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In the novel Monster by Walter Sean Myers, Steve Harmon, a 16 year old black boy from Harlem is put on trial for murder. Throughout the story, Myers develops not only the plot, but characterization of Steve very strongly, and within this many manners of symbolism are used.
Beginning with the mirror, it represents reality that Steve can’t run away from. The things he must face, such as people’s perspective of him and even his own. “There’s a mirror over the steel sink in my cell....when I look into the small rectangle, I see a face looking back at me but I don’t recognize it.” Steve himself begins to wonder if he really is a monster.
The mirror even plays part in the struggle of what is reality for the people that know him, like Steve’s own father, who’s conflicted in how he sees his son. “My father is no longer sure of who I am.” Along with his father is Miss O’Brien, Steve’s own lawyer, who turns away from him at the end of the trial.
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It’s hard for Steve to find his own identity when everyone around him is doing it for him.
Moving forward with another symbol in Monster is Steve’s Script. One thing that kept him sane in jail was writing his experience, although he was scared and even lonelier. He expresses, “I hate this place. I hate this place. I can't write it enough times to make it look the way I feel.
I hate, hate, hate this place!” The script represents Steve’s voice, something going very unheard during trial. There were so many odds against him, one of them was that he never got to really talk to the judge but his lawyer was doing the best that she could to “make him look human in the eyes of the jury.” It’s the prosecution’s job to implement their own voice on Steve to work in their favor. The script is Steve’s opportunity and freedom to build his voice within a world under incarceration where it’s gone. “Maybe I could make my own movie. I could write it out and play it in my head. I’ll write it down in the notebook they let me keep.”
Amidst all the fear and loneliness Steve experiences, he has one thing left that respects comfort and safety. It’s his blanket. On several occasions Steve attempts to hide under it to avoid trial. Under his blanket he can pretend he’s anywhere, even a safer place such as his room back home in Harlem. But sooner than later he realizes he can’t escape his reality, and a verdict will soon await him. With Steve found innocent he has the opportunity to move on with his life and in the end he decides to continue filming. In his own words “I want to know who I am. I want to look at myself a thousand times to look for one true image.”
The Symbolism and Identity in Monster by Walter Dean Myers. (2024, Feb 03). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/the-symbolism-and-identity-in-monster-by-walter-dean-myers-essay
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