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Bringing Down The House By Ben Mezrich: Character Analysis

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In the book, Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich, the reader becomes emotionally involved with the lives all of the characters. The audience gets pulled into the dangerous life of card counting and learns about each character along the way. The main character, Kevin Lewis, stands out among the rest of the characters in the book due to his conflicting desires. It is apparent that Kevin struggles to find a balance between his responsibilities in the real world and a fantasy life in Vegas. He is in a constant battle between personal gain and the yearning for his father 's approval.
In this book, Kevin started off as a straight-A, hardworking MIT student. He always did everything the “right” way, or the way his father would have wanted him to. Kevin’s life at MIT consisted of “test tubes and swimming” (Mezrich 35). Not far into the novel, Kevin is presented …show more content…

Yet, he continued to practice, always with the thought of his father’s approval in the back of his head. When Mickey told Kevin he was ready to play with the team he “felt a rush of adrenaline. It was the same feeling he got when his father approved of something he had done...Kevin’s father never would have understood. Card counting wasn’t gambling. It was arbitrage.” (Mezrich 52). It is apparent that Kevin wanted to pursue his dream of being on the blackjack team, but he knew his father would never approve of such a lifestyle. He continued to learn and play with the blackjack team, and hid the truth from his father the whole time. Kevin enjoyed the thrill of it and he “felt bad about the lies, but he also enjoyed the idea of living a double life” (Mezrich 70). Kevin’s grasp on reality began to slip out of sight and his dreams of Vegas danced through his mind. These lies would soon come to wear on Kevin and ruin relationships. He would begin to question what his purpose was in this

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