Field Guide to the North American Teenager

Content Warning: The section of the guide features depictions of racism and bigoted language and descriptions of attempted suicide.

The novel explores the impact words have on individuals and interpersonal relationships through Norris’s own thoughtless use of words, both spoken and written. Throughout the novel, many of Norris’s conflicts stem from words and the damage they can do when used carelessly. Norris also has harmful language directed at him, and his reaction to others’ use of slurs furthers the novel’s thematic focus on the consequences of hurtful words.

Norris’s struggle with his own use of words is the primary vessel for this theme. This is made clear in Chapter 2 when Judith warns Norris, “[You’re at] a new school, and these people don’t know you yet. So watch what you say to them” (15). This scene establishes that conflict arising from Norris’s words is nothing new to Norris or Judith and foreshadows the problems Norris faces at Anderson High. These problems begin in Chapter 3 when Norris loses his patience with the cheerleaders accusing him of spying on them. Norris mocks the cheerleaders using derogatory language, which escalates the conflict. In Chapter 4, Liam refers to Norris as the “super-rude Canadian” (39), which Norris suspects is “how the [cheerleaders] were marketing him to the public at large” after their encounter (39).