Valine 1

Elizabeth Valine

Mrs. Cramer

Comp 1

11/01/2019

You Never Know What Could Happen

The way you treat someone effects them in many ways. You could say something to

someone to make their day or it could seriously hurt them. Even if you say something or did

something a long time ago, it could affect this person and how they react to that is unknown.

That is why people need to watch how they treat someone. In Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult

uses great detail of tragic events to develop the theme of showing great compassion to others.

Although this novel explains a serious event that happens more often than it should, it explains

tragic events into great detail so the reader can understand the purpose of treatment towards

others.

Tragic events happen every day. Sometimes the event can be bad, or it can be good.

Unfortunately for Sterling High it was not good. “It’s a kid... he’s shooting everyone” (Picoult

page 22). Peter Houghton has been going to school with the same kids since kindergarten, and

since then they have continuously picked on him. In kindergarten the kids would take Peters

lunchbox and throw it out the window on the bus. Peter would get into trouble by his mom

because his mom, Lacy, thought he had lost it. When in all reality it was the other kids who were

getting him get into trouble. The reoccurring problems that kids would do to him for all his years

in school led him to do the unthinkable, he shot up Sterling High. The reasoning behind this is

because kids would continue to pick on him and not treat him with respect. If they would have

treated him nicely and in a positive way all the kids would have been safe and never would have
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been hurt or dead. “Maximum security meant that Peter did not have a roommate” (Picoult page

119). In a result to Peter doing what he did, he was placed in jail and it is not the best conditions

With Peter being in jail, it caused people to start talking in the school because now that people

know it was him, they hope that he suffers. In the end this all revolves around bullying. Bullying

is a huge problem that happens in all schools and it is terrible. If the kids would have just left

him alone and treated him nicely instead of being rude and hurting his feelings, he would have

never thought the way he did about them and how the school is.

Showing compassion to others is a big deal when it comes to someone like Peter. “Drew

picks on him all the time and Peter gets so hurt, so today I wanted it to be the other way around”

(Picoult page 70). Josie and Peter were close friends when they were younger. They would sit

together on the bus and play on the playground together at recess and one day Josie had to stick

up for Peter. He was getting picked on by Drew on the playground and Josie just decided to beat

Drew up to defend Peter. Although Josie got into trouble for what she did, Peter was still

thankful for what she did because he never could stand up for himself. Drew and his friends

continued to do pick on him and did not realize what he was doing to Peter and how it was

hurting his feelings. “He knew exactly what the hell he was doing” (Picoult page 261). Drew

always assumed the worst in Peter. Josie would show the compassion towards Peter and it was

obvious that Peter wanted it, but Drew never saw the good side in him. He just saw the Peter was

an easy target and easy to pick on. It all comes down to the fact that if you treat someone with

respect, they are not going to do something that you don’t want them to do overall, Drew always

picked on Peter.

A school shooting is something that not everyone can talk about or even write about. Jodi

Picoult did an amazing job in putting the book into great detail. Using the realism of the

characters and their role is demonstrated particularly. That develops a theme of showing
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compassion to others. A big theme for this book is to treat others with respect. You never know

what could be going on in that person's life. If they are not in a good situation that can cause

them to do something and it could be bad. With Picoult showing detail with the shooting it shows

the reader that people go through real life events and it can make an impact on them.
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Work Cited

Picoult, Jodi. Nineteen Minutes. New York: Washington Square Press, 2007.h