would have been her sister’s nineteenth birthday, but nothing
much matters anymore. Finch insists something must matter or she would have jumped.
Violet and Finch embark on the wandering project, which requires them to travel around
their home state of Indiana and discover unique sites. Their first wandering is to Hoosier Hill, the
highest point in Indiana. When Finch takes Violet’s hand to pull her up to the elevation marker,
she feels a little shock at the touch of his hand. During this time, over the course of the next
wanderings, their friendship and mutual attraction grow.
Finch, we learn, has an abusive father, who no longer lives with them, and a mother
who’s in denial of his suffering. He is ostracized by his peers who label him a “freak,” in part
because of his struggle under the weight of mental illness. While in the manic state of his
undiagnosed bipolar disorder, Finch struggles to remain there, to “stay Awake” to not Sleep for
Violet’s sake. He is obsessed with thoughts of suicide, and rearranges his bedroom to make a
smaller space, eventually moving into his closet. Smaller spaces feel safer, when the Asleep is
coming.
On the first warm day, Finch takes Violet to the Blue Hole, a three-acre lake. When
Finch, who has a preoccupation with water, dives under and holds his breath for a long time,
Violet becomes frightened and then angry. Finch tells her to let it all out, and she confides in him
about the angry person inside of her. He tells her about the scar on his stomach, and his dad’s
dark moods.
Back at Finch’s house after their swim, the “Someday” that Finch and Violet have been
talking about has come, and they make love. On the way back to Violet’s house, Finch detours to
Purina Tower where they climb to the top and wrap themselves in a blanket. They both fall
asleep, and awaken the next morning realizing that Violet’s parents have no idea where she is.
Her parents have panicked, and though Finch tries frantically to smooth things over, they tell him
to go away, and they forbid Violet from seeing him again.
Finch begins to slip further into his depressive, withdrawn Sleep state, when he is “denied
access” to Violet, who has become his reason to stay Awake. One night, he takes too many
sleeping pills, but then having second thoughts, tries to throw them up. He somehow gets himself
to the hospital, where they pump his stomach. He attends a Life Is Life meeting and sees
Amanda Monk there, a fellow student and girlfriend of Roamer, who is Finch’s nemesis. He
learns that Amanda is bulimic and has attempted suicide twice. Meanwhile, Violet, concerned
about Finch whom she hasn’t heard from in several days, drives herself to his house. He
confesses that he sometimes has dark moods he can’t shake, and asks Violet to keep his secret
just as he has kept hers.
Amanda confides in Violet that Finch has attempted suicide. When Violet talks to Finch
about it, Finch’s mood turns dark, and he tells her that she couldn’t save Eleanor and she can’t
save him. In anger, Violet leaves. When she returns home, she tells her parents everything—that
Finch is the one who saved her from the ledge, and that he needs help. They try to reach Finch’s
parents, but Finch’s mom tells them it’s just what he does sometimes.
Finch disappears. He has been gone for several weeks. Violet receives a series of texts
from him, then silence. She tries to move on, starts her new online magazine, Germ, and expands
her circle of friends at school.
Kate, Finch’s older sister, appears at Violet’s front door on a Sunday morning, wondering
if Violet has heard from him. He has not checked in this week, as he has been doing regularly
every Saturday. Kate shows Violet the “weird email” they received from him that morning, but
Violet admits that she and Finch aren’t in touch any longer.
Violet logs onto Facebook, and finds a message from Finch, also sent that morning,
quoting from The Waves, by Virginia Woolf. He signs off with these words, “‘Come,’ I say,
‘come.’” Violet types “Stay,” I say, “stay.” Finch does not reply.
Violet drives to Finch’s house, having discovered that both Brenda and Charlie, Finch’s
friends, have also received strange emails from him recently. Violet searches Finch’s room for
clues to where he has gone: a place with water. Finch’s mom asks Violet to go bring him home.
As Violet suspects, divers find Finch’s body in the Blue Hole. At the funeral, Violet talks
to Finch in her head, telling him that he was the one who showed her how to make the most out
of life. She meets with Mr. Embry who tells her she’s a survivor, and gives her a booklet, SOS:
A Handbook for Survivors of Suicide. Violet knows that she is forever changed. She decides to
finish their wanderings and uses clues from Finch’s last series of texts to find the places he had
added to the map.
At the Taylor Prayer Chapel, the last wandering site, Violet finds a note and musical
score addressed to her from Finch, tucked in the chapel’s Bible. She memorizes the words,
returns home, and plays the notes on her flute.
At the end of the story, we are with Violet at the Blue Hole. She thinks about the epitaph
she has written for Finch and realizes that her own epitaph is yet to be written. Treading water
under the wide, blue sky, she dreams of all the places she has yet to wander.

Author and Background

Author: Jennifer Niven
Country: United States
Language: English
Genre: Young adult, Realistic fiction

Setting and Characters

Setting: Bell tower of the High School/ Bridge
Mr. Black’s Room
The A Street Bridge
Hoosier Hill

Characters: Theodore Finch

Violet Markey
Eleanor Markey
Violet’s mom and dad
Finch’s mom and dad
Kate Finch
Decca Finch
Mr. Embry
Josh Raymond
Amanda Monk
Charlie Donahue
Gabe “Roamer” Romero
Ryan Cross
Brenda
Rosemarie
Jordan Gripenwaldt
The three Brianas
Mr. Kresney
Other minor characters