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Monster
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From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 16:39:25 -0500
To open our discussion of Monster, I'm going to share comments made by Dean Schneider, an 8th grade teacher in Nashville Tennessee. Dean has given us permission to pass on his comments about Monster while he is out of e-mail range....
"Steve Harmon in Monster is a character who, through the device of moviemaking, gets to weigh various points of view - parents, little brother, inmate in prison, his teacher, his lawyer, students in the courtroom watching the case, Bobo and King, etc. As Walter Dean Myers says in "Dear Reader," Steve is gaining a "moral awareness" through this weighing of points of view, thereby accelerating the process of what people do in the course of growing up - weighing and assimilating the influences of parents, friends, teachers, books.... What I find most fascinating is going back and trying to pinpoint what Steve might learn from each participant in his 'script.' And that's how I would teach this novel, the main discussion question would be: What is the awareness that Steve gains by looking at his situation as a moviemaker, from various perspectives. ...
"What is so fascinating about Monster is exactly this mix of points of view and, since some characters have a lot to gain by how they represent themselves, you wonder - as in any court case - about the veracity of the character. Is Steve simply recording points of view, or is there a point where he is revising or reinterpreting what is happening, creating a revisionist interpretation of what really happened? After just one reading, I am not sure myself exactly what Steve did, as opposed to what other characters say he did, what his parents feel he might have done, what Steve hiimself reports in various 'clips' of his movie, etc.The point, though, is that he did have a minor involvement in a crime, and if he doesn't gain a moral awareness from it all, he risks further steps into those 'interim stages' WDM discusses in 'Dear Reader.' "
Like Dean, I, too, find myself wanting to revisit Monster--to consider the form as part and parcel of the content of the book, and to think about what that means. I also find myself wanting to consider the bigger issue: while I do think Steve is culpable on some level what Myers makes so achingly clear is that he is not a
"monster"--he is a good kid who may (or may not) have made a bad decision. Regardless, the fact that we as a society too often can and do view kids like Steve, young black males, as a monster without any cause (and what cause can every possibly be justified to dismiss anyone so easily), and that kids like Steve can so easily and tragically internalize that, is for me much more important than the actual question of Steve's innocence or guilt.
What are your thoughts on Monster--on the form, the content, or the ways these intereweave in Myers's story?
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Thu 15 Jul 1999 04:39:25 PM CDT
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 16:39:25 -0500
To open our discussion of Monster, I'm going to share comments made by Dean Schneider, an 8th grade teacher in Nashville Tennessee. Dean has given us permission to pass on his comments about Monster while he is out of e-mail range....
"Steve Harmon in Monster is a character who, through the device of moviemaking, gets to weigh various points of view - parents, little brother, inmate in prison, his teacher, his lawyer, students in the courtroom watching the case, Bobo and King, etc. As Walter Dean Myers says in "Dear Reader," Steve is gaining a "moral awareness" through this weighing of points of view, thereby accelerating the process of what people do in the course of growing up - weighing and assimilating the influences of parents, friends, teachers, books.... What I find most fascinating is going back and trying to pinpoint what Steve might learn from each participant in his 'script.' And that's how I would teach this novel, the main discussion question would be: What is the awareness that Steve gains by looking at his situation as a moviemaker, from various perspectives. ...
"What is so fascinating about Monster is exactly this mix of points of view and, since some characters have a lot to gain by how they represent themselves, you wonder - as in any court case - about the veracity of the character. Is Steve simply recording points of view, or is there a point where he is revising or reinterpreting what is happening, creating a revisionist interpretation of what really happened? After just one reading, I am not sure myself exactly what Steve did, as opposed to what other characters say he did, what his parents feel he might have done, what Steve hiimself reports in various 'clips' of his movie, etc.The point, though, is that he did have a minor involvement in a crime, and if he doesn't gain a moral awareness from it all, he risks further steps into those 'interim stages' WDM discusses in 'Dear Reader.' "
Like Dean, I, too, find myself wanting to revisit Monster--to consider the form as part and parcel of the content of the book, and to think about what that means. I also find myself wanting to consider the bigger issue: while I do think Steve is culpable on some level what Myers makes so achingly clear is that he is not a
"monster"--he is a good kid who may (or may not) have made a bad decision. Regardless, the fact that we as a society too often can and do view kids like Steve, young black males, as a monster without any cause (and what cause can every possibly be justified to dismiss anyone so easily), and that kids like Steve can so easily and tragically internalize that, is for me much more important than the actual question of Steve's innocence or guilt.
What are your thoughts on Monster--on the form, the content, or the ways these intereweave in Myers's story?
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Thu 15 Jul 1999 04:39:25 PM CDT
