This blog contains a series of fictional posts written by the characters in Monster by Walter Dean Myers. These posts are not a part of the novel itself; I created them for a school project. The posts are reflections of what the characters might have been thinking as the story unfolds and the readers learn about their pasts.
Briefly, Monster is about a sixteen year old, African American teenager, named Steven Harmon. The novel is told through his point of view in a screen play format. He writes the screen play from jail in order to keep his mind off of the harsh reality of his situation. Steve is placed in jail as a result of his involvement with robbery gone wrong. The men involved are, Steve Harmon, Osvaldo Cruz, Bobo, and James King. The main man behind the crime is King. He does all the planning and encourages the other to join him in the robbery. Steve was to be the look-out during the crime, Osvaldo was to stand outside the drugstore and trip up anyone who would have wanted to walk into the store while the other were inside, while Bobo and King actually committed the robbery. Steve and Osvaldo were more like accomplices. Bobo was the man who took the money from the cash register as well as the cartons of cigarettes while King got involved in a tussle with the store owner, Mr. Nesbitt. Mr. Nesbitt had a licensed gun that he kept in the store in order to protect himself in times of trouble. When he retrieved the weapon, King wrestled him for it and then shot and killed Mr. Nesbitt. Afterwards, Bobo and King leave the drugstore with the money and cigarettes and grab a bite to eat. Steven and Osvaldo did not accompany them and they never received a cut of the profits either. However, Steven is on trial for murder and he might be placed in jail for the rest of his life.
The characters that I focused on from Monster are, Steve Harmon, Osvaldo Cruz, Bobo Evans, and James King. They were the four culprits in the robbery. I want to clear that I definitely do not visit the questionable websites that I listed for these characters. I decided to pick the websites that these characters might visit, based on their speech and conduct in Monster. King and Bobo are both involved with drugs so I picked one website for King that is about marijuana because he smokes marijuana in the novel. For both King and Bobo, I found websites about weapons because these characters are violent and take part in crime. For Osvaldo I picked some websites about being a gangster because he’s so immersed in being a tough guy. For Steven I listed many websites that are about basketball and other sports because he likes basketball in the novel. He also enjoys films and script writing, so I listed one website called anthology film archive that is an organization that deals with the preservation of films. For all four of these characters I listed social networking websites such as facebook, myspace, or match.com, because most young adults or teenagers take part in social networking in the 21st century.
In addition, I would like to add that I would not make this particular book project available to my students with Monster, simply because it could lead students to questionable websites in the completion of this project. Because part of the requirements was to find five websites for each character that he might visit in the real life, I wanted to keep this part of my project authentic. These characters wouldn't be visiting the oed.com for example, they're interested in crime, drugs and other such conduct. Therefore, the websites listed for each of them are meant to be reflections of their life outside of the novel.
