Alyssa+B

Independent Reading Assessment – Confessions of a Shopaholic Plot Overview Rebecca Bloomwood, a financial journalist for a company called Successful Savings informs others on how to spend their money. Meanwhile, Rebecca cannot control her addictiveness to shopping and finds herself in major debt. Becky goes through countless plans trying to get out of debt. She believes she can easily just win the lottery and all her problems will be solved. After losing the first night she gives up and takes on another plan. Her new plan is to cut back on her spending which is a great plan but Becky cannot seem to follow it. She still finds herself spending money causing her to fall more in debt. She receives many letters from the bank manager as well as phone calls but Becky makes up excuses. Becky decides if she can’t spend less then she will need to make more. She gets a Saturday job at one of her favorite clothing stores but is fired on the first day for hiding jeans from a customer because Becky wanted them for herself. Becky then plans to change careers to one that will pay more but still staying in the financial field. During her meeting for the job her little white lie that she speaks Finnish backfires when she is spoken to in Finnish. Becky runs out of the building. Suze’s cousin Tarquin has liked Rebecca for awhile. After Becky reads that he is worth 25 million she decides to give him a chance. Becky gets caught in the act of going through Tarquin’s checkbook during their date while he is in the bathroom and Rebecca realizes what she has done. Unsatisfied with herself, Rebecca decides to runaway from her problems and makes a trip to her parent’s house. At her parent’s house she finds that her neighbors since childhood have just lost 20, 000 windfall because they switched investment funds after receiving a letter advising them to. Rebecca saw a great story in this and wanted to help her neighbors so she wrote an article for the Daily World, a popular finance magazine. She had no idea the article would land her a spot on a talk show the very next day. The PR of Flagstaff Life, Luke Brandon also appeared on the show to Rebecca’s surprise to argue the issue. In the end, Rebecca landed a job as appearing on the show more often which she received a lot of money for and also got a date with Luke Brandon. Finally, Rebecca was able to pay off her large debt and her life was turning back around. Character List Rebecca Bloomwood: Rebecca is a financial journalist for Successful Saving and lives in a flat in London with her friend Suze. She experiences a huge problem of falling into major debt due to her shopping habit. Rebecca struggles to get out of debt and goes through several plans to get out of it. Luke Brandon: Luke owns a financial company called Brandon Communications. He holds press conferences for people in the financial business to gather information and discuss important issues. He appears on the talk show with Rebecca because Flagstaff Life is one of his clients. Suze Cleath-Stuart: Suze is from a wealthy family and is also Rebecca’s good friend and her roommate. Rebecca never tells Suze about her financial problem but Suze helps Rebecca by making photo frames using a kit which she gets paid for. Suze ends up making a business out of her photo frames. Important Quotations Explained // “No, we can’t. Friends treat each other with respect. But you don’t respect me, do you, Luke? You just think I’m a joke. A nothing. Well…well, I’m not.” // Rebecca spends the day with Luke Brandon helping him pick out a suitcase and having lunch with him. She realizes that he isn’t all business and can be a lot of fun. At lunch when she finds out Luke was buying a suitcase for his girlfriend, Rebecca gets upset because she thought Luke actually liked her. This leaves Rebecca feeling like she was being used because she doesn’t mean anything to him when she knows that she deserves more respect. // “I wouldn’t aim to win the jackpot of course—that’s completely unlikely. But one of those minor prizes. Say one hundred thousand quid. That would do. Actually, better make it two hundred thousand quid. Or a quarter of a million…One point three million should see me straight.”

// Rebecca comes up with the idea of playing the lottery and what she wants to win so part of it can be used to pay off her debts and use the rest for her. The amount she aims to win keeps getting higher and higher which points out a characteristic of Becky’s, she is never fully satisfied and money seems to be everything to her. // “It’s that I feel like a completely new person. I feel as though I’m moving on to a new stage in life—with a different outlook, and different priorities…The new Rebecca is so much more levelheaded. So much more responsible. It’s as though the tinted glasses have fallen off—and suddenly I can see what’s really important in the world and what’s not.” //

Rebecca has finally realized that having the latest clothes and accessories are not top priority. She has learned a lot from being in debt and going through a tough time but her future is looking a lot brighter. Themes and Symbols The theme of lying is evident in Confessions of a Shopaholic. Not only does Endwich bank write Rebecca many letters to schedule a meeting to discuss how to solve her issue of debt but they also make several phone calls. Rebecca has a new lie to tell them when the call. For an example, she tells them she has broken her leg and another time says her dog has died. These are not the only people Rebecca lies to though. She never tells friends or family that she is in debt. When she goes to stay with her parents to hide from everything she tells them she is there because a man has been stalking her. Becky does not tell them the man is Derek Smeath, the manager of Endwich bank trying to reach her due to her debt. Selfishness is another evident theme in Confessions of a Shopaholic. Rebecca knows she shouldn’t be buying more clothes that she doesn’t even need especially when she is in debt, but she buys them anymore. The Denny and George scarf is a perfect example. Since it is on sale Becky sees it as a smart purchase and something she has to have. However, she left her debit card on her desk at work and does not have time to go back and get it because she must get to a press conference. At the press conference she ends up receiving money from Luke Brandon to buy the scarf. She tells him that her Aunt Ermetrude is very sick and she would like to buy the scarf to give her a gift. This is another one of Becky’s lies but she desperately wants the scarf for herself. The theme of finding out who you are is apparent in this book as well. Throughout the novel Rebecca puts shopping and money at the top of her list. When she finds herself in debt and struggles to get out of it she realizes that money and fashion isn’t everything. Her compulsive shopping habit brought her a lot of unhappiness and she found herself feeling like a failure. Once Becky was able to pick herself back up and pay off her debts she found who she truly was—a responsible person that doesn’t need shopping/money to make her happy because having fashionable clothes will not make you successful.