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When you read Monster by Walter Dean Myers, perhaps the most prominent characteristic is the novel's break from traditional
linear narrative. Myers tells the story of Steve Harmon by giving the reader Steve's own "film script" of what happened
to him. Interspersed in the script are journal entries, also by Steve, offering his intimate thoughts or flashbacks.
Steve Harmon is on trial for murder. He didn't commit the murder, but he is on trial for being a "look out" man,
someone sent into the store to check for police, then giving the signal so some other guys could rob the store. The
actual robbery didn't go as planned and the store owner was shot and killed. The guys who robbed the store, however,
set Steve up. Steve was in the store the day of the murder, however, he had nothing to do with the incident. Nevertheless
he is being portrayed by the prosecuting attorney as a MONSTER, while Steve's own defense attorny has her own doubts
about his innocence.
Steve's experience is surreal to him; he believes in his innocence yet the people closest to him have thier doubts: his
mother is devastated and worried, his father wonders how his son ended up on trial, his own lawyer has doubts. Re-telling
the events in the form of a film script allow Steve to distance his own self from the experience. The book challenges
stereotypes by contrasting Steve with the other kids on trial for murder. Reader's are left to draw their own conclusions
about Steve's own innocence, to decipher the courtroom and jailhouse drama. According to Sutton, "Myers adeptly allows
each character to speak for him or herself, leaving readers to judge for themselves the truthfulness of the defendants, witnesses,
lawyers, and, most compel-lingly, Steve himself" (Sutton 1999).
The pace of the novel is fast; it's film script style is dramatic, tense, and in the moment. The multiple voices
in the narration (through different speaking parts) makes the court room feel chaotic and risky - as though everything hangs
on a balance. For Steve Harmon, his life is hanging on the balance and the immediacy and urgency of his situation is
adeptly portrayed through this unique form. This novel provides an excellent opportunity for reader's theatre and classroom
discussion.
Myers, Walter Dean. Monster. New York: HarperCollins, 1999. ISBN 0060280778.
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