ipl-logo

Monster Steve Harmon Character Analysis

663 Words3 Pages

The question still stands. Is Steve Harmon guilty? Monster is a screenplay, written by Walter Dean Myers, in the perspective of a character named Steve Harmon. This book does an exceptional job of expressing Harmon’s thoughts and emotions throughout the trial. In this story, Steve Harmon is a sixteen year old boy, on trial with his neighborhood acquaintance, James King, for the accusation of the robbery and murder of Alguinaldo Nesbitt. Before the trial began, other members of the gang, Bobo Evans and Osvaldo Cruz, admitted to being guilty. Steve Harmon, being the overachieving student and well rounded person that he is, was found innocent. Whereas the careless thug, James King, was found guilty. However, despite the final decisions of the …show more content…

Multiple witnesses admitted to having seen Steve Harmon the day of the crime, or even seeing him at the drugstore during the hour of the robbery. Towards the middle of the trial, Steve writes in his journal “I thought, as I tried not to throw up, that I wanted to be tough like them” This quote shows that he wanted to act like Bobo and Osvaldo. He wanted to be a part of the gang. However, not that he is, not that the is on trial for committing a serious crime, he doesn’t like it. Steve is regretting whatever he did as a part of this day. Also, on page 96, Steve says again that he wanted to be like King, so he began to act like him, and follow his orders. When Steve’s mother visited Steve in the detention center, she was crying. She acted as if he was dead, and she told him “No matter what anybody says, I know you’re innocent.” As she left, Steve began to wonder if he really did do something wrong. At this time, he was doubting himself. He thought that he was fooling himself, believing that he was innocent. Towards the end of the book, Steve writes in his journal: “The trouble I’m in keeps looking bigger and bigger. I’m overwhelmed by it. It’s crushing me.” By this quote, we can tell that Steve is convinced that the trial is not looking in his favor. The guilt is getting in his head, and the longer he stays on trial, the more severe of a punishment he’ll receive. Steve is

Show More
Related
318 Words | 2 Pages

And was just at the wrong place on a wrong day. Steve never agreed to be the lookout in the robbery. Steve never agreed to take part in the robbery. On page 140 steve said he went in the store to look around for some mints and left. He never gave any signals and no one saw him in the store.

Read More
206 Words | 1 Pages

I believe that Steve Harmon is innocent. There are many reasons to believe this. For one “bobo” Evans placed him at the crime scene but Mr. Evans and Mr. King according to Mr. Evans testimony were on drugs. So Steve Harmon could have just happened to be their. Since both Mr. Evans and Mr. King were on drugs i don’t believe that their statements are valid.

Read More
806 Words | 4 Pages

The book ended ambiguously and left the reader to question whether or not Steve was truly innocent. Because of the numerous questionable scenes/parts in the novel, I believe that Steve Harmon is guilty of being a participant in the crime that led to death of Mr. Nesbitt. Would a man who was innocent continuously change his story? Steve’s statements regarding his whereabouts and what he was doing on the day of the murder is inconsistent. Steve stated that he just went inside

Read More
726 Words | 3 Pages

When asked why he voted not guilty, juror eight stated “Look, this boy has been kicked around all his life. You know---living in a slum, his mother dead since he was nine. He spent a year in and a half in an orphanage while his father served a jail term for forgery. That’s not a very good head start. He’s had a pretty terrible sixteen years.

Read More
954 Words | 4 Pages

At the end of the trial, the jury made their decision. The author wrote, “The guards who were standing behind Steve moved away from him. He has been found not guilty.” (Myers 276).Steve being a good person has better reasons than him being a bad person because one of the reasons for him being a bad person was because he was friends with bad people. Just because he is friends with bad people doesn't mean he does the same stuff as them.

Read More
1106 Words | 5 Pages

Since Steve did this, he was a big part in the crime, and is a bad person. He was involved with the murder of Mr. Nesbitt, and because he helped with such a big part in committing the crime, that makes him a monster. Steve says later on

Read More
793 Words | 4 Pages

one reason the jury thinks that they are guilty because they and black. In the text O’ Brian says you are guilty because you are young and black. Another reason is that they are not giving him a fair trial. Steve is standing at the witness stand and he is trying to tell his part of the story but O’Brien his lawyer told Steve that when you get called up that you should look state at the jury and tell the truth that you were not part of the day of robbery on the day of December 22. Steve looks back to when he was going into the drug store not as a look out, He said that during that time I was out shooting a film for my school news.

Read More
1280 Words | 6 Pages

Perceptions from others can be cruel. Criminals are often thought of negatively by themselves and are also disrespected by others in society. The novel Monster presents the impressions people have about Steve Harmon, an accused criminal on trial for robbery and murder. Furthermore, the text explains Steve’s views of himself during and after time in prison from first person point-of-view. The novel Monster by Walter Dean Myers highlights the various perceptions that exist about an accused criminal.

Read More
747 Words | 3 Pages

He fills in an X and hands the pencil to NO. 12.” (12 Angry Men). He thinks the only pieces of evidence are the witnesses because they said they saw the killing even though there was flaws within their testimony. After further investigation, he agrees the boy is not guilty. Then, juror number three persuades number twelve

Read More
771 Words | 4 Pages

Holmes is taken to the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo for supervision. A month later, Holmes Attorneys defended his client, by saying, "Mr. Holmes suffers from a severe mental illness and was in the throes of a psychotic episode when he committed the acts that resulted in the tragic loss of life and injuries sustained by movie goers on July 20, 2012” (“Colorado Theater”, 2017). Holmes defense to his actions was because he believe the reason he killed everyone is because he was unable to control his actions because of the movie he watched.

Read More
1133 Words | 5 Pages

Although 3 does change his mind in the end, he is the last to change so he is the leader for the guilty side. In the end, the reader can look at figure 1. and take away the fact that juror 8 is the main character, and that jurors 3 and 8 causes the main conflict in the

Read More
1002 Words | 5 Pages

Steve’s judgment of his actions is similar to a pendulum swinging. Although Steve believes within himself that he is innocent, of the important people around him, make him insecure as to the degree of his innocence and turn to others for confirmation. Steve Harmon, the defendant, is faced with an internal conflict that questions his self-identity and his character in relation to the crime.

Read More
919 Words | 4 Pages

Before the trial, Steve is already scared of what the outcome is and how he might spend his whole life in jail and starts doubting his chances of being found not guilty. During the trial, Steve starts hearing the things the prosecutor is saying and sees the people who are testifying against him, which is already not putting him in a good state of mind, and this combines with him seeing his father who looks very scared of Steve, and this all gives Steve disappointment. After the trial, Steve is found not guilty and gets to return home and we next hear from him five months later where we see his father had left him and that Steve doesn’t even know who he is, which shows that he feels damaged. With all of this in mind, we can see that Steve, a dark-skinned, sixteen-year-old boy, has gone through a change from being afraid to feeling lost with himself through doubt, disappointment, and damage. Image how other people feel in

Read More
665 Words | 3 Pages

but Juror number ten said otherwise. The evidence that is shown to prove this point is when all the jurors are all at the table and they all go to the window and turn their backs towards juror number ten, specifically juror numbers three and four. This happened while the vote was nine to three, nine voted innocent and three voted guilty. Three and four turned their backs towards number ten because they disagreed on why they thought the boy was guilty. Juror number ten was an ill-mannered man who was very bigot.

Read More
1404 Words | 6 Pages

He thinks that the boy isn’t guilty just because he isn’t

Read More

More about Monster Steve Harmon Character Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document