However, this situation is very different with Jack and Jill in the book, In A Glass Grimmly, by Adam Gidwitz. This book is the story of two cousins, Jack and Jill. Jack is constantly bullied by the popular crowd he worships, and Jill wants to be beautiful as her vain mother wants her to be. In this book, Jack and Jill go through a violent journey to retrieve the ancient Seeing Glass, which they swore their lives on, that they would get this in hopes of what they wanted. Jack wanted to be popular and Jill wanted to be beautiful. Throughout this book Jill has changed from being vain, shallow, and careless to wise and selfless because of her realization of what she really wants.
In the beginning of the book, Jill acted very selfish.
For example, she thought she wanted to be exactly like her mom; beautiful. She would always take her self centered mother's advice, but that advice is always about beauty or makeup tips. Jill's mother made Jill put her feet in freezing cold water. When Jill asked why she had to do this, her mother had simply said ''beautiful women have the softest feet'', and Jill would nod and try not to shiver loudly. This shows that Jill would do anything to become pretty. Jill is also very careless, she doesn't care about the people around her, nor does she feel any sympathy for them. For example, when Jill and her mother heard a poor beggar crying for bread, Jill's mother insulted him about the way he smelled, and Jill, out of all things, giggled. Jill can very thoughtless sometimes too. She had swore on her life that she would find the one and only powerful Seeing Glass, and the only reason that she made such a promise is because the old witch had said that if she did find this Seeing Glass, she would make Jill the most beautiful girl in the kingdom. But more importantly, Jill had to go with Jack, climb a beanstalk, slay giants, do so many other dangerous things that are definitely not suitable for children like them. Also, Jill is very shallow. For example, when Jill comes face to face with a mermaid, she immediately trusts the mermaid just because the mermaid was ''so beautiful and such a precious thing.'' But later, she finds out that the mermaid had lied to her from day one, and did this so she could kill Jill, just like how she killed the fisherman's daughter.
Although Jill acted very selfish in the beginning of the book,
she begins to show signs of maturity at the end. For example, when Jill was being kidnapped by the goblins, she was surprisingly bored with them when they were telling her how beautiful she is, instead she was focusing on the silk bonds that were tied to her hands. In the book it said, ''Jill did not care what they thought of her. Which she found very surprising. Because at long last, Jill was being admired- worshipped- for her beauty. Just as she always wanted. And, it turned out, she did not like it all.'' This shows that Jill finally decided to focus on her and Jack's lives instead of filling herself with pride every time a goblin spoke. That was probably why she was focusing on the silk bonds instead of them. Another example that supports this is that when Jill was reunited with her mother. While her mother was busy admiring a new shade of eye shadow, Jill sent a silver hairbrush crashing into a large silver mirror, which shattered it into many pieces, and with that, Jill had screamed at her mother saying, ''I don't care! I don't care what you think! I don't care! You stare at the mirror all day long and you don't even see! You don't even see! '' This shows how much confidence Jill had gained to actually yell at her mother. A final example that supports this is when Jack and Jill had run away. They would both sleep outside, both were very dirty and muddy. And they didn't care about how they looked or smelled. Other kids would throw rocks at them, but Jack and Jill paid no attention to them.
As you can see, Jill changed because she finally realized what was more important; their lives and how they were going to spend it. Basically anything but beauty. Overall, I thought this was a great book. It teaches great lessons, including the one Jill had learned; beauty isn't everything. This book also shows how much people can change. Jill had learned so much throughout her adventures, including that lesson, and that lesson caused her to be the person she is today.
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