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Gregory Tyler

Mrs. Cramer

College Comp Pd. 4

17 December 2021

Picoult and Peers’ Perceptions

The average lifespan is about seventy-two years, that grants 37,843,200 minutes. How

could someone ruin theirs in just nineteen? In the book Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult tells a

complicated story that depicts characters who are afraid of how they are perceived by others, and

fear what will happen to them if they fail to live up to their own expectations that they have for

themselves.

The main characters in the book feel that it is necessary to be perfect in almost every

aspect of their lives and this remains the constant theme throughout the story. Peter Houghton, a

kid who has struggled to fit in with the other kids his entire life. So, all he really wants more than

anything is for the other kids to think highly enough of him so they will lay off on bullying him

and let him into their group. In order to do this Peter believes that he needs to change who he is

to fit in, change how he acts so that the more popular group will let him into their inner circle.

On page 104, there is a girl in Peter’s class that has a bad experience during and to try and make

himself seem cooler he points the girl out and gets everyone in the room to laugh at her. Peter

explained how it felt to be the person doing the bullying, he liked the popularity and the

recognition from his peers but didn’t like the way it made him feel on the inside. Peter knew he

had made a poor decision and made that girl feel how he had felt many times before. Peter felt it

was necessary to change who he was so that he would be treated differently by his peers.
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Josie Cormier also falls subject to this recurring theme of feeling the need to change who

you are just to be perceived a certain way. Josie and Peter Houghton were best friends when they

were children but once they began middle school and high school Josie slowly drifted away from

Peter and began to spend less time with him. Peter was constantly bullied and picked on because

he wasn’t an athlete or a popular kid, so to save her social image Josie basically pretended that

Peter had not been there and never acknowledged him. Deep down she felt like he needed help

and hated to see him getting hurt but didn’t want to speak out for fear that she would be seen as

uncool or no longer popular. On page 225, Josie talks about how she wants to break up with Matt

Royston, her boyfriend, but is scared too because of how she might be treated after the breakup.

Matt is one of the most popular kids at school because of his abilities as a hockey player, Josie

really started to have that higher social status when she began dating Matt and doesn’t want to be

treated differently because her feelings for him have changed. Josie feels like she needs to

change who she is or how she feels so that her friends won’t change how they treat or view her.

She felt the same way when she stopped being friends with Peter, she didn’t want to be

associated with Peter because she was afraid to lose her social status by being associated with

him.

Josie’s mother Alex Cormier also plays a role in this theme. Alex feels that it is her

obligation to be the perfect mother and to help her daughter in any way that she can. After the

attack on the school Alex’s daughter, Josie, is struggling to open up to those around her and Alex

feels like it is her fault that she could not protect her daughter. On page 176 Alex tries to help

Josie by checking her out of school to help her get away from the stress she is dealing with at

school. Josie does not want the added attention of leaving school and she quickly asks Alex to

bring her back to school. This makes Alex feel like she did something wrong and that she is
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failing her daughter. She feels like she needs to be the perfect mother and can’t accept the fact

that she is human and bound to make mistakes.

Detective, and Alex Cormier’s eventual partner, Patrick Ducharme often criticizes

himself heavily for his own shortcomings. In the beginning of the book Patrick talks about how

he gets upset when crimes happen because he always feels that he would have been able to stop

them if he had only gotten there sooner. It is like he is blaming everything on himself when he

had nothing to do with it. On page 20 Patrick is going over past events that he felt he could’ve

prevented had he been in the right place at the right time, when he hears over his radio that gun

shots have been fired at the sterling high school. Patrick is once again overcome with guilt even

after the event because he felt that he should’ve been there to save those people. He feels like he

needs to be perfect and refuses that mistakes are bound to happen.

To sum up everything that has been previously stated, the theme amongst the characters

in the book, Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, is for them to be afraid of how they are seen by

others. The main characters have experiences in the story where they are forced to choose

between what they want to be and who they really are, and almost every time they choose to be

their ideal self rather than their true self.

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Work Cited
Picoult, Jodi. Nineteen Minutes. New York: Atria Books, 2007. Print.