BDCHS Advanced Reading discussion
This topic is about
Monster
Monster
>
Monster - Cris Sepulveda
date
newest »
newest »
Wow! An interesting perspective, I really like how you pointed out that it reads as if a teenager wrote it. I didn't really like the ending either. I guess the point was to make the narrator unreliable, but it leaves the reader wondering... what if he really did do it?



“Monster” follows the journey of a young sixteen-year-old African American boy named Steve Harmon. Steve is from Harlem, New York and is caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. He lives with his mother, father, and younger brother. At the start of the book we find out that Steve is awaiting trial for supposedly being an accomplice in a drugstore robbery that ended in murder. While in confinement, Steve decides to write his experience in prison as a movie script. We learn later on in the story that, before he was imprisoned, he enjoyed amateur film making and aspired to be a famous film maker one day. In a movie script format, Steve gives the reader an account of the events leading up to the crime. He gives us the background information through short flashbacks dispersed throughout the entire novel. The other suspects accused for the crime alongside Steve include: James King, Richard “Bobo” Evans, and Osvaldo Cruz. Each suspect was prosecuted by the state lawyer Sandra Petrocelli. Steve’s defense attorney was Kathy O’Brien, a caring lady that gradually developed a friendship with Steve during the storyline. As the story progresses, Steve directs camera angles at various characters in the story from the judge, to witnesses, and to the other teens involved in the crime. The reader is given a first-person experience of what it is like to be on trial for murder as a teenager. The story switches back and forth from Steve’s thoughts in his journal entries to screenplay he creates of his trial. Steve wants to name the story after what Sandra Petrocelli, the prosecutor, called him… a Monster. After reading about all of the obstacles this character faces in the story we learn that he perseveres in the end. After the closing statements of both the defenders and the prosecutor, Steve Harmon is found not guilty. But he himself is still trying to figure out what he really is… guilty or innocent.
“Monster” has many thought-provoking themes that speak a lot about the society we live in today and the hard life of some teenagers. One theme is that you have to come to terms with yourself and figure out who you really are before other people tell you. Another theme is peer pressure. This is especially seen in how Steve associates with young men he’s aware are less than savory individuals, and yet whom he is willing to be around. There is a sense that he needs to prove his manhood in some way by being with the “tough guys” and acting like one in spite of the fact that they are a bad influence on him. Overall, I believe that “Monster” was an amazing book, although it could have had a more conclusive and satisfying ending. I didn’t really like the conclusion of the book but everything else was great. I learned what it is like to be a young teen trapped in a terrible and ongoing situation, and how to persevere through any situation or obstacle, no matter how hard it is, never stop believing in yourself.