Analysis Of Nineteen Minutes By Jodi Picoult - 2188 Words

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 th e 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. Sterling is a small town, that doesn’t have much action, but the event that is about to take place willShow MoreRelatedNineteen Minutes: Fiction Imitating Reality Essay880 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it. In nineteen minutes, you can revenge† (Picoult). Those words are of the opening lines of Jodi Picoult’s best seller, Nineteen Minutes. Although this novel is heart wrenching, and cuts into the ‘grays’ of school shootings, it is anything but original. Lead character, Peter Houghton, is an almost perfect profile replication of 1999’s Columbine shooters, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. A simple personaltiy analysis will reveal