Though you'll find that Melinda and Steve, the main character in Monster, appear to have little in common, you'll find that they're more alike than meets the eye. We'll work to distinguish those commonalities as we read.
To kick off our reading of Monster, we have a series of learnings and activities designed to get you all more familiar with the life of inner-city African Americans. This novel takes place in New York City and we live in an extremely rural area. Therefore, there may be little in terms of life experience that we have to draw from to connect to our characters. However, just as Melinda is more like Steve than you would think, we have a lot in common with folks who live in cities. So, we started a Venn Diagram to help map out issues/ phrases/ images/ words related to ghetto life and rural life. Though we ran out of time, we even found some common traits. We'll pick up here next class and work to add more to our Venn Diagram. Good start!
Click on our Venn Diagram to see more our work in progress:
