Nineteen Minutes Essay

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In the novella “ Nineteen Minutes”, Jodi Picoult states that every decision that we make is caused by our past. Even so we live in the present, our choices are made by our past. The text narrates the story of mass murder caused by the outcast named Peter Houghton in Sterling High School located in the small town of Sterling, New Hampshire. The homicides took place in a period of nineteen minutes. In nineteen minutes Peter got his vengeance for seventeen years of being tormented, and the conflict took place (reference to the title of the book). However the conflict is told during the first chapter of the book, meaning that this contemporary book does not follow the typical scheme of time that we’re used to. We’re used to a chronological plot where a lifetime of a character is told in order, or a specific development of an event told in order: Born,…show more content…
As time flashes backwards and forward it reveals that Peter was subject to constant bullying from the first day at nursery till high school. It was at nursery where he met his best friend Josie Cormier who defended him until she reached high school and popularity became her priority, where she started seeing her friendship with Peter as an embarrassment. Peter was also an outcast at home. His late brother Joey, was a golden boy in school. He was an athlete, a straight-A student, with an endless list of friends. Joey even bullied his brother at school, only to keep his popularity. Once joey was killed by a car accident, his parents ignored him, as Peter was the opposite of Joey. Not very smart, not good at sports and lonely. Different perspectives tell the story; people like Peter’s family did not see the past like Peter saw it. Josie didn’t see the genocide as everyone else saw it, she saw it with Peters eyes, as she like Peter holded a gun and killed her own

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