Tears. Regret. Deaths. We’ve all experienced and felt them. Swallowing Stones ( Joyce McDonald ), is a captivating book that creates characters showing that everyone has their own problems and issues throughout everything. From being a murderer, your father suddenly getting shot right before your eyes, your parents perishing when you are young, and even having an extreme alcohol and cigarette issue. Minor characters even have their own issues they must break through. They each have their problems. While, they may not be the main characters with everything revolving around themselves, they each play an extremely significant role. From the best friend, the crush, to the brother. They each show their own personalities through speech, symbolism
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Joe, the best friend with a alcohol and cigarette problem, oh yea and he is friends with a murderer, he is kind of crazy, but let alone adds heeps of drama into the book. Firstly, in the text you read, “Things you don’t wanna live with ya know?” (Page 13 ) Joe tells Michael this because they just heard on the radio, a shot fired on the fourth of July struck Charlie Ward in the head. Michael felt terrible but Joe insisted him to lie. Which Michael does. Joe tells Michael this because he is trying to convince him that this could ruin him and he shouldn’t want to live with it. If it weren’t for Joe in this current situation the book would have no backstory what so ever. Nevertheless, this isn’t exactly a heroic act Joe did. He only dug a deeper hole for Michael to get out of, which adds more issues and conflict with Michael and himself, debating what to do and such. According to the text joe was found, “ smashing roadside mailboxes drunk” ( Page 13) I said previously Joe has a serious alcohol and cigarette problem, this just supports my statement. Joe did this back in 8th grade which would be underage drinking. This just makes him a terrible role model in general. Also, this present he is a disgusting person, if Joe was never as terrible or if he never existed would he have told Michael to lie? Lastly the text presents this, “ Smash in that stupid b****s windshield”(Page 211 ) Joe says this after a collision with Amy Ruggiero, this displays Joe is just a plain jerk. That is the simplest way to put it! For one he called her a quote on quote stupid b**** and he smashed in her windshield when she could of been dead. Which angers Michael because of how much he cares about Amy. This adds an enormous amount of conflict between Joe and Michael later in the book. It actually seems to ruin their friendship, if Joe never even existed the friend drama wouldn’t ever be there. Overall, Joe is added into Swallowing Stones to add a twist to the
Joe, the best friend with a alcohol and cigarette problem, oh yea and he is friends with a murderer, he is kind of crazy, but let alone adds heeps of drama into the book. Firstly, in the text you read, “Things you don’t wanna live with ya know?” (Page 13 ) Joe tells Michael this because they just heard on the radio, a shot fired on the fourth of July struck Charlie Ward in the head. Michael felt terrible but Joe insisted him to lie. Which Michael does. Joe tells Michael this because he is trying to convince him that this could ruin him and he shouldn’t want to live with it. If it weren’t for Joe in this current situation the book would have no backstory what so ever. Nevertheless, this isn’t exactly a heroic act Joe did. He only dug a deeper hole for Michael to get out of, which adds more issues and conflict with Michael and himself, debating what to do and such. According to the text joe was found, “ smashing roadside mailboxes drunk” ( Page 13) I said previously Joe has a serious alcohol and cigarette problem, this just supports my statement. Joe did this back in 8th grade which would be underage drinking. This just makes him a terrible role model in general. Also, this present he is a disgusting person, if Joe was never as terrible or if he never existed would he have told Michael to lie? Lastly the text presents this, “ Smash in that stupid b****s windshield”(Page 211 ) Joe says this after a collision with Amy Ruggiero, this displays Joe is just a plain jerk. That is the simplest way to put it! For one he called her a quote on quote stupid b**** and he smashed in her windshield when she could of been dead. Which angers Michael because of how much he cares about Amy. This adds an enormous amount of conflict between Joe and Michael later in the book. It actually seems to ruin their friendship, if Joe never even existed the friend drama wouldn’t ever be there. Overall, Joe is added into Swallowing Stones to add a twist to the