Gentlemen. By: Michael Northrop Joey Laumann This last section that I read chapter 6 through 12 was amazingly gripping! This section focuses on the struggle of the characters Tommy, Mixer, Bones, and Michael. It’s funny the way Michael is examined by his name, for instance people think he belongs in the “stupid” class when “even his name is spelled wrong!”(Pg.2-3 I’m just looking back for reference). Well in all honesty I have never actually had the time to examine or even read a book all the way through, but with this book I was pleased with the way it connects to me on a personal level. When I say that I mean it speaks to me about being a misfit, that is my personal experience in school, with no one but your pals at your side and the world against you, although the acts of violence that these characters take action in have no connection to me what so ever (just to clear up the air). The characters are all amazingly open and relatable to almost all readers. This book is like the book version of the breakfast club, but with more misfits. The problem that actually commences in this section of the book is the kidnapping of Tommy who isn’t noticed to be missing mainly because the other characters thought he had been suspended, but they shortly come to find out he has been kidnapped. The one person they suspected to have taken tommy, Mr. Haberman, their remedial English teacher who they all have an already formed strong distaste for. They dislike Mr. Haberman in the get go because he calls them “gentlemen” which other students laugh at, so the boys have a reason to have disapproved of this teacher so early on. Now the one thing I don’t have a great pleasure in reading is the violent scene that occurs in this section. The boys, with their belief that Mr. Haberman is the person that has taken Tommy, they go to Mr. Habermans house and Bones beats him up in his own living room while Mixer and Mike watch. This left me thinking about all the aggression that these kids share and how the entire world has shaken them away from becoming normal so quickly that this, this violent crime, is their way of dealing with crime. I have a few somewhat vital questions such as, How hard it is to tell the difference between someone who is truly broken (no doubt that Bones is a sociopath) and someone who is only lost (like Mike) and needs nurture and culture? Also how does the educational system fail so many boys and girls by lowering expectations? Like… I’m serious I would love to address these questions in an actual verbal state of conversation so you could see how much these things actually matter to me. These questions have raised a lot of action and thought in my brain, I have an answer now but at the time I didn’t. The response I have devised for question one is – It’s not very difficult, if you look at a school’s student body in its entirety you’ll be able to spot the kids like a bones in a jiffy. He’s the kid that sits with his friends at lunch and is the only one talking, the one that must always be in command, the
