A Memorable Idea

In the short story 'Green Pizza' by Norman Bilbrough a memorable idea was that of judging people on their appearances and first impressions before getting to know who they really are. This was memorable through the actions of the main character Simon who showed me that judging someone through first impressions is not always accurate, that because of this you can often be disappointed and that it is important to learn from our mistakes.

Judging someone on first impressions is what Simon the main character of this story does. He is a teenage boy who works part-time in a Pizza Parlour. Simon has to dress up in a penguin suit and give away slices of sprayed green pizza as part of a gimmick for St Patrick's day. He likes a girl called Aimee even though he has never spoken to her. He formulates many ideas on why he likes her and disregards another character Debbie who is genuinely friendly towards him " Simon had looked away. He was saving his smiles for Aimee..... Aimee with the flaming hair and freckles sprinkled sweetly across her face". I found this memorable because of the actions of both Simon and other people in the story. The people at the mall looked at the green colour and decided against tasting the pizza even though it didn't taste too bad. Simon decided that Aimee was special based only on what he had seen of her.

It is important not to put looks over personality. Simon experiences first hand the disappointment of thinking that Aimee was so special. He finds that she reacts very negatively towards himself and the green pizza and ignores him. He feels let down and depressed. "Aimee looked down her nose at it - aw Gross! Who would want to eat this?" This was memorable to me because the reaction of Aimee showed me that only seeing what we want to can lead to disappointment because it is not based on reality.

Finally I found this idea memorable because Simon finally learns something and that is that he made a mistake about Aimee. What Simon doesn't realize at the beginning is that Aimee is cold and unfriendly because he doesn't really know her. Simon finally realizes that it is important to get to know someone first. Aimee has made fun of Simon but Debbie was friendly and open towards him "She smiled at him. Simon couldn't imagine snooty Aimee managing anything remotely as good".

I think this is important and memorable because Simon learns that what a person is like on the inside or their personality counts for a lot rather than how pretty they are.

Judging someone on what they look like or our first impression is something we all do at some stage. This idea was memorable to me in this story because through what happens to Simon. How he changes shows us that it is important to understand that judging someone solely on looks is not enough.