Summer Reading Project: Stuck in Neutral (Entry 2)

7/6/14

In the book Stuck in Neutral each character is unique and special in their own way. Each character has their own special want and desire. Character Evaluations (wants /desires):

·         Shawn McDaniel- Wants to be like a normal human being, such as being able to communicate, move and  get the same feelings as other humans (same desires as the usual teenage boy)

·          Sydney McDaniel- Wants to end his own son`s life out of love to put him out of his misery and pain

·         Lindy McDaniel- Wants for Shawn to be safe and healthy, but still wants Shawn to not be disabled

·         Cindy McDaniel- Wants for Shawn to be cared for at all times

·         Paul McDaniel- Wants for Shawn to be protected at all times

·         Earl and Colin Detraux- Wants for people to understand why Earl killed his own son Colin, and why it wasn’t a cruel or mean killing in any way, and that it was out of love

A theme I noticed popping up in my book is theme of invisibility and being invisible to others. This popped out to me because Shawn in one section of the book explains how since he has disabilities he then becomes invisible to others, and this makes me wonder as to why we shield out humans with disabilities as to if they aren’t a human, even when they truly are…

My book is structured full of Shawn`s thoughts and dreams because since Shawn can`t communicate with his disabilities it won’t have his dialogue in it, but it does have other people`s dialogue included in the selection.

Summer Reading Project: Stuck in Neutral (Entry 1)

7/5/14

For my summer reading project I have decided to read the story called Stuck in Neutral, written by Terry Trueman. In this story the major characters are:

·         Shawn McDaniel- the 14 year old boy with disabilities who feels his father wants to kill him

·         Sydney McDaniel- Shawn`s father, who is also a writer who won a Pulitzer Prize for his poem

·         Lindy McDaniel- Shawn`s mother, works part time but mainly works with Shawn

·         Cindy McDaniel- Shawn`s sister, a very caring person

·         Paul McDaniel- Shawn`s brother, a very protective sibling

The setting of this selection is located in the city of Seattle, Washington in an average middle class home and in one section of the story the setting takes place in Shawn`s school. The conflict presented within the selection is that Shawn is a kid with disabilities and feels his dad wants to kill him (because he wants to put Shawn out of his pain from his disabilities). With Shawn`s disabilities he isn’t able to communicate with his father (although he thinks and is as smart as an average human being, maybe even smarter), he isn’t able to tell his dad not to kill him and that he isn’t in any pain.

I predict that Shawn`s father will kill him because Shawn`s dad has become infatuated with a man named Earl Detraux who killed his own son, Colin who had disabilities and said he did it out of love and to free his son from pain. Since Sydney McDaniel loves his son to a great extent and since he can’t communicate with or protect Shawn forever then he will put Shawn to rest and out of his pa

When I first began to read I had many questions and was curious to think as: Why would a man want to kill his own son? I soon realized that he would only do it out of love and to save his son from his pain, he would never do it if Shawn was not disabled and going through so much. I couldn't make connections to this book because it is nothing like I have ever read or seen before.