Adolescence for many is one of the most difficult times in a person's life. Teens often have to deal with peer pressure,home issues,lost love and the constant uphill battle when it comes to school. However these challenges serve as an instrument to help transform teenagers into college and work ready adults and most teenagers perceiver. The main character Steve York in Rob Thomas’s novel Rats Saw God is at first unable to cope with the scale of these issues. He's on the verge of being unable to graduate on time, doing drugs to be able to cope with the ghosts of his past. Steve however manages to get his act together due to the influence of three important people. His sister Sarah,his guidance counselor Demouy and his father Alan York. The first person to have a major impact on Steve York’s evolution is his sister Sarah. Sarah acted as a catalyst to cause Steve’s epiphany on his father. While she may be younger than Steve by only a year Sarah is portrayed as far more open minded. Throughout the gradual fall of the York family Sarah managed to keep her head on her shoulders and observe what caused the divorce while Steve assumed it was his father's fault. This caused a tidal wave of resentment to wash over him,causing him to completely cut off his dad.This resentment blinds Steve and makes him act arrogantly to anyone who disagreed or challenged his thoughts. This is shown in the quote “Sarah’s a couple years younger than me. She doesn't remember everything as clearly as I do”(Thomas 111) Steve said this to his girlfriend Dub while they …show more content…
These people were Mr. DeMouy,Steve's guidance counselor. Sarah York who is his sister,and his father Alan. However the most influential of these three people was Sarah. Without the influence of his little sister Steve would have been able to graduate on time but would still hold massive amounts of unnecessary anger towards