This is a really frustrating book to read, you really feel bad for Steve and the situation that he's in and you want to help him but you can't. The trial still isn't looking good for him and it seems like the jury may convict him, he's trying to get his side of the story out but they aren't listening which is really frustrating. You can tell that the trial is getting to Steve and that it's messing with his head. This is earlier in the book but I was re-reading over it and this part struck me as odd. He's starting to have dreams about the trial, a quote that I thought was interesting is this, "The dream took place in the courtroom. I was trying to ask questions and nobody could hear me. I was shouting and shouting but everyone went about their business as if I wasn't there. I hope I didn't shout out in my sleep. That would look weak to everybody. It's not good to be weak in here" (63-64).

I thought this quote was really interesting because it shows how much of a toll this trial has taken on him. He's having terrible dreams about telling people things and trying to ask them questions but they just go about their business as if he wasn't even there. I think that that is really unfair because if the jury just judges him because he is black, they could put an innocent man behind bars. It just doesn't seem right that people would judge someone on the color of their skin and just assume that they are guilty, I mean, I know that there are stereotypes and people make assumptions right away but if it's such a serious matter as if a person will go to jail, possibly for the rest of his life, people should put those feelings aside and look at the evidence and make decisions from there.

This quote reminds me of something that happened to me, it's not really relevant to the book but I just thought I'd share. I was sleeping one night a really long time ago, like eight years ago maybe and I was having this terrible dream that I was trapped in this wooden cage and I was yelling and yelling but no one heard me. Apparently I had been yelling out in my sleep so my parents ran into my room and woke me up and I had no idea what was going on once I woke up but I was really scared because I thought I was still in the cage. I told my parents about my dream and they sat and comforted me for a little bit and when I felt better I went back to sleep and slept through the rest of the night. I just thought that this was similar to what Steve might be going through and I feel bad that he doesn't have any parents or anything that can comfort him in jail.

I'm starting to think that this trial is kind of unfair towards Steve, I could already tell in the beginning of the book that the jury thought he was guilty but now it seems like he really is innocent but nothing is going his way. They brought in another witness, Osvaldo Cruz, who is a real dirt bag but is acting really afraid and timid for the jury so they want to convict Steve even more. That's a jerk move and I really want to tell the jury what Cruz is really like. A quote that really got me thinking was this, "That was what I was thinking, about what was in my heart and what that made me. I'm just not a bad person. I know that is my heart I am not a bad person" (93).

This really made me feel bad for Steve, he seems like a nice guy that was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and nobody believes that. I want to help him out and tell the jury that they would be making a huge mistake if they convicted him of this crime and they would be putting an innocent guy in jail and ruining his life. He really doesn't have much as it is and this would effectively end his life, if not his livelihood, if he were to be put in jail. I'm impressed by the way he's handling himself in this situation, he's still managing to write about everything that's going on in his life in his little diary/movie script thing. If I were in his position right now I wouldn't be able to record anything, I would be too busy worrying about what is going to happen to me.

This reminds of the book "Holes" by Louis Sachar, where Stanley Yelnats is put on trial for "stealing" a pair of shoes that were going to go to the homeless or something like that, when really the shoes were thrown from a highway and landed on him and then the police found him with the shoes and assumed he did it. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and he had to pay for it by going to Camp Green Lake which turned out really well for him in the end but still. He was wrongly put into this camp because he happened to find the shoes that were stolen, which is really similar to what happened to Steve in Monster. I feel bad for both of them even though I know that everything works out for Stanley, and I'm still waiting to find out what happens to Steve.

So far, Monster, by Walter Dean Myers has been a very good book. I like the way it's formatted, how it portrays the book if it were a movie with all of the effects that would be there written into the text. I also like how the author describes things in the book with the movie script format, it makes the book more fun to read. It also has made me think about many things, one of those is racism, which is expressed in this quote, "'Half of those jurors, no matter what they said when we questioned them when we picked the jury, believed you were guilty the moment they laid eyes on you. You're young, you're Black, and you're on trial. What else do they need to know?'" (78-79).

This quote really made me think about racism and how it affects society today. People will judge other people the moment they see them just because of the color of their skin or how they look. This is really wrong and people shouldn't make assumptions about people just becuase of the way they look, you should get to know them before making any judgements about them. It can be hard not to be judgemental at times though, like I'll see how someone acts one day and assume that's how they always are. Maybe they were having a bad day though and they're actually a really good person, I wouldn't know until I got to really know them.

This quote also made me think of all of the terrible things that have happened becuase of racism, namely wars. People will attack and try to kill a certain group of people just because of their religion or how they look, they won't get to know them or anything, they'll just assume. An example of this is the Holocaust. The Nazis didn't even bother to find anything out about the Jews, they just took them from their homes and killed them which was terrible. Granted, Hitler was a very persuasive speaker which could've convinced them to help him but that's still wrong. It makes me feel really bad whenever I think about what happened and why it happened. It's just stupid for something as serious as the Holocaust to happen just because some guy says they're an inferior race, it's unbelieveable. This quote really made me think about the negative impacts racism has had and how bad it is.

The book "Monster" by Walter Dean Myers is a narrative on the life of Steve Harmon, who is caught up in a murder. He is being tried in court and has to fight to prove his innocence. The book is full of his emotions at being put through this and it shows by how the book is written and the quotes that are contained in it. A quote that really made me think was, "Ain't no use putting the blanket over your head, man. You can't cut this out; this is reality. This is the real deal" (7).

This quote really made me think because it's kind of a rude awakening for Steve, I mean, someone is blatantly telling him that this isn't going to go away and that this is his life now. I felt really bad for him because he has to face this trial pretty much by himself, it doesn't say anything about any family members from what I've read so I assume it's pretty much just him and his defending attorney. He must feel so alone right now, he doesn't really have anyone to talk to that he can tell his feelings to. This just made me think of how lucky I am to have a supportive family that will take care of me.

This relates to my life because there are some times where it seems like nothing is going my way and I get really sad. The difference is that I have the support I need that can help me get through these times where as it appears that Steve doesn't have a support system that can help him. Also, I've never been accused of doing anything as serious as murder and I hope that I never find myself in that situation. I can put myself in his shoes and feel what it's like to be lonely and feel like nothing is going right in my life but I can just think that it will be over soon and I can get on with my life.

This quote really hit me, I wanted to help Steve out but I know that he's not real so there is nothing that I could do. It made me think about my life and how lucky I am to be in such a good situation and I have a new appreciation for the little things in life that make it enjoyable. In conclusion, this quote really made me look at life in a new way and made me more grateful about my life right now.

Night

"You will be burned! Burned to a cinder! Turned into ashes!" (pg. 31)

This quote is really an awakening for the author, they just arrived at the camp and now they find out that they will probably meet their end by being burned in a giant oven. This is just a terrible thing to go through and it must have taken a lot of strength to still keep their hope up after this initial shock. I just can't believe that this could ever have happened, the thought is just terrible to think about.