Give a Boy a Gun by Todd Strasser

The book “Give a Boy a Gun” was written by Todd Strasser. It is based on a the Columbine High School massacre which took place on the 20^th April 1999. In this massacre 13 people got killed, and 21 people got wounded by two students of the same school. These two guys killed themselves afterwards. The whole book is written in quotations of witnesses and means of evidence.

Apart from the style of writing, I think this book is really good, because it tries to handle a very sensitive and also complicate theme and nevertheless manages to hold the content quite simple. But there are also points in which the book could be a little bit better: Firstly I would write the book in a narrative form, or at least write the names of the different characters, which are talking, on top of the paragraphs, because sometimes it is really confusing. For me it is always like that: I read through the paragraph and approximately in the middle I have got a the picture of the character, which I think is speaking at this time, in front of me and when I get to the end and I see who was actually talking, it is really enjoying and even shocking sometimes.

All starts with Brendan Lawlor and Gary Searle. They both visit Middletown high school and are the victims of brutal bullying every single day in school. Gary has been living in town since his birth, and Brendan moved to this school during the seventh grade. At the beginning they are not even aware of each other, but when they meet up the first time, Gary and Brendan become really good friends. Both of them hate the popular persons at the university like the football players and the cheerleaders, because they are exactly these groups of person, from which the bullying comes from. The hierarchy of these persons makes not athletic students unpopular and so worth less.  Essentially that´s the point of view Brendan, Gary, and their friends. With the time they become personal wrecks.

It all starts with Brendan, he finds his own dark side, but also Gary gets sicker and sicker in his mind. There is this constantly think about to kill all these tyrants and after that commit suicide.  Brendan’s and Gary’s friends aren’t serious with their plans.

Time keeps on passing and both of them get sicker and sicker in their minds. They are experimenting with bombs and guns. Ryan and Allison, friends of them, still don´t believe in their plans of revenge and also don’t understand that Brendan and Gary are done with everything. Even when Gary took them to the forest to test a bomb, they don’t see the inspiring of killing, which Gary, same like Brendan already got.

But then time is come. A school dance takes place, which is the perfect chance to bring their plan into action. At first they lock every single exit with a blast case and after that they take an armed raid on the teachers and students inside. They tie them up and after that, they took out theirs biggest enemy and begin to torture him. The situation comes to a head more and more, and suddenly it escalates.

All of a sudden Gary comes to his mentally and commits suicide. In the meantime a football player manages to untie himself, stands up, runs over to Brendan, which watches over to Gary, tackles him down to the ground and holds him, that he isn’t able to do something anymore. Immediately some students stand up, walk over to Brendan, pull the football player of him and start hitting him brutally. In fact they do the same thing to Brendan, which he did to them seconds before. They take revenge for the indignities, done to them, by punishing Brendan in a way which is as cruel as the indignities that happened to them before. Then again these indignities were an act of revenge for indignities that were done to Brendan by the students. And exactly this circle of indignities shows how thoughtless people are acting most of the time.

I know one of the instructions is to I write about my favourite or about my least favourite character in the book. But in my opinion there is no reason to prefer someone in this book so you can call it a “favourite character”. But you also can not hat someone of these characters. Because there is no one, who hasn’t got any problems him- or herself. Every single person in this book has his or her bad sides. But I think, and I dare to say that everyone has got a good side too. In my opinion, it is not a single man you can hate, in this case it is the whole school, you have to hate.

I finished the first book and it can’t be denied that the book is pretty good. In my opinion it has a very interesting structure. It is a book hard to put down and even harder to forget especially for pupils. The author makes you think about bullying others, the horror about real school shootings and our gun culture.
Even if I could change the plot I wouldn’t do it, because it has his own character and I think the fact that you understand the story after each chapter more and more makes it much more interesting. Strasser is an incredible author and as you can see, has written a very exciting story. I would ask him from where he takes his ideas.

Let’s be honest. There is no reason for treating each other like shit, hurting, or even killing each other.  But we still do it. So if there is one thing we can learn from this book then it that we have to hold together. And we have to act in a more respectful way to each other. Everything would be much easier. And I think this is also the main message of the book. So you have to be careful how you treat others because probably you might hurt someone so much that he is going to avenge himself. Don’t blame others or injury them. In my opinion it is a very good book.