The Minnow Book Report

Burke illustrates Tom’s inner conflict with first-person narration. The guilt he feels over the inactivity he had on the night of the incident, his frustration with Kylie and the added guilt he exhibits because he feels sorry for himself all adds up to his conflicted thoughts. Tom doesn’t know or feel like himself anymore. But Burke brings this to the attention of the reader in a good light when Tom thinks, “But now I knew what I missed most. I missed me, Tom Brennan, and that’s why now I could smile, ‘cause I could see he was coming back.” Thus, when J.C. Burke aptly finishes the book with the line “that was the morning Tom Brennan came back, forever,” the true development in Tom’s character and conflict is shown through the employment of first-person narration. Therefore, J.C. Burke thoroughly addressed the conflict in Tom’s mind as it was overcome in the

There were a lot of characters almost too much but it fits the book and didn’t ruin the plot (whole book). One of the characters the in the book the author described well was Vera Claythorn (3,4,5). It talked about her personality and her previous job as a games mistress (4). She has to take any job she can get to have some extra money. Also, the author does a good job talking about Dr.Armstrong (10,11,12). Even though the suffix gives it away Dr.Armstrong is a doctor. Dr.Armstrong is also pretty wealthy.

    One the biggest flaws of Tom’s is that he makes horrible decisions. At the beginning of the book he has borrowed many thousands of dollars from mob bosses around the New York area and now they are trying to kill him. "Of course they found you, you idiot! What do you think this is— Manila? You can't just walk away with $100,000 of the mob's money and expect to live happily ever after.” (Dekker 25). His life is quite messed up. He is an unsuccessful author and lives

| Tom wants his old life back prior to the accident and he sees the accident as the end of his life as he knew it. He loses his sense of identity and sense of family in particular.Feels guilty and ashamed about the irrevocable consequences his brother’s irresponsibility had for other people and their familiesRetreats into a depressed state which feels empty and black.

The protagonist is a very dependent individual due to critical moments in her childhood where she relies on her father for guidance and strays away from her fears, specifically her fear of murky waters. The main character in the story relies on her father for all of her childhood; he acts as a safety blanket to her and uses a yellow towel to physically comfort her: “He wrapped me in a clean yellow towel, and the fear, what was left of it, evaporated” (124). When the girl turns seven, she attends Camp Kinaird with many other young girls where they all learned how to swim. This camp was where

The novel describes the journey of the protagonist Tom Brennan as he struggles to overcome a car accident caused by his brother, Daniel. Which left his cousin Fin quadriplegic, killed two friends and caused Tom's family to move from Mumbilli to Coghill. Tom’s view towards certain topics are challenged as he aims to move on from the past. This mainly includes issues about his family and hobbies. Burke uses 1st person and repetition in “maybe after Daniel had done his time we could go back: maybe not “to show how such a move has affected Tom. This also shows him questioning his optimistic personality before the accident and how the change has challenged his belief that his family will be

Tom’s initial perspective of on his transition he and his family must undertake is on of despair and reluctance. This despair is emphasised through the emotive language that is used throughout the prologue such as ‘groan,’ ‘dump,’ and ‘shuffling.’ Tom’s despair also creates a sense of tension throughout the family as for the line, ‘no one spoke,’ the line reinforces the tension and their reluctance to face the new change in their life. The line ‘down, down we glided in silence,’ could be interpreted metaphorically.

Though this book is written from a young girl’s point of view, even in the first hundred pages there are various forms of

• First half of the novel is about Tom’s descent and the second half is about Tom’s

The author continuously characterizes Tom Walker in a way that makes the readers pity and resent him to not want to follow the example of his life. For example, after Tom's wife takes all their valuables and tries to strike a bargain with the devil when Tom wouldn’t do it himself, he goes looking for her in the woods. Irving shows just how little Tom cared about his wife when he describes his reaction to her disappearance and death. He is more concerned about the safety of his silverware, which she had taken with her. "He leaped with joy; for he recognized his wife's apron, and supposed it to contain the household valuables.” That shows that he is really greedy and ruthless. However, Tom shows no remorse for his dead wife and has evidence that shows that his wife had beaten up even the

Is called “juice”. There's this kid named Michael Monroe that lives in a town where football is everything. Michael is on his high school football team . He is one of the best and powerful players.He's Nicknamed “Moose” and his teammates would say “the mood is on the loose”. The first time they called him moose was when he was in first grade, a kid was bullying him by saying that his hair stood up like a moose’s antlers and because Michael was the biggest in the class. The name followed him but it wasn't really an insult anymore ,it was more like saying that Michael was big and powerful.

I am really enjoying reading this book because it always has something new to keep me interested. For example, one minute a woman dies after seeing the Amazonian head and then a few pages later, the head was stolen from its case. In addition, there are plenty of interesting characters with different talents to please any reader. Sam is the strongest boy in the world, Thomas can fit almost anywhere, Pippa is a mentalist who can see into people’s pockets, and Max can throw knives with exact precision. When I was reading the part when Thomas is sneaking in the janitor’s room, I felt nervous for him because the consequences for him could have been severe. Eventually when Thomas was caught, he did not get into much trouble but while I was reading

Tom had a double role in the play as both the narrator and a main character that lived through a recollection of what life was like living with his mother and sister before he abandoned them to seek adventure. Tom’s behavior in the play could lead to question if his memory is truly accurate. SparkNotes comments, “…But at the same time, he demonstrates real and sometimes juvenile emotions as he takes part in the play’s action. This duality can frustrate our understanding of Tom, as it is hard to decide whether he is a character whose assessments should be trusted or one who allows his emotions to affect his judgment” (SparkNotes.com). Through his behavior a person is reminded that memory can be flawed by emotions or time elapsing, this would need to be taken into account when analysis of such a character is done. Tom is full of contradictions as he reads literature, writes poetry, and dreams of an escape; however he also felt bound by duty to his sister and mother. Another contradiction was that while he professed to care about his sister as seen in his ending comments in the play, “…I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be!...” (Williams), Tom never went back to reconnect with his sister. This could be because of the great shame he felt for abandoning his sister or because of another reason. He stated that he had been in several cities over the years but never speaks of going back to St. Louis, making it unclear if he

I start reading the book and right away it is intimidating from the very first paragraph. I am faced with language and sentence structure I do not understand, what is a bedfellow and why does he carry a purse? Is he gay? Immediately I am second guessing my decision but I am determined to get through this book. It takes me the better part of a week to get through the first chapter. I

At the beginning, the book is set up very dark and dreary, I don't like the vibe. It sets a theme of Evil and the Holmes character is creepy.