Blog # 5

"Monster" and "Incognegro" both talked highly about racial issues. In Monster, Steve is a 16 year old black boy on trial for murder. I believe, in a way, this creates a conversation because the fact of the matter is - he is up for murder and he is what society views as " the perfect canidate." When I say this I mean our world today is more inclined to believe that a person of a "minority" group would commit a murder rather than someone of the "dominant" race. Steve's indentity does not favor him in the situation. Even in the beginning it is hard to believe that his defense attorney even believes he is innoncent. Whether or not this is talked about in the book, during trial you have no idea what is going on in a judge's head. Even though they are not suppose to judge/nor discriminate against a person for the color of their skin, how do you know they aren't? How do we know that Steve being black could have been used against him?

Zane creates a stir because he is a black male pretending to be white. He is doing this for the fact that he wants to help his brother out but at the same time, his identity is taken away from him. Pretending to be someone else, you can completely lose who you are. I don't know believe Zane did, but how do we know Zane doesn't wish that he was white and not black? Using it for stories or to watch lynchings, could this trigger him wishing he was someone else?

Both books share the fact that these indivduals are at a disadvantage because they are black. Steve's trial could have gone better if he wasn't hanging out with a crowd that was completely black - or is he wasn't black himself. Zane has to pretend to be a white male to get the coverage he wants or help out someone in need. Looking at these two stories it is hard to believe they are at any advantage at all. Both stories were sad and brought up racial issues that we are still facing as a society today.

Power is big in our society and these characters have to gain it. They do not have power in their hands from just being themselves. Zane gets power when he saves his brother and Steve gets it when he is found innoncent. Both had to work for the little power they eventually got. Nothing was handed to them.

Unit 4 - Monster

This book really interested me because it was a novel that I feel I would have read outside of class. It dealt with issues that I find interesting. What I liked about it was that throughout the book I couldnt decide how I felt about Steve. When reading it you want to believe he did no wrong and that he did back out when it came to the robbery and that in general peer pressure was what lead him to join these certain "friends". When I first started reading it I found it interesting that Steve is going back and forth on how he feels about himself. When we did our quiz in the last class it asked what issus Steve faced internally and externally. I think throughout his book Steve was trying to find himself. First off he is only 16 and being so young facing jail for murder can change a person in ways that one who hasn't will not experience. I believed that throughout the book there were cases that Steve did stick to the fact he felt he didn't do anything wrong (that he was in the wrong place at the "wrong time") but he felt guilty for ever being assoicated with the James, Bobo and Cruz. I know that he sticks to his belief that he is NOT a bad person, because he says it on pg. 93. One thing that interested me was in the beginning of the book Mrs.O'Brien tells Steve that he needs to believe in himself if he wants to win the trial. This made me wonder if Steve didn't care too much about the trial because he knew he was innocent (at least he KNEW he was) and felt that whatever happened, happened. I had a lot of questions when reading the book - for example, did Mrs. O'Brien really believe that Steve was innoncent? In the beginning I felt that she was scared of him in a way and was back and forth on her opinon. But, at the end Steve mentions " What caused her to turn away? What did she see? "
If anyone wants to answer any of the questions I had on comments with your ideas that would be great :)!


- Nora