Monster summer entry #3

“I know she thinks I’m guilty.  I can feel it when we sit together on the bench they have assigned for us.  She writes down what is being said, and what is being said about me, and she adds it all up to guilty.  “I’m not guilty,” I said to her.  “”You should have said ‘I didn’t do it,’” she said.  “I didn’t do it,” I said.”(Myers 138).

            This quote is the dialogue between Steve Harmon and his attorney, Kathy O’Brien.  At the beginning of this quote from my book Steve is saying that he doesn’t trust his attorney. This is because he just doesn’t feel that she believes that Steve is actually innocent.  The next part of the quote is when Steve states that he is not guilty.  However Mrs. O’Brien says that saying he is not guilty is not the same as saying that he did not commit the crime that he is now being tried for.  As I read this line the first time I didn’t really understand why this mattered so much. If you think about it a little though it starts to make sense of what the difference between saying, “I’m not guilty,” and “I didn’t do it”.  The main difference between these two phrases is the confidence that you need to have to say I didn’t do it.  However, in the long run from Steve’s point of view he is being wrongly convicted of this crime.

Monster summer entry #2

           Monster by Walter Dean Myers is structured in an extraordinary way.  First of all, Monster is written in first person.  Also the book is written as a play of the life of the main character Steve Harmon as he goes through the life changing conflict of being framed for murder as the story unravels and evolves.  On each page of the book it is split up into different paragraphs for each person that is talking. You always know who is talking because to the side of each of those paragraphs is the name of the character that is speaking.  Another thing about my book that is different than any other book I have ever read is that because it is written as a play in bold it has the movement of the camera.

            In the book Monster the main character, Steve Harmon, has the desire for justice!  He does not want to be wrongly convicted of something that he never did.  Kathy O’Brien, who is also a major character that that I have mentioned in my last post. She is the attorney of Steve and she wants the case to be judged fairly. In the book it stated that she wanted Steve to be innocent until proven guilty not guilty until proven innocent. Osvaldo Cruz wants to be given a deal from the police to get less jail time. The prosecutor in the book, Sandra Petrocelli, has the desire to do her job in making the right decision and to be fair. James King the other thug wants to be set free of all charges of the crime.

            A major theme in my book is all things happen for a reason and everyone should have the right to get a second chance.   

Monster Summer Entry 1

         This summer I have chosen to read Monster written by Walter Dean Myers.  The main character of my book is Steve Harmon.  The book is written from the perspective of Steve while he is on trial for murder. Another major character is Kathy O’Brien.  Kathy O’Brien is the Attorney of Steve Harmon in the court trial.  James King is the other person that is on trial with Steve at the same time for the same crime.  A witness in the case is Osvaldo Cruz. The head prosecutor in the case is named Sandra Petrocelli. Sandra Petrocelli will determine if Steve Harmon and James King will go to jail and how long.  Relating back to the title of the book, Monster, Steve states that Petrocelli says, “I’ll call it what the lady who is the prosecutor called me. MONSTER” (Myers 5). 
         The setting of this book is at the court and of Steve in jail as he is being tried for murder. There is one major conflict in the book, which is Steve Harmon is being wrongly convicted of murder in an unfair trial case.  This is a major struggle for Steve as I progress in the book especially because he is only 16 years old! Which is truly amazing because that means that he is only one year older than me and is away from his home, parents, and friends as he is going through the toughest time in his life. A text to text connection that I can make is that this book is a lot like Scorpia in the Alex Rider Series by Anthony Horowitz.  These two books are alike because in both of them the main character is going through a rough time with little to no support. Will Steve Harmon be convicted of murder? Will he be given the death penalty? Is Osvaldo Cruz lying?  What is Steve’s side of the story of what happened on the day of the Murder?