74 pages • 2 hours read
Raina TelgemeierSmile: A Graphic Novel
Fiction | Graphic Novel/Book | Middle Grade | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapter 8
Chapter 8 Summary
Raina enjoys her new friends so much that she forgets about her dental troubles. After four-and-a-half years of largely improvised treatments, Dr. Dragoni finally removes her braces. Raina’s joy turns into dismay when she sees her teeth as greenish and misshapen—worse than the plastic teeth from the retainer. She is not consoled by her mother’s reassurance or Dr. Dragoni’s jokey counterarguments and gift of popcorn kernels, previously a forbidden food. Her mood only lightens when Theresa compliments them without a second thought, even after Raina tries to point out their flaws. Dr. Golden performs additional bonding to improve their appearance, and the night headpiece becomes a memento on her drawer.
Although Raina struggles in class and never gets together with Sean, she is happy with her new friends and pursuits such as Japanese Club and choir. She continues to design posters for her school, including a large banner for the Sophomore Hop dance. Raina realizes, “I had been letting the way I looked on the outside affect how I felt on the inside” (206). By focusing on her passions, she can improve both her own self-esteem and how others see her.
Unlike the Valentine’s Day dance in middle school, she enjoys the Sophomore Hop dance with gusto. Her group decides to get a group photo, and at the photographer’s command, a truly happy Raina gives a beaming, teeth-bearing smile.
Chapter 8 Analysis
Difficult times can be easier or harder depending on the company you are with. Without the toxicity and image consciousness of her previous group, Raina has no reason to worry about her teeth. Her braces remain a major part of her identity, however, and the idea that her new teeth could still be bad reignites her self-esteem issues.
While she is happy to take off her braces, Raina second guesses whether her teeth look right, calling them “funky-looking” before the operation and “WEIRD” immediately after (198-200). Telgemeier typically draws Raina’s teeth as a straight row even when she has the braces or retainer over them, but after the removal, she draws the top teeth in a curved and uneven manner. Raina is so conditioned to expect criticism that she is shocked that Theresa has nothing negative to say about them.
Page 205 depicts a dresser mirror with items that represent Raina’s middle school years: the pre-accident dental picture, the nighttime headgear, a bowl of earrings and a small makeup kit that call back to her image issues, candles like the ones from the earthquake, a statue of Ariel from The Little Mermaid, a picture of Bart Simpson, and a ticket on the mirror that is either for the Valentine’s Day dance or for the upcoming Sophomore Hop. These are now mementos of the past as Smile completes the falling action after the climax of Chapter 7. With her image and social traumas resolved, Raina can now enjoy school life without fear of peer pressure or unrequited love. The final procedure goes off without a hitch. Instead of standing just outside the dancehall, she enters without a second thought with her friends.
The final images serve as a bookend to the first images in the book. In the beginning, when she still has her original teeth, Raina gives a big and awkward grimace when the dental assistant asks her to smile. After facing her trials, she gives an earnest smile to the camera.
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By Raina Telgemeier
