Steve Harmon Monster Essay

Improved Essays
“Children are human beings to whom respect is due, superior to us by the reason of their innocence and of the greater possibilities of their future,” (Maria Montessori). Steve Harmon, from the young adult drama book Monster, is an African American teenager who is sent to jail and put on trial since he is accused of murder with three other men. Steve Harmon is innocent in his own eyes, but to the government he is guilty. Steve was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, but the government doesn’t have enough evidence to prove that’s the case so they can’t release him until he’s proved himself innocent. As Montessori said, Steve Harmon is a teenager to whom respect should be payed due to his impact on the future of the world. Although Steve …show more content…
He is called different names by people he doesn’t even know and even by his own lawyer. Throughout the book Steve Harmon is called a monster, and he doesn’t like being called that name. “Cut to: Steve Harmon. Then: CU of the pad in front of him. He is writing the word Monster over and over again,” (Myers, 24). He hates being called a monster in the beginning of the book since he knows he didn’t commit the crime. However, later on he starts considering himself a monster because of the people that he’s surrounded by. He’s surrounded by people who have stolen from other people and had killed other people, which impacts him because he fears he himself is becoming one of them or has already become one of them. Steve is also considered a criminal just because people infer that, since he was at the drugstore where the murder was, he was a part of the murder. The judge thinks the same way about him, even though Steve’s supposed to be innocent until there’s enough proof to deem him guilty. "People who are willing to steal and to kill, people who disregard the …show more content…
One of these ways is to write a play of everything that happens. “Maybe I could make my own movie. I could make my own movie. I could block out the scenes like we did in school,” (Myers 4). Steve does this throughout the book which helps him because it allows him to do what he likes while distracting him from the chaos that’s happening around him. It acts as a way for Steve to remember everything that happened for the future and forget everything around him at the same time. Another way that Steve cope’s with what’s going on around him is by seeing different things around the prison and doing different things around the prison. “I looked down in the street from the corridor leading to the recreation door,” (Myers 156). Steve wants different things to see than just a jailhouse. He wants people who he can see that are equal to him. Steve finally copes with jail by thinking optimistically. He’s thinking positively so that he won’t have to think negative things about his life in prison. “If I got out after 20 years, I’d be 36,” (Myers 144). Steve wants to think positively because he wants to think of the future and what he could do then instead of thinking about what he could do in prison. He wants to forget the present and focus on the future. Through all of the chaos, Steve manages to stay calm by focusing on other things than just the

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Prompt #1: After Victor reads Elizabeth’s letter, he seems very distressed. He didn’t want his family to worry about him like that, so he quickly wrote them back. I think felt this way because the one who told him about the worry his family had for him was Elizabeth. He cared for and didn’t want her to be sad due to his actions. “ ‘Dear, dear Elizabeth!’…

    • 376 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Steve Harmon Is Inhumane

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages

    I believe that sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon is not guilty of the homicide. The night of the convenience store robbery, Steve found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time which put him in the situation he is in now. The defendant Steve should be considered not guilty because there wasn’t enough evidence of any to accuse him of being at the crime when it happened. In the hearing, we all know the stories and testimonies that occurred that day and who was supposedly involved but they never mentioned Steve’s name at the scene. For example, on page 32, a witness named Jose Delagdo states, “I didn’t take inventory right away, I just noticed.…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cohen, Andrew. " Creating Monsters: How Solitary Confinement Hurts the Rest of Us." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 18 Apr. 2014. Web.…

    • 1965 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Since Steve Rodgers was asleep for the past 70 years, there were a lot of events and new things that he missed out on. There are a lot of things that he would have wanted to witness, not only as a superhero/savior of America, but as an individual. He missed out on a lot of new things and events such as new technology, advanced military weapons/equipment, and world tragedies. There has been a numerous amount of technological advancements that Steve Rodgers would have wanted to catch up on, including but not limited to the PlayStation, the jetpack, and the smartphone. All three of these were great technological advancements that would have been on his catch up list.…

    • 874 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Steve’s Realization in The Novel Monster Steve, the main character in Walter Dean Myers’s novel, Monster, is imprisoned on charges of felony murder. He experiences the hardships of being behind bars and realizes how precious life really is. One example of this would be when Jerry comes to visit his brother. This makes Steve realize that if he was not in jail, he would not be granted with visitation rights because he is a minor. “I wanted to tell Jerry that I loved him.…

    • 361 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Scottsboro Trials The Scottsboro Trials was an affair done by nine African American males who allegedly raped two innocent white women, and they were tried for their act. The raping of the women, whose names were Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, took place on a train from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Memphis, Tennessee on March 25, 1931. A quote about this can be portrayed as, “Two dozen or so, mainly male-and mainly young-whites and blacks, rode the Southern Railroad's Chattanooga to Memphis freight on March 25, 1931” (Linder). The nine African American boys were called the “Scottsboro Boys” because they were arrested in Scottsboro, Tennessee.…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There comes a time in everyone 's life where they have been wronged by another person. Whether it was someone stealing another your lunch out of the company fridge or finding out your lover has been carrying out an affair behind there back, it is human nature to want to seek revenge. However, taking the highroad and turning the other cheek is the moral thing to do. What if someone killed your only child would that change anything on the matter? In the short story titled “Killings”, author Andre Dubus reflects the desire to seek revenge by appealing to the readers ethics, emotions, and by creating tension throughout the story.…

    • 708 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Steve Harmon Innocence

    • 556 Words
    • 3 Pages

    What is the delineation between guilt and innocence? Most people would say that if one is guilty, then one has done something wrong, and if one is innocent one has not. In truth, it is not quite this simple. Steve Harmon is a prime example of this phenomenon. While he may have made some mistakes, he did not make the one he is on trial for.…

    • 556 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Like many legends and tales Frankenstein's story has been changed and modified over the years. Mary Shelley's original Frankenstein tale was a different form of story telling in its day and age back when the story was first created there wasn't anything like it. Nowadays the books and movies you see are all about horror and thriller tales. I chose to watch Victor Frankenstein (2015) and The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) These two movies seemed them most interesting to me.…

    • 1245 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Identity status John Bender is a victim of child abuse who acts like “the criminal” at his school because he lacks attention and direction, has a weak sense of trust, little autonomy and no commitments. According to Erikson, John Bender “The Criminal” is suffering from role confusion which is “lack of direction and definition of self” (Later Adolescence, March 29, 2016, Slide #6) and occupies the identity diffusion status which is “a state in which there has been little exploration or active consideration of a particular domain and no psychological commitment” (Later Adolescence, March 29, 2016, Slide #12) under Marcia’s identity status. For example, when Mr. Vernon told him to be quiet or he will get more days in detention, he kept on talking…

    • 1134 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Summary: Monster Theory In the first few lines of this article Jeffery Jerome Cohen, declares that he is creating a new “modus legendi”. That is, he is creating a new method of studying cultures from the monsters they engender (Cohen 3). He is ready to go against how cultural studies have been done in the past and form a new way of thinking and studying culture. Cohen goes one to make a few more comments on culture and history.…

    • 804 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    After reading “Account: A Computer Pirate Tells His Story”, I do not believe the act of piracy that Steve committed could be considered deviant. The reactivist or relativist definition of deviance could prove to true when considering Steve’s actions. The authors of “Sociology of Deviant Behavior” have described the relativist definition of deviance to be “in the eye of the beholder” (Clinard and Meier, 2016, pg. 7). There were no individuals that were harmed or injured in this act, and while stealing and reproducing material is considered a crime, many individuals, especially students, consider this to be normal. One could even assert that Steve was helping his fellow classmates to save money, which as a college student is rather difficult…

    • 1110 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Today, there are only three different countries一Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Iran, who sentence the death penalty to people that have yet to turn eighteen. Before the Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in Roper v. Simmons, the United States used to be on that list. After the Supreme Court’s decision, anyone who was on death row for crimes that they had committed prior to turning eighteen were put off death row. Instead, they were sentenced to life without parole. No Choirboy written by Susan Kuklin, looks into five different stories of people who were affected by the death penalty in the United States prior to the Supreme Court’s 2005 decision.…

    • 2278 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Frankenstein, the book, is meant to have connections to real life through its themes. One way the author emphasis theme is through virtues and vices of the two important characters. This essay will analyze the similarities and differences between two characters, Victor Frankenstein and monster, in terms of their virtues and vices. The virtue is a trait or quality of character which is moral, vices is a practice or habit that immoral. These factors are analyzed to determine the best choice overall as person.…

    • 727 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Central Park Five The Central Park Five is a documentary that tells the story of five teenage boys who were accused of brutally raping, and beating a woman in New York City's Central Park. The five boys accused are Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Antron McCray, and Korey Wise. This film contains many opinions from journalists and reporters who provide a deeper understanding of why these five victims were innocent. The filmmakers convince me through the use of pathos, ethos, logos that there was no way these five young teenagers could have done this.…

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays