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Transcript

Finding The Real YOU!

Monster

By Walter Dean Myers

Cruelty In The Jail.

Peer Pressure

Making Choices

Short Summary

Characters and Roles They Play

Life is unfair

This story shows peer pressure because Steve was forced into doing something that he didn't want to do.

  • A sixteen year old boy named Steve Harmon finds himself on trial for murder after he is accused as acting as a lookout for the young men who actually commit a robbery at a Harlem drugstore and kill the store owner. The story is presented predominantly from his own viewpoint in the form of a screenplay and journal entries he writes, as he faces the trial and possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison.

Steve's part was to give a sign to make sure everything was clear. He made a choice and just walked out as if he had no part in that.

"What did i do? What did i do? Anybody can walk into a drugstore and look around. Is that what i'm on trial for? I didn't do nothing!" Pg. 115

Accidents happen, and some accidents might get you in trouble, just what happened to Steve.

"Miss O'Brien said the judge could sentence me to 25 years to life. If he did, i would have to serve at least 21 years and 3 months." Pg. 90

Steve could of gotten 25 years of prison for doing something he didn't even commit! Be in the wrong place and the wrong time, and you might face consequences for it.

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 this “tough guys” in spite of the fact that they can bring disaster down upon him.

" All they talk about in here is hurting people." Pg.45

This quote is said in one of Steve's journal page, he is afraid of the Detention Center. All people want to do is hurt each other.

"One guy has a knife. its not really a knife, but a blade glued onto a toothbrush handle." Pg.45

This is an example of what other prisoners would use as a weapon to hurt each other.

"They take away your shoelaces so you can’t kill yourself" Pg.59

This place was so cruel, teenagers would rather take their own lifes, than to stay and suffer.

While he was in jail, he only cried when someone was being raped or beaten, because that way they wouldn't hear him.

"i want to look like a good person because i believe i am. But being in here with these guys makes it hard to think about yourself as being different" Pg. 62

Being in the detention center has changed Steve, he know he has done nothing wrong, but being in there makes him feel like if he was guilty.

"that was what i was thinking, about what was in my heart and what that made me. I'm just not a bad person. i know that in my heart i am not a bad person." Pg.93

Steve went into the store not knowing what was about to happen, being stuck in the Detention Center makes him realize that he is no bad, it wasn't his intention to get Mr. Nesbitt killed.

"That is why i take films of myself. I want to know who i am. I want to know the road to panic that i took. I want to look at myself a thousand times to look for one true image." Pg281

After Steve was released from Detention Center, he was courious, and wanted to realize who he was.

Steve said "Being around the types of people inside the prison, makes it hard for me to look at myself different!

He made a choice to tell the truth and use the advice from his lawyer to make the trial easier.

There is no evidence of Steve having any participation in the robbery. This is very unfair, because he is wasting his life away in jail.

Steve Harmon: a black 16-year-old young man who is on trial for felony murder in New York City.

Kathy O’Brien: Steve Harmon’s defense attorney. (She doesn't know if he is guilty or innocent but she still tries her best to plead him innocent.)

Sandra Petrocelli: Assistant District Attorney. She prosecutes Steve and James King, labeling them "monsters" before the jury.

James King: the defendant who encouraged Steve to join the robbery. He is responsible for the death of the store owner, Mr. Nesbitt.

Richard "Bobo" Evans: the defendant who planned the robbery. The prosecution uses his testimony in an effort to put King and Steve in jail.

Asa Briggs: the defense attorney for James King. He has blue eyes and white hair.

The Judge: a 60-year-old man. He is tall and thin with white hair.

Osvaldo Cruz: a 14-year-old boy. He is slim and well-built. He has a tattoo of a devil's head on his left forearm and one of a dagger on the back of his right hand between his thumb and forefinger. He is in a gang, The Diablos.

José Delgado: the drugstore clerk. He is young, well built, and very articulate.

Sal Zinzi: a nervous man, slightly overweight, who sells stolen goods. He wears thick glasses.

Detective Karyl: a lazy, fat man responsible for questioning Steven Harmon. His partner is Detective Williams.

Mr. Alguinaldo Nesbitt: the drugstore owner who was shot and killed in the robbery.

Mr. George Sawicki: Steve's school film club mentor.

'"Wendell Bolden"': a boy in jail for Breaking and Entering and Intent to sell and possession of drugs, called to stand for additional information about Steve and other witnesses.

Thanks For Reading

Information on the Author

It took a very long time, but I finally finished it!

Walter Dean Myers (born Walter Milton Myers, August 12, 1937, Martinsburg, West Virginia) is an African American author of young adult literature. Myers has written over fifty books, including novels and nonfiction works. He has won the Coretta Scott King Award for African American authors five times. One of his novels, Fallen Angels, has made the American Library Association's list of frequently challenged books, due to adult language and its realistic depiction of the Vietnam War. He currently sits on the Board of Advisors of the Society of Children's Book Writer's and Illustrators (SCBWI)

P.S. Mrs. Owens, I need a good grade!!

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