Reading Response

You never want to be  in a situation where you have to fly to stay alive. That is what the main character, who goes by many names, is living in the book I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore. This book is focused on the life of John Smith and how he has to adjust to every situation and also has to stay calm and each one of those situations. I believe that this book is unfair for the main character because he is forced to do things that he may not want to do.

If I was ever getting bullied I would stand up to the bully but John is encouraged not to. The minute John walked in to the class he received A warm welcome from a student named Mark. Mark and John had plenty of conflicting moments including when Mark and his friends pushed John to the lockers and surrounded him. Even though John has super powers, he cannot use them in the public which makes him pretty much hopeless because if he uses them, the whole world would find out and he would be executed. Furthermore a quote on page 98 explains, " at my locker I noticed something immediately off. The metal handle is covered with dirt, or what looks like dirt. I'm not sure if I should open it, but then I take a deep breath and force the handle up. The locker is half filled with manure..." John immediately realized it was Mark who did it but I can could not do anything about it.

Apart of staying secret is that you have to lie to the people you love. Most of his life he has been forced to lie to the people he loved to keep his secret. This part of the book is what really makes it unfair for him because he can never have a real friend. Also he has lost many family members of all sorts and he had to move on and pretty much become a new person just to stay alive. A very impactful line came on page 11 and it said, " my current name is Daniel Jones. My story is that I grew up in California and moved here because of my dad's job as a computer programmer. Daniel Jones is about to disappear. I light a match and drop it and the pile ignites. Another one of my lives, gone." this line was really important because it shows how he has to change himself every once in a while which is really hard to do.

Overall, I believe that this is a very unfair book because of him having to change his identity and tell lies to the people he loves. In the real world people have to deal with this in many scenarios so this book is an example of what people have to go through. I believe that those people should be reading this book to help them deal with the situation.

Outline

Hook: Any situation in which you are forced to fight in is a bad one

Thesis: Given that the main character isn't allowed to fight if he is getting bullied or has to lie to the people he loves just to stay a live makes this book unfair.

Body paragraph #1

Topic sentence: Throughout the Book John constantly gets bullied but can't do anything about it.

Evidence: A classmate of his always instigating fights between John and himself.

Evidence: Mark puts a pile of manure in Johns locker.

Body paragraph #2

Topic sentence: John often has to lie about his identity which hurts him deeply every time he does it.

Evidence: Every time he has to move he is forced to leave the friends he tried so hard to befriend.

Evidence: Beginning of book when he said he had to change to another one of his lives.