The+Girl+Who+Loved+Tom+Gordon+Themes

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 * Fear**- While lost in the woods, Trisha is constantly afraid that there is a beast in the forest watching her. Some times during the book she gets very paranoid and sees things in the distance. At the end of the book, she finally faces her fear and "closes" (baseball metaphor) the game of fear against the beast once and for all. It turns out that there is no beast at all.=====

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 * Survival**- Trisha is still young and couldn't live without her parents by her side in the woods. However, she is stuck by herself in the woods and she has to learn how to live there. She eats berries for food and attempts to find shelter. Eventually, she finds a river where she then follows because she remembered that all the rivers lead to the ocean. She then follows it, where she then ends up meeting face to face with bear. Trisha tries to scare it away, but a man comes out from the woods and carries her away. Trisha is also seeing many hallucinations of her biggest fears, which is making her struggle for her survival.=====

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 * Coping with divorce**- Since Trisha's parent's have divorced, she puts on a happy face when she is really miserable. Her brother Pete has become very antagonistic towards their mother. Their constant arguing indirectly leads to Trisha getting lost, showing the potential of dysfunction not only on families, but on circumstance.=====

Ever since the beginning of human existance, men have been always been tested against nature. Stephen King has changed this to a little girl against nature. She must use her courage and bravery in order to escape the woods. She must have the characteristics of determination and strength to accomplish her goal of surviving. http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-girl-who-loved-tom-gordon/themes.html
 * Man vs. Nature**