Shock, is the word that can best describe me after reading the first two chapters. This journal is the best example on how society pressures citizens to do certain things. From my point of view Brent is a very confusing character. At the beginning one could see how he is a very insecure person and popular in the school, but after a couple of pages certain doubts start to come out. Brent makes me remember of a European friend of mine that also tried to kill herself. After she told me the story I could infer that it was because she felt pressured by society. She thought and felt that had tobe like everyone else. She tried all the possible ways to suicide. When herparents noticed this they took her to treatment and know she got over it andcan easily share her story with her close friends.
While readingthis book I could connect it a lot with the conversation I had with my friend,such phrases like, “Mom no one’s ever going to love me, are they?” pg-43 makeme remember of my friend. Suicide, in the majority of cases is because ofinsecurity, Brent burned himself because he was afraid that his parents weredisappointed about his actions in school, and because he was going to beexpelled after they found out that he was the one that burned the basketballshirt in the gym. While doing this action he didn’t think of the consequencesthis big scandal could bring and this is why he preferred killing himselfrather than confronting the consequences of his actions. While Brent set theshirt on fire he was relaxed and did this because he thought it will be funny,or he could also thought that the school will take it as something’s funny, but after the principle andsome teachers started to investigate he noticed that this will bring a lot ofconsequences. So here is where he decides to decline all the accusations.
-“Do you know anything about that?”- Principle
-“No. I don’t know anything about that.”- Brent
-“Do you know who did it?”
-“No, I don’t know who did it.” –pg 15
With this scene one can see that he is not planning to saythe truth. He prefers to decline all the things they ask him before telling thetrue story He also feels very nervous, when he talks to his friend Brian inEnglish class and he tells him that the school can figure out who was it,because of the fingerprint files they have. That afternoon after realizing thathe had nothing to do about it he thought that the only way out was killinghimself. By is act one can inferthat Brent is very coward, instead of facing the consequences of his acts heprefers the easy way, which is committing suicide.
