Monster

Myers, W. & Myers, C. (1999). Monster. New York, N.Y: HarperCollins Publishers.

Awards:

Michael L. Printz Award (2000),

Coretta Scott King Award for Author Honor (2000)

Summary:

Steve Harmon is an aspiring filmmaker in high school, living in Harlem. He is also on trial for murder.

Written partly as a film script, a journal, and images, Monster follows Steve’s trial from beginning to end. Will the jury make him out to be the monster the prosecution claims he is?

Reaction:

Monster is a different novel in many ways. The journal/script format allows the reader to both understand Steve’s thoughts and feelings about the trial, but the reader can also be an observer. This format allows Steve to choose what information makes it in his screenplay and what doesn’t. For example, the day Steve is to go on the stage, he has a slightly swollen hand. “STEVE is dressing for court. We see him checking out his hand, which is slightly swollen.” (pg 222) No explanation is ever given for his swollen hand.

There are random images within the novel. It is unclear when they were taken until the journal entry five months after the trial. These images help the reader imagine Steve more since this format does not allow much for description of the characters away from the stage directions.

The ending of the novel is meant to be vague but too many clues add up to Steve being guilty. “Anybody can walk into a drugstore and look around. Is that what I’m on trial for? I didn’t do nothing!” (pg 115) “I thought about writing what happened in that drugstore, but I’d rather not have it in my mind.” (pg 128) “What did I do? I walked into a drugstore to look for some mints, and then I walked out.” (pg 140) Three times he mentions in his journal that he went into the drugstore at some point. But when he got onto the stand, he said he did not enter the drugstore.

His lawyer coaching him is another clue. While he is on the stand, his mind thinks back to the coaching after he is asked a question. This could be because he realized the answer his first instinct would have him say would be harmful to his case.

After the trial, Steve is trying to figure out who he is. His journal and script don’t give much information about Steve other than he is from a rough neighborhood in Harlem. And oftentimes teenagers try to find themselves with gangs. It’s possible Steve was one of those teenagers. And now that he narrowly escaped life in prison, he needs to decide who he will become.

Connections:

Activities:

• When a witness is on the stand and they use a slang term, the attorney stops them and asks them to clarify their meaning. Have a conversation with a friend either stop them every time they use a slang term and ask for an explanation, or tally mark each time they use a slang term. By the end of the activity, the student may be surprised at how there are multiple meanings and how vocabulary differs within cultures.
• “Think about all the tomorrows of your life.” (pg 205) What do you imagine for all of your tomorrows?
• Think about an event in your life that affected you in a major way. Write a scene about that event.
• Have a lesson on an unreliable narrator using Steve as an example.
• Choose a courtroom scene for students to reenact. There are limited stage directions. This will give students an opportunity to practice with stage directions. The teacher could also record their performance and then ask why the students chose to do what they did.
• Have students fill out an anticipation guide regarding discrimination, peer pressure, the term innocent until proven guilty, guilty by association, and writing helps organize thoughts and feelings.
• Use the discussion guide at the back of the book for a Socratic seminar.
• Steve’s innocence or guilt is never verified. Have students write a newscast to perform, possibly as a FlipGrid or another video format, about whether Steve Harmon is guilty or not. Provide evidence from the text that proves his innocence or guilt.  

Video

[Walter Dean Myers]. (2014, April 8). Walter Dean Myers discusses Monster [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/QtlkXnf3-vY

Articles:

Liptak, A. (2005, October 03). Jailed for Life After Crimes as Teenagers. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/03/us/jailed-for-life-after-crimes-as-teenagers.html

Arthur, P., & Armstrong, B. S. (2006, October 1). Locked Away Forever The Case Against Juvenile Life Without Parole. Retrieved from https://youthlaw.org/publication/locked-away-forever-the-case-against-juvenile-life-without-parole/

Other Books

Magoon, K. (2014). How it went down. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

- The ending of this book is also ambiguous.

Lehr, D. (2017). Trell. Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press.

- On page 121 a neighborhood resident mentions how a girl was killed just for sitting on her stoop. Trell is about the daughter of a man in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. For the murder of a young girl sitting on a mailbox. His innocence must be proven. Based on true events.

Jackson, T. (2017). Allegedly : a novel. New York, NY: Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers.

- Mary allegedly killed a 3-month-old baby when she was still a child herself. Years later, she is still serving her time in a group home.