“More Than This”
By Lucas Peterka
While reading Patrick Ness’s “More Than This”, I found the main character, Seth, was constantly represented. But the other two characters, Regine and Tomasz, were almost absent. However, Regine’s personality was highly opinionated and she was always sharing her ideas with Seth, so the reader would notice her more. Tomasz’s opinions were regularly left out of the book and Ness did this for a reason.
At the end of Ness’s book, Tomasz ends up as the server of justice. The reason this is important is because that was an unexpected and surprising outcome. Ness repeatedly left out, and made sure the reader noticed, Tomasz’s opinion. Ness purposely makes Tommy almost a background character that doesn’t have as much substance as either Seth or Regine. This is deceptive, however, for Tomasz is actually just shy and dismissed by the older characters, and we see this when he kills the Driver. That role was probably the most important in the book, and was expected to be reserved for our “hero” (Seth). So it could not be given away lightly to some secondary character with no personality. With one act, Ness reveals the depth in his character and exposes some of the wrong actions performed by the other characters.
When Tomasz kills the Driver, Ness tells us all about his personality, and how the other characters oppressed his opinions. By excluding this opinion, Ness intended to surprise his readers and made the most important character hide in the shadows.