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Empathy In Todd Strasser's If I Grow Up

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The book If I Grow Up by Todd Strasser tells the story of a young boy who spends his life living in a gang-filled neighborhood. For DeShawn, gunshots and violence have become part of his normal life for years. All of his friends have joined gangs, but he knows that if he joins he’ll end up dead or in jail. If I Grow Up shows a ton of important issues we still struggle with in the world today, and brings awareness to these issues with the impact of dialogue. Todd Strasser uses dialogue to stir empathy, provide background information/context, and get readers predicting. First, Todd Strasser uses dialogue to stir empathy throughout the book and help the readers fully grasp onto the characters' lives. For that reason, the main character takes multiple times to reflect on himself and his life. For instance, he says, “People in this country were supposed to have choices. Wasn’t that what America was about? … But when you grew up in the projects, there were no choices. No good ones at least” (Strasser 136). He is saying that he …show more content…

To illustrate, DeShawn goes to his girlfriend's house. Her brother is in the rival gang, and he is extremely worried. Conerningly, his girlfriend asks, “What's wrong?” He replies with, “... It's just being here” (Strasser 102). This provides a bit of foreshadowing and a chance for readers to think and imagine what will happen next since he is so worried about being caught. In the same manner, Tanisha replies saying how her mom won’t be home for at least an hour and a half. Soon after, DeShawn asks, “And your brother?” she says, “I told you. He’s never home” (Strasser 102). Next, a door slams loudly, and panic starts to build up. Readers can already know what is going to happen next, just knowing this piece of information. This is an example of how Todd Strasser uses the move of dialogue to get readers to predict, which collects readers'

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