The book that I chose for this quarter is called The Other, by David Guterson. This book surrounds the lives of the young man Neil and his friend John William. The two met each other through a track competition where John beat Neil in the last part of the race. Although Neil held slight contempt for the other teen because of getting beat, after reuniting later the two became best friends. Their relationship centered around being rebellious and pushing the envelope in whatever way they could. For instance Neil discovered that, "John William had dope in his car," and the two frequently got high together (11). Next to substance abuse the two also engaged in misdemeanor crimes to satiate their need to rebel. One night they decided to rob wishing wells of the change inside of them, just for the thrill of it (12). This behavior of the teenagers characterizes them well as classic rebels who will look for any opportunity to validate themselves through mischief, and attempt to show the world around them that they are tough and carefree.
In contrast with this careless and rough attitude of the young men, we get a glimpse deeper into the mind of John Williams when, after assaulting a policeman to escape from arrest at the fountain, he feels terrible remorse for hurting the man. After running far enough away to be safe from anyone following them from the fountain, John has an emotional breakdown and sobs for what he did. He cried, "We should go back... I want to take him to a hospital. I have to apologize" (14). The sudden contrast between the two sides of John Williams make the reader ponder whether the effects of the drugs are responsible for such mood changes, or whether John has other issues in his life that are making him behave so erratically. We do learn later that the Williams family suffered odd circumstances that may have caused their son to behave as he is, like for instance the fact that his mother was obsessive compulsive to the point of needing to go into a mental facility. At one point the mother, Ginnie, drove John William to the sea to escape the "poison" that was being applied to their house to weather treat the basement. After abandoning him in the car for the entire night, she was found later in the morning sitting by the ocean trying to cleanse herself. We see the mother's unstable state when she says to her own husband, "Move away, Rand... You're poisonous" (17). This trouble at home could as well be a reason for John's rare behavior.
Citation:
Guterson, David. The Other. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.
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In our advanced culture of ridiculously awesome technology, the simple act of reading is often passed over in favor of mind-numbing activities involving staring at a screen. In this blog I hope to combine the polar opposites of advanced technology and simple reading into one happy package. Actually I am creating this because I have no choice. You have to love school blogs. So enjoy reading my comments on this year's outside reading.
3 comments:
Very true. Troubled home life = interesting personalities. I really like how you present 'rebels'... as people trying to show the world they're tough and carefree. That's a very together description-- they're trying to prove something to the world. And for John's home life-- what is he trying to prove besides that he's tough? You're right, and it seems like he's got other stuff going on that motivates the need to prove himself. Perhaps he needs to show that he's stronger than his mom? If so, that's very twisted logic, and yet makes perfect sense. Prove that you're better that your mom by breaking rules. Anyway, everyone probably already knows that motivation, but you provided me with some insight! Thanks and good job!
Wow. These boys seem to be getting in lots of trouble that could easily be avoided. However, it seems to me that they are not really just doing it for, "the thrill". Things such as drugs, and small misdemeor's might give them a sort of "break" from thing that they don't want to think about. John William must have been deeply scared by his mothers actions. There is absoutly no way I think i could bounce back from that if my mother said that to me!
This character John has definitely had an interesting life so far, to say the least. He need to rebel, I believe, is most likely caused by his family background and how tough life was for him growing up with an obsessive compulsive mother. The reader can see that John's character isn't rebelling because he just wants to but perhaps to gain attention from his father that is usually focused on his mother?
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