Walter Dean Myers Sparknotes

Studies show that about four to six percent of all Americans that end up in prison are wrongfully convicted. Or is everyone considered innocent until proven guilty? Steve Harmon is a sixteen year old boy from Harlem, New York, on trial for felony murder. He keeps a diary and writes a screenplay of his time during trial. The prison setting makes for perceived notions within the reader. Jurors have to make their decision as to whether or not they find him guilty. The book, Monster, written by Walter Dean Myers, follows Steve's experiences during his trial, where the conflict and main characters are established. To begin, the author conveys a conflict of person versus self throughout the novel. It is evident that Steve is trying his best to stop himself from feeling like a

The author wrote, “When I look in the mirror I see a face looking back at me, though I don't recognize it. I couldn't have changed that much in a few months” (Myers 15). Steve no longer recognizes himself after he has seen what prison life has done to him, mentally and physically. He undergoes an existential crisis in which he questions everything around him. To conclude, Myers gives the story an internal conflict regarding Steve. Furthermore, one can analyze the development of the main character Steve Harmon throughout the story. Towards the beginning of the novel, Steve is seen in absolute misery. On page 29, Steve writes the word “monster” over and over again in his notebook. This shows that he assumes that he is a murderer, someone who takes away the life of another, when in reality he is not. Petrocelli, the prosecutor, is the one who labels him as such, and so her being of authority makes him view himself in that negative light. At the end of the novel, Steve has changed because of the trial, which is character development. According to the text, “That is why I take the films of