English 394 – Young Adult Literature

Grant T. Smith, Ph. D.

Monster – Discussion Questions

Directions:You may use any of the following discussion question to complete your reflection paper for this book.Or you may respond to your own questions about Monster.

• Authors don’t always have a lot of control over book jackets. Nevertheless, what statements seem to be made by the book jacket of Monster. Notice that the “m” on Monster is blurred. Why?
• What did you think of the format of this book? It includes a variety of different “discourses” – journal writing, movie script, trial manuscript. What effect is achieved by using a variety of formats?
• Did you learn anything new about the legal system by reading Monster? If so, what did you learn?
• On the first page. Steve Harmon says that he looks in the mirror and sees a face he doesn’t recognize. Is this book about a boy’s search for identity? If so, does it fit the formula for a “bildungsroman” novel? What frightens Steve during his search for identity? This raises the question, is a middle class black boy’s growing up story different from a middle class white boy’s story? 
• Petrocelli says that there are monsters in our community—people who are willing to steal and to kill, people who disregard the rights of others (21). O’Brien says that he job is to make Steve a “human being in the eyes of the jury” (16). What does the title Monster say to you? Why do you think the author chose this title?

• Peaches says “You can’t even hardly make it these days. They talking about cutting welfare, cutting Social Security, and anything else that makes life a little easy. They might as well bring back slavery times if you ask me” (50). Is Peaches whining? Or does she have a legitimate observation?
• There are several subtle descriptions of very disturbing images in this book. For example, “We see the whites of his eyes, then we see him close his eyes as the sounds of the beating stop and the sounds become those of a sexual attack against the inmate who was beaten” (57). As a teacher, how would you handle the realism in the novel? As a parent, would you want your eighth-grade child to read this book as a class assignment?
• What passage in the book provoked you? Saddened you? Surprised you? Caused you to think about something new? Tell us why.
• How does Myers develop the following themes:
1. a sense of helplessness, hopelessness
2. juvenile justice
3. father/son relationship
4. violence

• Do some research on African Americans and the penal system. Do you know what DWB stands for?
• O’Brien said that as soon as the jury saw Steve (young, Black, and on trial) they believed he was guilty. What assumptions do many people still carry about black American males? Look at the response of the touring junior high school students at the courtroom (97). Why does O’Brien turn away at the end of the novel (276, 281)?
• Steve says that the trial isn’t about race (146). Do you agree or disagree? Doesn’t race always play a role in our society?
• This book won several major writing awards. Why?
• If you had been on the jury…how would you have voted? 
• What vivid images remained with you after you finished the book? For example, I remember the basketball that lies in the gutter (119). That simple image suggests many things.