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The Wish

 The Wish
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TVTItem
 The Wish
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The Wish
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TheWish
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The Wish is a 2000 children's novel by Gail Carson Levine.Wilma Sturtz is an unpopular and friendless girl who is either mocked or ignored by all her classmates. One day, her entire life changes after she meets an old lady who grants her one wish: being the most popular girl at Claverford (her middle school). Suddenly Wilma is befriended by a group of popular girls, finds a boyfriend, and is loved by everyone at school.But her new "popularity" only applies to Claverford students, and Wilma starts to fear that her wish will expire the day she graduates from middle school...
 The Wish
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2023-10-01T16:14:29Z
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2023-10-01T16:14:29Z
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Dropped link to NiceGirl: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN
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NiceGirl
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DBTropes
 The Wish / int_170cf4b6
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Heroes Love Dogs
 The Wish / int_170cf4b6
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Heroes Love Dogs: Wilma's dog, Reggie, was her only friend before the wish.
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The Wish / int_170cf4b6
 The Wish / int_1c8d6c07
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Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy
 The Wish / int_1c8d6c07
comment
Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: Wilma used to have a crush on the popular Carlos. Once she becomes popular too, she realizes that Carlos is a jerk and actually prefers Jared, an unpopular nice guy.
 The Wish / int_1c8d6c07
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The Wish / int_1c8d6c07
 The Wish / int_1e7c13c
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Class Princess
 The Wish / int_1e7c13c
comment
Class Princess: Ardis, a rich, smart, beautiful, and popular Extracurricular Enthusiast, who is also loved for her kind and friendly personality. The trope is deconstructed, as she's eventually revealed to be a realistically flawed person with her own weaknesses, and also used to be unpopular in her old school. She's still one of the nicest characters in the book. Wilma, after she becomes popular. While she's excited to hang out with the cool kids, she's also willing to help the unpopular Daphne to make friends, and is never mean to anyone. She even tries to be polite to Suzanne, the opportunistic girl who used to bully her, and the only time she insulted Suzanne was in order to defend Daphne.
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 The Wish / int_22a27b19
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Alpha Bitch
 The Wish / int_22a27b19
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Alpha Bitch: Averted with the three popular girs Ardis, Nina, and BeeBee. Even the meanest of the three, Nina, is a Lovable Alpha Bitch. Also averted with Wilma herself, who stays true to herself after she becomes popular, and even stands up for unpopular students like Daphne. No Mean Girls plot here. Zig-zagged with Suzanne. She is a straight-up bully, but not necessarily popular. She just likes to hang out with popular people at school but it's implied that she's disliked even in her circle. In fact, the popular girls tolerate her but don't want to hang out with her outside of school.
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 The Wish / int_278e545e
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Scholarship Student
 The Wish / int_278e545e
comment
Scholarship Student: Discussed. Wilma explains near the beginning of the book that everyone at Claverford is either smart and got a scholarship or has rich parents, and that everyone knows who is a "Brain" and who is a "Wallet" (though it doesn't determine their popularity).
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The Wish / int_278e545e
 The Wish / int_3287773c
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Lovable Alpha Bitch
 The Wish / int_3287773c
comment
Lovable Alpha Bitch: Nina is popular, dominant, and bitchy, but she's of the Jerk with a Heart of Gold type. BeeBee has shades of this. Even her early mistreatment of the unpopular Wilma was only out of peer pressure, but she's mostly likable. She can also qualify as an Innocent Beta Bitch, since she's not as famous as Ardis and not as dominant as Nina, despite still being very popular.
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 The Wish / int_3a74aa2f
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Innocent Beta Bitch
 The Wish / int_3a74aa2f
comment
BeeBee has shades of this. Even her early mistreatment of the unpopular Wilma was only out of peer pressure, but she's mostly likable. She can also qualify as an Innocent Beta Bitch, since she's not as famous as Ardis and not as dominant as Nina, despite still being very popular.
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The Wish / int_3a74aa2f
 The Wish / int_40cc0c7e
type
Bittersweet Ending
 The Wish / int_40cc0c7e
comment
Bittersweet Ending: Even though the wish does end, Wilma keeps the friends that she actually likes, and Jared as well. Ardis, Nina and BeeBee forgive her after being initially angry. Jared, on hearing about the old lady, jokingly says she ought to have wished for a pet porpoise or elephant. The old lady in question laughs when Wilma offers to do more good things for a wish and tells her that it's not how magic works when you know you'll get rewarded for it, but that she is a fine girl who will grow up to be a finer person. Wilma decides to pass the wish on to someone else by advising a nearby boy to do a good deed for the old lady.
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The Wish / int_40cc0c7e
 The Wish / int_4781adbb
type
Jerk with a Heart of Gold
 The Wish / int_4781adbb
comment
Nina is popular, dominant, and bitchy, but she's of the Jerk with a Heart of Gold type.
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 The Wish / int_545d100b
type
Intelligence Equals Isolation
 The Wish / int_545d100b
comment
Intelligence Equals Isolation: Played straight with Daphne, who is the smartest and most unpopular girl in the school. Wilma is also very smart, but her unpopularity is mostly due to being humiliated in front of the entire school rather than her intelligence. Averted with Ardis, who is known for being an intelligent Extracurricular Enthusiast (although, despite her great reputation, she's actually Book Dumb, as Wilma finds out) and is also extremely popular.
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The Wish / int_545d100b
 The Wish / int_74b34280
type
Academic Alpha Bitch
 The Wish / int_74b34280
comment
Academic Alpha Bitch: Suzanne, the popularity-seeker who takes pleasure in bullying the unpopular kids, is apparently one of the "brains" who only attends Claverford because she's a very smart student, just like Wilma. Wilma, however, doesn't consider her smart.
 The Wish / int_74b34280
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The Wish / int_74b34280
 The Wish / int_82518cf7
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Motor Mouth
 The Wish / int_82518cf7
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Motor Mouth: Stephanie apparently speaks very quickly, but without realizing it.
 The Wish / int_82518cf7
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 The Wish / int_829b958e
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Embarrassing First Name
 The Wish / int_829b958e
comment
Embarrassing First Name: Wilma finds her name embarrassing. Also, BeeBee's real name is Bernice Beryl but she never tells anyone about it.
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The Wish / int_829b958e
 The Wish / int_9838d681
type
DudeMagnet
 The Wish / int_9838d681
comment
Dude Magnet: One of the effects of Wilma's wish. Most boys at school ask her to the dance, including the boyfriends of her new popular friends.
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The Wish / int_9838d681
 The Wish / int_9b54d536
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Evil Counterpart
 The Wish / int_9b54d536
comment
Evil Counterpart: Suzanne to Wilma. Both desperately want to be popular and hang out with the school's Girl Posse. Unlike Suzanne, Wilma is never mean to the unpopular students, never badmouths people behind their back, and genuinely tries to be a true friend.
 The Wish / int_9b54d536
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The Wish / int_9b54d536
 The Wish / int_9e9203e1
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Dramatically Missing the Point
 The Wish / int_9e9203e1
comment
Dramatically Missing the Point: One of the Surprisingly Realistic Outcome of Wilma's wish is that when it wears off, her new friends are understandably angry about the fact that they were forced to like her. She tries desperately to explain how much their friendship means to her by saying that if she met the old lady again, she'd wish for their friendship instead of popularity—and Ardis points out wishing for their friendship would also force them to like her. But Ardis also admits that if not for the wish, none of the girls would have realized that Wilma is actually a cool person.
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The Wish / int_9e9203e1
 The Wish / int_a5c121ef
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CoolLoser
 The Wish / int_a5c121ef
comment
Cool Loser: Wilma is smart, nice, and likable, but her reputation at school is ruined after the teacher reads her embarrassing essay about her dog in front of the class.
 The Wish / int_a5c121ef
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The Wish / int_a5c121ef
 The Wish / int_a7601fd0
type
Big Ol' Unibrow
 The Wish / int_a7601fd0
comment
Big Ol' Unibrow: Jared has one. It's the reason why Wilma finds him unattractive at first. She changes her mind after they start dating.
 The Wish / int_a7601fd0
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The Wish / int_a7601fd0
 The Wish / int_b06bbf4b
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Be Careful What You Wish For
 The Wish / int_b06bbf4b
comment
Be Careful What You Wish For: Wilma is given a wish and asks to be the most popular student at her middle school, Claverford... only to discover it only affects students of Claverford. The wish has no effect on those who do not attend Claverford, and it will expire as soon as she graduates.
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The Wish / int_b06bbf4b
 The Wish / int_bb9b52f3
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Extracurricular Enthusiast
 The Wish / int_bb9b52f3
comment
Averted with Ardis, who is known for being an intelligent Extracurricular Enthusiast (although, despite her great reputation, she's actually Book Dumb, as Wilma finds out) and is also extremely popular.
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 The Wish / int_c1cef253
type
Nice, Mean, and In-Between
 The Wish / int_c1cef253
comment
Nice Mean And In Between: The three popular girls. Ardis is a Nice Girl who was friendly to Wilma even before the wish, Nina is harsh and rude even to her friends (although she has a nice side), and BeeBee is a very good friend, but at the beginning of the book she was quite shallow (she gets better).
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 The Wish / int_ca81238
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Cool Kid-and-Loser Friendship
 The Wish / int_ca81238
comment
Cool Kid-and-Loser Friendship: After Wilma becomes popular, she befriends the unpopular Daphne and starts dating the unpopular Jared. She wasn't interested in befriending them at first, but they turn out to be likable people. Wilma sees herself as the loser when she hangs out with Ardis, Nina, and BeeBee, because she knows to be popular only because of the wish and this makes her easily embarrassed in front of the cool girls. That said, Wilma remains true to herself.
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 The Wish / int_cb83d23b
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I Just Want to Be Special
 The Wish / int_cb83d23b
comment
I Just Want to Be Special: After spending most of her school years being ignored, Wilma wants to keep her new popularity at any cost.
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 The Wish / int_e075da76
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Somebody Doesn't Love Raymond
 The Wish / int_e075da76
comment
Somebody Doesn't Love Raymond: The wish made Wilma universally adored by everyone, so Wilma is not happy when Stephanie, an old friend of BeeBee's and Nina's, still doesn't like her. It turns out to be a case of Exact Words as Wilma's wish was "being the most popular girl at Claverford," and Stephanie is from another school. Stephanie still sees Wilma as the same person as before (not hateable but still nothing special) and doesn't understand what's so great about her.
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The Wish / int_e075da76
 The Wish / int_e5fd8bc2
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Hate Sink
 The Wish / int_e5fd8bc2
comment
Hate Sink: Suzanne is a nasty Jerkass who sucks up to the popular kids, bullies the unpopular ones, and badmouths even her "friends" behind their back. Wilma finds her even more hateable as a friend than as an enemy.
 The Wish / int_e5fd8bc2
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The Wish / int_e5fd8bc2
 The Wish / int_feb72f62
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Literal Genie
 The Wish / int_feb72f62
comment
Literal Genie: The "old lady." Wilma wishes to be the most popular at her school, and the wish is granted. Eventually she realizes that this means the wish will end at her graduation from that school, less than a month away. (And therefore, that it would have been better to take the original wish offered to her: to be popular, period. Or, as Jared jokingly points out, to ask for a pet porpoise or elephant.)
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ItemName
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The Wish

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 The Wish
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American Literature (T to Z) / int_91c1f60b
 The Wish
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Literal Genie / int_91c1f60b
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Young Adult Literature / int_91c1f60b