Money may be a vital part in making our lives what they are now however, the people in our life it was really matters. Many people say money makes the world go round, but does it really. I can make people do things they wouldn’t normally do, or things they would never do. Evans is sitting in a jail cell with all the time left in his life to think of his actions and Steve Harmon going through life knowing that his actions may not have been enough to convict him but inside his heart and soul, he will always be convicted.

He didn’t care who he hurt and he showed that by going out and eating fried chicken with the money he had just stolen. He lives in a Black and Latino neighborhood that suffers from gun violence and police indifference. King, in the few short minutes of the crime itself, valued the money and the cigarettes he was going to get out of this robbery. He may not have been the one who pulled the trigger killing the man but he was undoubtingly a part of it. Steve Harmon probably never thought he’d be spending his nights in a jail cell along with men who have actually done brutal crimes, but none of that was tangible at that moment. King both knew that they were going to keep all the money for themselves. Many of the other conspirators who participated in this crime did it because of money and “street cred” by the head of the operation, Richard “Bobo” Evans and James King. Steve Harmon, the 16 year old on trial for felony murder, took part in a crime, which involved robbing a drugstore and the murder of the owner trailing back to money. My novel, Monster by Walter Dean Myers, relates to the theme of materialism as a downfall because the characters in my book are trying to find who is guilty or innocent based upon a crime that took place because people were money hungry.

Monster by walter dean myers theme