The Importance Of Acceptance

Both Elizabeth Stewart’s ‘Blue Gold’ and Gordon Korman’s ‘Ungifted’ feature a similar concept of trying to fit in as in both books, the main characters are constantly trying to integrate themselves within groups and wanting to be accepted. For instance, in “Blue Gold,” each of the girls want to be part of something bigger, such as Lai Ping, who attempts to distinguish herself from other village workers. Similarly, in “Ungifted,” both Donovan and the academy children attempt to immerse themselves into their respective groups. This evokes the idea of how acceptance is important and the lengths people can go to in order to be accepted. 

At the beginning of the book, Lai Ping is shown to be a girl who came from a village seeking a job at a factory to earn money for her ill father. After arriving at the factory, Lai Ping is introduced to Kai, who informs her about the things she needed to know about the factory. Although slightly suspicious, Lai Ping attempted to strike a conversation with Kai before he was chased away by the guards. After the incident, Lai Ping is called a “Stupid hick,” by an older girl, which she realises that standing out was dangerous. Subsequently, Lai Ping became more cautious as she tried to stay in line despite her monotonous work. Some might argue that this was a result of Lai ping being scared of losing her job, but evidence suggests that she became much less daring following the events of Kai’s first appearance. Following this, in Ungifted, Donovan is cautious when interacting with the students of Hardcastle as he fears them denoting him as an outcast.

Further into the book, after being discriminated by her schoolmates, Fiona is seen to be constantly trying to move past her photo incident and restore her former image. Some might argue that this was an attempt of desperation as she became more aggressive towards those who were concerned for her. But evidence points towards her wanting to be accepted again, which is seen further in the book, where Fiona uses people with similar stories such as Lai Ping and Sylvie to get her peers to move past the situation with sympathy. Similarly, Donovan wants his peers to understand that he is gifted in regions other than academically, in an attempt to distract them, he uses different techniques to make them forget about him being different.

Fitting into groups is important for people as being shunned as an outcast for being known as different can really have an impact on people, making them feel isolated and unwanted. Blue Gold and Ungifted address these problems and depict how certain people react to these situations, as well as show how their ideas develop and change throughout.