The True Confession of Charlotte Doyle

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle June 4, 2012 Ann Lee 8D “The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle” by Avi is about a thirteen-year-old girl, Charlotte Doyle, traveling from England to America, where her family was living. After the ship had left, she realized that she was the only female passenger on the ship, which was called Seahawk. Charlotte was an upper class and educated girl, unlike many of the sailors on the ship. Despite the fact that one of the sailors warned Charlotte about Captain Jaggery’s true side, Charlotte didn’t believe him and became friends with Captain Jaggery, who seemed like a gentleman to her.

However, she realized that the captain was using her to get information and he was cruel to the sailors. Charlotte decided to join the rebels. The rebels wanted to kill the captain, who was cruel and mean to them, and Captain Jaggery was trying to prevent the sailors from rebelling against him. Clearly, there was a conflict between the rebels and Captain Jaggery. The climax of the story was when Captain Jaggery died by falling off the ship, and the conflict was also resolved, since the war between the rebels and Captain Jaggery was over. The main theme of this novel is the change of identity.

Before her journey, she was just a rich, upper class girl, who was educated. But when she was on the ship with other sailors, she had to be one of them. She wore dirty clothes that she wasn’t allowed to wear at home and didn’t care about her manners and behaviors. Her parents always told her to behave like a lady, but her identity has changed when she was on the ship; she was acting like a different person. Clearly, change of identity took place in this novel. I like how this book was written in the perspective of a teenage girl, who is about my age. I could understand the character better, and read the book from her perspective.