Reading Journal Post #3

Reading Journal #3
Chapters 12-15

Summary:

At the beginning of the chapter 12, Tom Harvey is now in full iBoy mode, and he starts fighting with the gang members hovering outside Lucy's apartment. He scares most of them off with his powers and goes to throw the last guy out of the window, but Lucy cries out for him to stop. Tom puzzles over this, because the guy in his grasp is one of her rapists, and she knows he violated her, yet she calls for Tom to stop. Tom finds himself referring out loud to Lucy's earlier blog post about how she wanted all of her rapists to suffer and die. Lucy recognizes Tom as the person who messaged her on her Myspace; iBoy. He let's the gang member go and leaves, turns off what he calls his iSkin, and returns to the apartment as Tom Harvey, normal sixteen-year-old, and listens to Lucy gush about what has just happened. After he leaves her apartment, he intercepts her brother Ben and finds out the gang's version of iBoy's attack. They only figure that it was a guy in a hoodie with a taser, because they do not yet know the extent of what/who they are dealing with.

Later on, he returns to his own apartment, and questions his Gram about Howard Ellman, the supposed man in charge of all the organized crime in the city dubbed Crowtown. She reacts oddly, like she has seen a ghost, leaving the original question unanswered and spawning a whole lot more. Tom decides to research Howard Ellman, and he can't find out much of anything, except a single picture in the police database. At the end of chapter 16, Tom remembers Lucy telling him (just after the rape): "They ruined me, Tom. They totally f***ing ruined me." (56/149), and he leaves his apartment with revenge in his heart.


Analysis:

We can see Tom starting to take revenge on the people who raped Lucy, and he is using his superior powers to fight a large group and win. Is this the right thing to do? We also see Tom starting to become for violent and angry, and he shows his loss of control by almost pushing a gang member through a window. Seeing as Lucy lives on one of the top floors of the apartment complex, the Crow would have at least been severely injured, if not killed, by this action. The normal, everyday-teenager Tom Harvey would not have committed this act, if it even crossed his then-normal mind. It seems as though the strange new power in Tom Harvey's head is changing his personality.

Questions to Consider:

Is it a good idea to interfere with the Crows (the local gang)? Why or why not?
What are your opinions on what Tom is doing (i.e. Taking revenge)?
What would you do in Tom's situation?