To Duncan’s horror, he finds that he is the senior responsible for this year’s traditional ‘Game’. Duncan gets so drawn into the story of Tim, his relationship with the lovely Vanessa and her appalling jock boyfriend, that he starts to neglect his work and his own girl, Daisy. Duncan’s treasure turns out to be a set of CDs on which Tim has recorded his account of the terrible events. It’s a school tradition that students who’ve graduated leave behind a ‘treasure’ in their room for the next guy. He finds that his new room was previously occupied by Tim. To flag this up, the first narrator is called Duncan the second, ‘the albino kid’ who has now left school, is Tim Macbeth.ĭuncan arrives at school for the new term still haunted by what happened a year ago. There has also been a real life tragedy of some sort, played out in the previous year, which is a mystery for most of the book. The Tragedy Paper is a compulsory assignment for all English seniors at the prestigious Irving School it’s set and marked each year by the charismatic Mr Simon. Mostly, though, this is an engaging tale told by a boy rendered an outsider by his appearance, full of passion and almost unrequited love, signifying the heartbreaks and melodramas of high school.The title of this book has a double meaning. Although the book is highly literary in its exploration of tragedy, there is no tie to the Scottish play other than through the character names, but there are shades and echoes of The Outsiders, Ethan Frome, and The Great Gatsby in form, plot, and language, which may help readers trace the characteristics of tragedy in those books. Heretofore, Duncan has only known the sad outcome of the night of the senior game, but Tim’s recitation of the details provides the full context for the tragedy as it unfolds from order to chaos to order, revealing the tragic flaws of the heroes that result in their destiny.

Vanessa seems to genuinely like Tim, but she will only meet with him clandestinely and won’t give up her public relationship and reputation for him. Tim is a self-conscious albino who meets Vanessa on their way to school and begins a doomed relationship with her-doomed because, as the most beautiful girl at Irving, she is naturally dating the most popular boy, even though he’s predictably shallow. Last year, however, the game ended in an actual tragedy, and the “treasure” Duncan receives from Tim Macbeth is a full accounting of the events that led up to the fateful night. The traditions of the Irving School are relatively benign-an annual game of some sort for the seniors, the passing on of a “treasure” of some kind from graduating seniors to the juniors who will move into their rooms, and a senior English paper that explores the true nature of tragedy in literature and in life.

The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth LaBan