Nineteen Minutes By Jodi Picoult: Character Analysis

Could you imagine watching your classmates or close friends die in front of your eyes? In the novel Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, Josie witnessed ten of her classmates, including her boyfriend unfortunately shot. Peter, a boy bullied his whole life, was the boy behind the gun aiming to kill the bullies. Part of the community wonders what motivated him to commit this crime and the rest of the community does not even want to her of his name. As you could envision, the whole community feels pity for the lifeless and injured, but what about Peter’s family who were not aware Peter was capable of such a horrific crime? In this journal I will be questioning, predicting, and evaluating. One could wonder what motivated Peter to commit such a truculent crime. To start, the constant bullying and the feeling of not belonging may have motivated Peter. Peter was bullied throughout his whole life. His classmates

Peter hurt the society mentally. Peter damaged the parent’s values on raising their children. The parents questioned their parenting, and how they lied to their kids that they will keep them safe. Peter gave the living victims fear. The living has had nightmares ever since the shooting: “My daughter’s only ten, and she’s terrified about walking into that high school, ever. She wakes up in the middle of the night screaming. She thinks there’s someone with a gun there, waiting for her” (Picoult 167). Secondly, Peter hurt the society physically. Peter killed ten students. A bullet travelling through one’s body would obviously hurt. The shooter also injured several students who got in his way as he plodded throughout the school like a hunter searching down his prey. ☺ Sterling’s hospital was so full of wounded patients; the wounded classmates were lying on the grass near the school waiting for the ambulance to transport them. Peter directly and indirectly hurt the whole population of