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Personal Effects By E. M. Kookie Setting

494 Words2 Pages

Liza Koshelkova
Costa
American Literature B
19 March 2023
How setting shows the character struggles

In the book Personal Effects by E.M. Kookie, the setting has an important impact in influencing the way the protagonist is characterized. Because of the setting of the book, the protagonist Matt is portrayed as an aggressive character who is grieving the passing of his brother. To begin, a war in Iraq breaks out during the time the book is set. The book's main protagonist, Matt, quickly learns that his brother is killed while fighting in the war. When Matt begins attending school, he notices a boy wearing a "support our military" t-shirt. During school, Matt decides to use violence towards the kid in order to express his grief. The actions …show more content…

Matt decides to start a fight in the hallway after seeing an easy target. Matt yelled, “You have no right– I'm gonna tear that shirt off of you!” (Kookie 6). Matt is becoming increasingly frustrated by the war and all that is going on around him, including the writing on someone’s shirt. Matt's daily life is impacted by the fact that he is now living during a time of war. Later in the story, Matt makes the decision to enlist in the army in order to make his brother's passing more than just another death. Matt recalls what his brother told him when he originally planned to enroll. His brother T.J stated, “It’ll be your decision, and I'll be there to cheer you on. But don't do it for him, or me, or because you don't know what else to do. Do it because you want it, or not at all” (Kookie 29). This has an impact on Matt since it demonstrates how the war affects what he will do after graduating from high school; the decisions Matt makes will be influenced by the setting of the book. This illustrates Matt's strengths and weaknesses, which helps to further grow Matt as a person. Because it demonstrates Matt's strengths and weaknesses, this helps enhance the character development of Matt. The scenario of the novel and the traits that are shown in

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