Part Two: Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

     I am still reading “Nineteen Minutes”. In this book about a school shooting a lot of complicated things are happening. A boy named Peter goes to school one day but starts to shoot everyone. “Nineteen Minutes” is the kind of book that is really sad, but also a really big page turner. You are always on the edge of your seat wondering what happens next. It even makes you cry a little.

     A lot of elements are important in this book but I think a really big part of the book is the scene. Of course any type of act of violence is really sad and upsetting. But I think the fact that it happened in a school makes the problem a lot sadder. I think that the author did that on purpose. School shootings are so rare compared to bank robberies or a kidnapping or a stabbing I mean I have never even heard of such a thing like school shooting. The fact that someone is going into an environment that is supposed to be safe with a gun to shoot kids really pulls on your heart strings. I think the author did that on purpose for sympathy.

     The author also made the shooter a young boy that goes to the school. In the book, every chapter goes back and forth from the past to the presence and when the shooting happens you don’t feel bad for Peter. But then the next chapter will be about when he was younger he was severely bullied and you will feel really bad for him. The author used the scene to make you feel bad for this part too. She put him in jail and made him so he has no roommates and all he has is a bench with a pillow. I mean I have seen a reality show called “30 days” where the guy goes to jail for 30 days and it’s a lot better. He gets to roam around and there is free time. But not for Peter, he has to sit on that bench all day doing nothing. I think that is supposed to make you feel more sympathetic towards Peter even though he did kill ten people.

     Overall Jodi Picoult used many different scenes in her book to make you feel a certain way. She uses schools and jails for all sorts of bad things that makes you feel really bad for the characters. After I put down the book I always think about my surroundings. I think the author did a really great job of describing the scene in general and making you think about that and not only the dialogue. Even though I am not even half way through this huge book I know that its great and the scene plays into it a lot.