Nineteen Minutes Themes

Pipher gives some compelling stories about the behaviors of some pre-adolescent girls she has encountered. Her cousin, Polly, was an energetic and opinionated girl when she was young. Upon puberty, Polly felt unable to connect to boys and girls her age until she became stylish and more subdued in her language. This gives the reader the feeling that Polly was not accepted until she changed her personality to fit that of her surroundings. It is possible that Polly’s friends no longer enjoyed being around a girl who was opinionated or who would insult those with whom she did not agree. This story does not qualify as a valid, concrete premise to show the connection between changes an adolescent girl and her ability to connect with others.

While Wes Moore (author) was preparing for Oxford and having his story illuminated in the Baltimore Sun, the other Wes Moore was arrested for robbery, along with his brother, and was charged with murder; they would most likely receive the death penalty. Because Wes (author) couldn’t shake the story and a feeling of connection with the other Wes Moore, he wrote a letter to him. The imprisoned Wes Moore wrote back, and so began a correspondence. While spending time with Wes, the author discovered that “ generation of young men, boys who came of age during a historically chaotic and violent time and emerged to succeed and fail in unprecedented ways”

Terror, shock, desperateness, all feelings of the Columbine victims. Through the narration of the encounter between Patti Nielson and the shooters during the beginning moments of the Columbine shooting in chapter 11 of Columbine, a memoir, Dave Cullen adopts an informative tone in order to focus young adults’ attention to the ruthlessness of the Columbine shooting.

In Ron Power’s article, The Apocalypse of Adolescence, Powers reports on the various brutal murders that ocurred in the state of Vermont, at the hands of troubled young teens. He explores the possible motives of their jarring actions but

Peer pressure is another aspect of life we see that makes Josie a stronger person. It helps her stand up for herself and do what she feels is right not what other people want of her. “But then when his hands went up my uniform and I felt them between my thighs and I looked up to see a poster of a motor bike that said ‘Get something between your legs’ on it, I realized that I could be losing my virginity in Jacob’s bedroom with his father in the other room, completely without thinking. “

The book The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore, is a story of loss, regret and childhood innocence. These ideas are reinforced by the iconic lines, “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.” This idea of how temperamental and volatile life is, is shown through the slow blurring of good and bad within the wes’. This book shows that a person’s entire outlook and trajectory in life can be changed with a few small decisions.

who always been deprived of father-figure, she feels the need to acquire attention from boys in

Teenagers are young, naïve and impressionable. They are also insecure and usually sometimes unable to express themselves so they put others down. They are pressured daily to do things they really don’t want to do. They often find themselves doing something they said they would never do. Because of the influence of those around them, they are trying to cover their insecurities by saying things to make others feel bad about themselves. The traits above describe the two main characters in the short story “Bernice Bobs Her Hair”. Both Bernice and Marjorie are young teens dealing with the pressure of being popular and fitting in. Bernice, being the quieter, shyer girl, deals with trying to fit in in a place she feels she doesn’t belong.

Maureen and Regina pamper Betsey, giving her a manicure and a pedicure and doing her hair. But being at the salon, Betsey begins to realize that there are different types of people. She realizes that “there was a difference between being a little girl and being a woman.” (124) I think Betsey learns that she shouldn’t grow up so fast and that it’s okay to be different.

"I'm angry someone would do this to us. There are lives ruined, families ruined, and our whole school year is ruined" (Brackely 1). Casey Brackely, once a student that attended Columbine High School, remembers the tragedy of the horrific Columbine shooting that killed and injured many students. Mass shootings in the United States have been on the rise since the 1980’s, especially in the last decade. These shooters motives and profiles are almost all terrifyingly alike. Many of these shooters try to imitate and parallel the tragic shooting of the Columbine High School in 1999. These shootings have made peaceful organizations, such as an elementary school; become a place of violence and death. Currently, in the United States, an epidemic of

This story keeps the reader in suspense as they don’t know when the gun will go off. They should also feel horrified at how the gangs in America used to settle arguments and that the boys kept adding bullets into the gun, putting their life at risk just so that they wouldn’t let the other gang members down.

Josie's perspective of her grandmother changes from viewing her as nagging old women to having a loving, caring, respectful relationship with her. The narrative, which is written in first person, enables the reader to see the stages in which her perspective changes as she gains knowledge about her grandmother and also how it is her own actions that

Bunny lacks the ability to voice her opinion because she lives in a male dominant society which hinders her ability to think for what is best for her and the given situation. Bunny has never given value to her own self and as a result, secrets are hidden in order to prevent confrontation with male figures and thus, her daughter is put at risk. It is with the voice of Jane that Bunny’s veil of denial is lifted and she conveys this epiphany to Jane, “Things you’d never even believe could ever happen just start seemin’ as normal as pie. Well, maybe not normal, but still you accept it. Like Rosie…You just get used to it. Until something happens, that is, that wakes you up and makes you see different, That’s what happened when you all showed up…I saw her with your eyes, and everything looked different. Wrong…After you left the house last night I was thinkin’ back, and I realized that I ain’t never really ever made a single decision in my life, you know. Just kinda drifted from one thing to the next, following the direction these darn things pointed me in (her breasts), you know?” (p. 294-295). After Bunny’s epiphany, she begins to seek treatment for her daughter and truly becomes an advocate for her health. By breaking free from the constraints of the patriarchal “rules” in her life, Bunny is able to see her new role as a woman in society.

Nineteen minutes is a captivating novel that follows the story of a school shooting while thought-provoking the readers to ponder: Do we ever really know someone? This novel follows the relationship among peers, and the nervousness and distance between a teenager and a single mother. Author Jodi Picoult, discusses an important and increasingly common issue of school shootings. In this paper, I am going to discuss the reasonings why I believe Peter Houghton decided to commit such an atrocity at Sterling High, why no one decided to intervene before hand and what could have been done to help Peter and set him on the right path he needed to enjoy his life. Nineteen Minutes creates a two sided story that helps readers apprehend the school shooting, which is more than what news coverage would typically broadcast on this type of tragedy, usually it is very one sided, and doesn’t reflect on what the individual endured throughout life or what built up to the act. Picoult, represents the tragedy in neither a severe nor critical way, she just tells the story. At the beginning shooting scene, it’s obviously clear to the reader who is the victim and who is the killer. However, as the novel unfolds, the actions and motives become more understood, and Picoult lifts the assumptions of scrutiny, until the villains and victims blend together into a jumble of alliances and rejection.

The story of an hour by Kate Chopin introduces us to Mrs. Mallard as she reacts to her husband’s death. In this short story, Chopin portrays the complexity of Mrs. Mallard’s emotions as she is saddened yet joyful of her loss. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” argues that an individual discover their self-identity only after being freed from confinement. The story also argues that freedom is a very powerful force that affects mental or emotional state of a person. The story finally argues that only through death can one be finally freed.