MonsterEssay Preview: MonsterReport this essayMONSTERBy Walter Dean MyersMonster is the story about a 16 year old black boy named Steve Harmon from Harlem. Steve is on trial for a being a possible accomplice to a murder. The book begins with him in jail waiting for his trial to start. The story is written in screenplay format along with Steves journal writing which he does even in the courtroom. Steve enjoys filmmaking and screenplay writing. Steve writes this way to keep his sanity while being in prison during the trial. The majority of the story takes place in the courtroom. Steve is there with another defendant, James King, who has his own attorney. The events of the robbery unfold through the accounts of witnesses, attorneys and the participants. The book is about Steves trial and whether he will be found guilty of felony murder. In the end, Steve is found innocent but the reader is left to wonder if Steve is guilty or not. It is a story of a young man who wants to act tough and ends up in trouble for this.
The story starts with Steve in his cell. He is very scared. He only cries at night so the other prisoners cant hear him. There is a mirror in his room with names of other prisoners scratched into it. He looks into it and calls himself “Monster” . This is the name the prosecutor gave him and the others involved in the crime. He flashes back to when he was ten. He and his friend are throwing rocks and breaking windows then running from the owners. He is with strangers all the time now. He eats, sleeps and even has to go to the bathroom in front of them. He sees a guy make a knife out of a toothbrush. The day his trial starts a guy gets hit with a tray at breakfast. There is blood everywhere. He misses his family very much even his younger brother. His family comes to see him on visiting day and get to see him in court. His mother always looks sad in the courtroom.
A witness to the murder has an opinion.
“Sons in jail? Don’t listen to them as an alternative; they are not part of us. They have to come up with the new facts, give us a lot of evidence. You are an outsider here and you don’t do anything for the rest of the world. You are just like any other person in jail… they want you to be as human as they can be on a case.” -William Taggart, attorney
A statement from Mr. Kratz on Feb. 27, 1999
I was in a big room with John Kratz and my mom when we went to this meeting with his lawyer. My parents called and I just asked, ‘What are you talking about?’ I said, ‘I heard of him…he was a former U.S. Marshal and the United Nations military guy.’ ”
“We met on an airplane here, so I went with the American Embassy (AID) to meet him. This place is not a small operation. This is the third major operation in the history of the U.S. Government.
It is not a law firm. And after I got to D.C.—they sent me back to my husband, because of my immigration status—and we had a little meeting for lawyers.
And they said, ‘Well, then, we can’t use your name here anymore; that will jeopardize our place of work.’ And I said, ‘OK, let’s do that. But for a couple of years my mom would see us. We could get up and drive to our hotel around 8:00. We would meet in the lobby and they would ask us to come in before 5:30 that night.
I don’t want to leave my mother behind and so that’s when they went on a trip back and had a long car ride over to D.C. At that point my mom was a little angry and scared; she didn’t think we were doing anything wrong or that she’d had anything bad happen for her family yet.
The trip back to D.C. didn’t go as planned,” Kratz stated.
“We also had to talk to the U.N. headquarters. The problem was that we were going somewhere in the Middle East and this was the kind of place we had been to to before.” -Heimann, Washington DC
At that point Kratz and his lawyers decided to go try to get him to answer the question ‘if he’d been arrested, why did he give it up?’ Kratz told his attorneys that he would try to get his lawyers to talk him out of it… to which he replied, ‘I guess we could try it out.
“But right now, as I read through all of these documents and find out these things we were told about, it came out that he just left the U.N. without checking my papers or paying me the $200 he owed me.” -William Taggart, lawyer ₁
A witness to the murder has an opinion.
“Sons in jail? Don’t listen to them as an alternative; they are not part of us. They have to come up with the new facts, give us a lot of evidence. You are an outsider here and you don’t do anything for the rest of the world. You are just like any other person in jail… they want you to be as human as they can be on a case.” -William Taggart, attorney
A statement from Mr. Kratz on Feb. 27, 1999
I was in a big room with John Kratz and my mom when we went to this meeting with his lawyer. My parents called and I just asked, ‘What are you talking about?’ I said, ‘I heard of him…he was a former U.S. Marshal and the United Nations military guy.’ ”
“We met on an airplane here, so I went with the American Embassy (AID) to meet him. This place is not a small operation. This is the third major operation in the history of the U.S. Government.
It is not a law firm. And after I got to D.C.—they sent me back to my husband, because of my immigration status—and we had a little meeting for lawyers.
And they said, ‘Well, then, we can’t use your name here anymore; that will jeopardize our place of work.’ And I said, ‘OK, let’s do that. But for a couple of years my mom would see us. We could get up and drive to our hotel around 8:00. We would meet in the lobby and they would ask us to come in before 5:30 that night.
I don’t want to leave my mother behind and so that’s when they went on a trip back and had a long car ride over to D.C. At that point my mom was a little angry and scared; she didn’t think we were doing anything wrong or that she’d had anything bad happen for her family yet.
The trip back to D.C. didn’t go as planned,” Kratz stated.
“We also had to talk to the U.N. headquarters. The problem was that we were going somewhere in the Middle East and this was the kind of place we had been to to before.” -Heimann, Washington DC
At that point Kratz and his lawyers decided to go try to get him to answer the question ‘if he’d been arrested, why did he give it up?’ Kratz told his attorneys that he would try to get his lawyers to talk him out of it… to which he replied, ‘I guess we could try it out.
“But right now, as I read through all of these documents and find out these things we were told about, it came out that he just left the U.N. without checking my papers or paying me the $200 he owed me.” -William Taggart, lawyer ₁
Sandra Petrocelli is the prosecuting lawyer and is good. She is pushing for the death penalty. She states that everyone involved in the crime is equally guilty including the one who wrestled for the gun, the robber and the two lookouts. She is trying to prove that Steve knew and associated with the two robbers who are bad characters. He was a lookout for them.
Two men, James King and “Bobo” Evans entered a drugstore. They were to rob the owner, Mr. Nesbitt. Mr. Nesbitt had a licensed gun. There was a struggle and Mr. Nesbitt was shot dead. There was a woman in the store at the time of the crime named Loreen Henry. She identified King and states there was another black man possibly Bobo Evans. Although Bobo is already in jail for
other crimes, he denies the crime and says he was not there. King is accused of the shooting. Five cartons of cigarettes were stolen during the crime. The stolen cigarettes ended up being sold to a shady character named Bolden. He has a long record but states he was told about the crime. He tells of the two young lookouts Steve and Osvaldo Cruz. Cruz is a member of the Diablos gang. Cruz was the lookout for the front of the store. Cruzs character is questioned because they find out to get in the gang, Cruz must cut someone. He admits to this. Steves