The miseducation of cameron post

setting

• Miles City, Montana
• Early 90's
• Extremely religious community 

Point of view

• Miseducation is written from a first person POV
• It revolves around Cameron's thoughts, feelings, and actions

Characters

Cameron post

• Main protagonist of the story
• Lives in eastern Montana
• Orphaned at an early age
• Quiet, shy, good at making friends, a swimmer 
• Gay

mr. and mrs. post

Irene klauson

• Cameron's best friend (until she moved)
• Was the first to get kissed by Cameron when they were 12
• Goes to a fancy boarding school because of dinosaur bones
• Becomes really preppy and all around unpleasant company
• Gets completely forgotten as a character halfway into the book

Aunt ruth

• Cameron's aunt on her mother's side
• Extremely religious and conservative
• Drives the 'Fetus Mobile'
• Is dating the Schwan's guy
• Sends Cameron to 'God's Promise'

coley taylor

• One of Cameron's classmates
• Her boyfriend is Brett and is gone for half the summer
• Cameron falls for her even though she's straight
• Starts a 'relationship' with Cameron over the summer
• Rats Cameron out 

jamie

• One of Cameron's best friends
• Him and Cameron smoke pot and drink alcohol 
• Might have a crush on her, we don't know
• Helps her whenever she needs a friend
• Isn't in the book anymore past the halfway point

lindsey

• She's from Seattle, Washington
• Meets Cameron at a swim meet
• She's gay too
• Forms a relationship with Cameron
• Sent Cameron mix tapes of her favorite music

Adam and Jane

• Two other kids Cam meets at 'God's Promise'
• Adam's gay, Jane isn't
• They all smoke weed together in the hayloft
• They help Cam escape from God's Promise 
• They support her as she gets closure with her parents

Reverend rick

• He's one of the leaders of 'God's Promise'
• He's actually pretty cool for someone who wants to make kids 'ungay'
• Kinda looks like Jesus with the long hair and beard thing going on
• Was once gay himself but because he 'Found God' he's straight now

Lydia

• Rick's aunt and the other leader of 'God's Promise'
• A cruel, cold, and hateful woman with no boundaries
• Nobody likes her, and she has a PhD in psychology

Themes

Bildungsroman

• This story is a 'coming-of-age' kind of story
• It starts when Cameron is 12, and ends when she's 17
• It explains her struggle with accepting her sexuality
• It is told in three parts

Part i: 12 year old cam

• Cameron discovers she has feelings for her friend Irene
• They share a kiss during a sleepover 
• On that night, her parents die in a car accident
• She then finds comfort in watching movies 

part ii: Cam's teen years

• It starts when Aunt Ruth becomes her legal guardian
• She explores her sexuality and it's social context
• One one hand, church tells her to think of being gay as a sin
• On the other hand, Lindsey explains to her Gay Pride and culture
• She falls for Coley and everything that can go wrong, goes wrong

Part iii: standing ground against opposition

• Coley rats her out and Ruth sends Cam to 'God's Promise'
• She spends the next year or so in an 'ungaying' camp 
• She meets Adam, Jane, and a few other students 
• After a years time Cam realizes she needs to leave
• The three of them head to the lake where her parents died

conflict

• The main conflict of the book was Cam's internal conflict
• After time though, she found validity in her sexuality
• External conflicts involve Ruth sending her away
• And Lydia's constant prying into and insulting of Cam

in conclusion

• This is a really great 'coming-of-age' book
• It represents the importance of personal identity
• Y'all should read it