A dilemma that has been plaguing law enforcement for ages is whether or not adolescents who commit crimes should be treated the same as an adult who commits crimes. It’s only fair that criminals should be held accountable for their actions but should that be reconsidered when it comes to children? That is the question that the criminal justice system can’t come to a decision on.

First, let’s get the facts straight. Adolescents act different when out in groups. In a study conducted by Temple University, adolescents were asked to participate in an activity where they had to make a last minute decision on whether they should stop for a yellow light or keep going and hope for the best. When the adolescents were under the impression that their friends were watching them complete the activity, they were much more likely to run the yellow light. Although for adults, there was no change in behavior when they were told a friend was observing them. When compared to the results gathered from adults who participated in the experiment as well, it was obvious how much of an impact the presence of peers has on adolescents’ decision making skills. When adolescents are out in group the part of their brain that has to do with rewards light up which makes them more focused on the reward for making a risky decision than the possible dangers.

Some people think that in order to fix this problem, actions should be taken to try to reduce the crime rates of adolescents so that they don’t have to get involved in the criminal justice system in the first place. They want to stop the problem at the source. Changes that can be made to make this possible are better enforcement of curfew and increased adult supervision. Although there are some people who believe that adolescents should be held to the same standards as adults, regardless of their age. These people doubt that adolescents’ not yet fully-developed brains affect their behavior and that they should be able to control themselves and their urges when around their friends.

Another unique viewpoint on this debate is to blame the parents of the young offender. These people believe that the child acts out because of economic or social problems in their family. Children are a product of their parents and if the kid is a bad egg, the parent must be too. This poses the question: Who is really to blame? The adolescent with the easily influenced brain, the bad parent, the bad friends, all of the above?

http://readingcraze.com/index.php/cause-and-solution-of-juvenile-delinquency/

http://www.mprnews.org/story/2012/11/15/daily-circuit-juvenile-offenders-brain-development

The following passage​ is what I have imagined was cut from Cormac McCarthy's The Road before the final edition was released. It takes place on page 143, in between, "There was no gun and there wasn't going to be one," and, "When he woke the gaslamp overhead was hissing softly."

As he sat on his bunk, he listened to the high winds that surely signaled the start of another storm. Minutes later the rain began. It created an odd noise. It sounded nothing like the familiar sound of rain on the roof of a house. It sounded more like footsteps on the soil above. Thousands of footsteps hitting the ground over their heads. The sound of thunder was muffled, a thunderhum. It was unsettling but also kind of calming. He liked it, so he sat and listened.

After a while it was difficult to keep his eyes open. He had just begun to drift off, but the repetitive nature of the thunderhum and the rainfeet was interrupted and it caught his attention. Actual footsteps? He walked over the the steps and put his head up to the ceiling. Footsteps. Against his better judgement, he swung open the door.

Is anyone there?

There was movement in the dark. He saw a shadow and a pale face. Their eyes met his. Her eyes met his. Her eyes met his. It was her.

He was drenched to the bone already and re-entered the bunker to grab a tarp and the battery lantern. He decided to wake the boy. He was shaking him.

Your mother.

Now the boy was shaking him.

Papa, wake up.

He jolted upright.

She’s out there. I need to see her.

Papa, there’s no one to see!

Realization struck. The man, embarrassed, said, Go back to bed.

The boy did.

(250 words) (McCarthy-esque words: thunderhum, rainfeet)

This is my rationale, explaining why I made these choices for this project.

In my passage, I wanted to focus on the boy's growth over time and how the man acts in contrast to him. I was really interested in the motif of dreams that McCarthy used and decided to give another peek into the man's dreams. The man is constantly dreaming about his wife so I definitely had to include her in it. This reminded me of the incident with the little boy, on page 85, where the man tried to convince the boy that he was imagining things. I thought it would be interesting to have the tables turned this time and make it so that the man is the one who is convinced there is someone there when he is only dreaming. The man is sleep-talking and his voice startles the boy out of his sleep, so he immediately wakes the man. Once the man realizes that the whole previous ordeal with his wife was a dream, he is embarrassed and tells the boy to go back to bed.

When the boy saw the other little boy the man said, “There’s no one to see,” so I made sure to have the boy say the same exact thing to the man. The man remembers that outburst and is not happy that now he is on the other side of the argument. What makes the man even more embarrassed is that in this case, he was most definitely having a dream whereas the boy very well may have actually seen someone else.

The boy springing right into action and knowing how to handle this situation shows his growth and maturity. This passage also highlights the man’s deteriorating mental state. He said that good dreams are bad news and he has been having so many dreams about his wife that it’s clear he isn’t doing so well. The man’s poor health and state of mind is dangerous to the boy since the man’s judgement is not very reliable.

I placed this passage in this location of the book because I wanted there to be no mention of it when they both wake up again. The man completely brushes that off his shoulder and hopes that the boy has forgotten it too. he doesn’t want the boy to be worried about him or realize how unsettled he was by the dream.  

Book Title: Paper Towns

Author: John Green

John Green is an American author who specializes in books for young adults. He has become very successful in the past few years and has the awards and titles to prove it. Two of his most popular books include his debut novel, Looking for Alaska and his most recent book, The Fault in Our Stars. Looking for Alaska won the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature in 2006. When The Fault in Our Stars was released in early 2012 it was at number 1 on The New York Times Bestseller List and was recently turned into a movie which became number 1 in the box office. To top it all off, in 2014 he made it on Time’s 100 Most Influential People List. Aside from all of his literary achievements, he has invented a charity called “Project for Awesome,” launched an event known as “Vidcon” and he and his brother, Hank Green, run a popular Youtube channel.

John’s third book is called Paper Towns and follows around a teenager named Quentin Jacobsen who has always been in love with his neighbor, the mysterious Margo Roth Spiegelman. Quentin, otherwise known as “Q,” has been infatuated with Margo since they were friends as children. But after they found the body of a man who committed suicide in a park they lost touch. Years later when Margo climbs through Q’s window and recruits him as an accomplice in her carefully laid out plan for revenge on her cheating boyfriend, he is shocked but agrees to help.

After a whole night of shenanigans, Quentin is excited to talk to his new friend Margo, but she is no where to be found. Q doubts that she left without an agenda and figures she had to have left some kind of clue. So once he breaks into Margo’s room, clues are exactly what he finds. Clues that give Quentin hope that he might be the one to solve the mystery of Margo Roth Spiegelman.

Something that Quentin finds himself struggling with throughout the whole book is trying to understand Margo and how she works. When Margo initially approaches him at his bedroom window in the middle of the night he is mesmerized. Over the next couple days following Q and Margo’s nighttime adventure and Margo’s disappearance, Q realizes that he knows absolutely nothing about the girl he'd fantasized about since his childhood. He’s only known Margo Roth Spieglman, the most popular, pretty, mysterious girl in school but that’s all anyone knows. Margo herself is an unsolved puzzle. But once Q starts finding all the secret clues she leaves behind he learns more about her which leads him to questioning himself.

Paper Towns has it all, humour, mystery, romance and concepts that many young adults will surely relate to. John Green is known for writing books that showcase a teenage boy who fantasizes over an unattainable, mysterious girl who somehow ends up changing their life. But he creates such interesting, outgoing characters and his writing style is so well thought out, clever, and sometimes even poetic that it doesn’t seem like a corny love story. Something that John Green does really well with is his use of language, he knows exactly how to word things to make everything as believable as possible. The conversations had in the book and the thoughts his characters express make complete sense with the mind of teeangers and that’s why his books are so popular. Teenagers and young adults understand and enjoy it. But don’t let that fool you, I’m sure almost any adult would really enjoy any book written by John Green. I would recommend Paper Towns in particular to anyone who is 13 or older, since it is a book written about a bunch of high school seniors there isn’t much of a filter and some of the things the characters say and/or think might not be what all parents want their kids to be reading about.

I have read two of John Green’s other books aswell, Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars. I finished each of the three books within a very short time period because I couldn’t put them down. I was never bored while reading them and was sucked into the character’s world quickly because John Green’s writing grabs your attention and doesn’t let go. I don’t really have anything bad to say about any of his books except for the fact that I was a little let down by the ending of Paper Towns, not that it was bad I was just left wanting more.

All in all, John Green is a very talented author and the popularity surrounding his books is for good reason. You should definitely give at least one of them a read because you won’t be disappointed.

Title: Paper Towns

Author: John Green

Publisher: Dutton Penguin

Date of publication: October 16, 2008

Number of pages: 305

Genres: Young adult fiction, Mystery

Daddy’s Job

(Daughter is at school, Dad is picking her up.)

Bye, Samantha! Have a fun weekend! Hey Dad. Yeah, Mom took me to get my haircut on wednesday. Thanks. School was fun. Mmmhhm. What’s that smell? Is something wrong with the car? Oh. What do you even do at work? Well, then why does Mommy hate what you do so much? Why couldn’t you give it up for her? (Pause) Is it because of this nice car? (Pause) Ice cream? Um. No, I think I just wanna go home and play with Sandy. Grandma’s... again? I don’t wanna! (Whines) Why are there so many meetings? I never get to play with you anymore. Yeah, I like all my toys but I wanna play with you. A big project? What kind of project? Pipeline? What’s tha… 1000 miles!? Well, that does sound pretty important I guess. But I still don’t get why Mommy doesn’t like it. Is it cuz the smell. It is pretty gross. Do ya want me to ask her? I… oh sorry. Ok, well what time are you going to pick me up tonight? I’m sleeping over? I don’t have any clothes or pajamas! And I got school tomorrow! Can’t you just take a day off for once? (Whispers) Well is it really that important? (Pause) Oh, I didn’t say anything. I’ll see you tomorrow then. Bye Daddy. (Pause) Hi Grandma. Yeah, his dumb job. I know.

Family First

(Leaving house)

See ya later, honey! Bye kiddos! Love you, too. Yup, Daddy’s gonna bring in the big bucks! Haha! You guys be good to your Momma, alright. Ahh, ok.

(Walks out the door, walks to car) (Sighs)

(Arrives at work) Hey guys. What’s up? We going back to the James’ house today? Alright. What are we doing there, just putting down some sod right? (Sighs) Landscaping is hard work, men. Wish it paid a bit better though, am I right? (Pause) What about the Daytona’s? Wait, what? Why? Sold half their land? To who? What is TransCanada? A pipeline? Over a thousand miles?! That’s ridiculous! Are we really that desperate? What’s that gonna mean for all our customers? Anybody else sold their land? Really? Aw man. Wonder how much they gave ‘em for that piece of land. They wanna make a deal with me? They can have my 2x2 shed. Haha, yeah! Man, I really need this job though. Only source of income for my family. My wife got the kids to take care of while I’m gone and on top of that she’s thinking of going back to school! I need this! (Pause) Maybe this big old company will hire me. I’ll help with this pipeline thing! Destroying the environment? Oh, please! Isn’t everything doing that these days? I gotta keep my family alive. That’s more important to me! Ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Yeah, I know. Alright. Let’s get going.

Biased Boss

(Walks into boss’ office)

Mornin’ Mr. Clark! How are you doing, this fine morning? (Begins to sweep the floors of the office) Aw man, what’s bugging ya? Ah, the pipeline XL? You mind telling me more about this thing? My co-workers have been telling me bit by bit of what they are all hearing, but I don’t got the whole story yet. Course, I’ll keep cleaning while you talk! You’re the boss! Steele City? Now, where is that? Nebraska? Woah! Any idea how far that is? Woah, what’s that number again? I wanna write that down and tell my husband. He won’t believe this! 1,179 miles you said it was? That sure is incredible, sir! And when is this starting? Ohh, Obama’s a good man, he will never be able to turn down something like this! Sounds great! I’m super excited to see how this goes! (Finishes up cleaning the floors) Alright, Mr. Clark it was nice talking to you. It’s my lunch break now. I’ll see you around, have a good day! (Picks up supplies and walks out of the office) (Hovers outside the office for a second and pops her head back in) One last question Mr. Clark, good, old Mother Nature won’t be harmed in any of this,right? You know I love my trees and fresh air, ha! Nothing to worry about? Alright! I’m getting more and more excited! Bye now! (Walks to locker rooms) (Puts stuff away, grabs lunch and bag) (Walks outside and sits on a bench) (Pulls out phone and searches “Keystone Pipeline XL”) “Say No to Keystone Pipeline?” Hate articles already, gosh! (Pause) (Reads article a little) This oil is under a forest? That don’t sound very good. Hmmm. This plan doesn’t really sound as peachy as I thought it was before. (Continues reading)