Book Response for Deadline

Author: Chris Crutcher
Year of Publication: 2007
Number of Pages: 316

I. Plot Summary- Ben Wolf is a senior in high school who finds out that he has an aggressive blood disease when getting his physical for cross country. After finding this out, he decides not to tell anybody and decides to live the rest of his year he has left as normal as he can. Throughout the year he does activities and other things that he would never have done without the courage the disease instilled in him. He decided to play football instead of going out for cross country, which was a great decision because he was very good at it. He also decided to ask the girl of his dreams out on a date, which she said yes, and made the rest of his year worth living. Throughout all of this his brother, who is also his best friend, knows nothing, as well as his parents and the rest of the town. Once his end is drawing nearer though, he decides to tell people, and doesn't expect some of the outcome that he receives from his decision.
II. Literary Elements-
A. Narrator- First Person - "My plan was to focus my senior year on information I could use after graduation when I set out for Planet Earth from the Pluto that is Trout, Idaho, population 943." p. 1
B. Protagonist- Ben Wolf - He is a small guy that has a blood disease and wants to live the rest of his year in the best way possible. "I'm enough smaller than most of them that we don't reach for the same set of shoulder pads at the same time." p. 12
C. Antagonist- The Disease - The blood disease that Ben has is very aggressive and could kill him within the next year. "We have to get right on it. Otherwise you'll be lucky to have a year." p. 4
D. Setting- "Out of Trout's 943 citizens not one of them is a shrink, or even plays one on TV." This shows that Trout, Idaho is a small town and that the people in it have small town jobs.
E. Conflict- In this book, the conflict is both man vs. self and man vs. nature. This is because Ben is diagnosed with a disease that can kill him, which is nature, but also that he refuses to take treatment, which is him essentially harming himself. Ben also decides not to tell anybody about his disease which leads to more trouble as the reader reads further. This is also man vs. self. "We have to get right on it. Otherwise you'll be lucky to have a year." p.4 "Back in the examination room, Doc unloaded when I told him we weren't going to do anything about this." p. 9
F. Theme- The main idea, or theme of this book, is that life is short and everybody needs to live it to the fullest because a person never knows when his or her time is up. " I walked away understanding I have a rare form of whatever the hell it is and without treatment my chances sucked, but with it they still sucked and somehow I knew my chances aren't about living, they're about living well." p. 13
G. Historical Context- This book signifies that everybody time will be up eventually, but it's what you do with that time that really matters. I think many people throughout history have lived this way, and that is what this book teaches us. "Nope, but Malcom was a pretty interesting guy. Came up the hard way." "Far enough out to get him gunned down by his own people." p. 83
III. Reflection- I did like this book very much because it kept me wanting to finish it throughout its entirety. I think this book would make a great movie because it has a great story line and has many twists and turns throughout. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read. It is a great book and en stows great life lessons. This book did, in a sense, end the way I expected. I do however, wish that in some way he could have lived and been with the girl of his dreams, Dallas.