“He put the gun to his temple; Dillion screamed and lunged for him, but it wasn’t even close. He didn’t actually see Preston do it, didn’t see the blood or the brains or the mess because he jerked his eyes away the moment he saw the pressure of Preston’s finger on the trigger. But Dillion heard it. And he saw it in his head.” (64)
Dillion does the right thing by trying to stop his brother Preston from killing himself. Before he did Preston said some hateful things, “You don’t need to know what I’m getting into, you nosy little asshole.” (64) Dillion was shocked by this and backed way off, he is shocked his brother so he tried to ignore it for the most part. “I didn’t mean to get nosy preston.” (64) After that, Preston shot himself. Dillion changed a lot after that, he was shocked, depressed, weak, he felt terrible. Dillion had a coming of age moment after that. He no longer took things for granted. He said things like, “Yeah, Preston is going to buy me a car when I’m 16, it’s what brothers do.” (71) He didn’t consider what his brother was going through, he just expected everything. After Preston shot himself Dillion became much more mature and he learned to treat everyone and everything with respect as it would be his last day seeing them. Dillion did do the best thing by trying to stop his brother from killing himself, but he was to slow.
After the incident Dillion reaches out to his friend, Jennifer Lawston who later becomes his girlfriend to help him in his time of need. At first Dillion just needed someone to talk to and Jennifer was there for him, she was one of Preston’s friends so she helped him cope with his problems the best. Her sister, T.B. however, doesn’t enjoy Dillion being around. Her sister has been hurt to many guys in the past so T.B. doesn’t like any boys around her sister, ever. Dillion tries to befriend her but despite his many attempts she just doesn’t like him. One time when Dillion was over at Jennifer’s house T.B. wanted to her sister to help her warm up with her before her basketball game, Jennifer ignored her and hung out with Dillion instead, that wasn’t right because T.B. needed Jennifer to help her.
The story takes place in Dillions home town, which the book never gave a direct name, but he lives in Maryland. “It was a cold day the morning I woke up to train for my triathlon, at least it’s nice and chilly in Maryland.” (1) I can’t tell much from this quote unfortunately, it was written very vaguely. The setting, as I said isn’t told very well so it doesn’t really add to the story unfortunately.
The author is trying to express Dillion’s feelings as he ages and his brothers death starts to fade from his memory more and more, his lesson in life is to always cherish what he has while he still has it, he didn’t even get the joys of his brother when growing up. The moral and life lessons are pretty similar. They both aim towards being nice to your relatives while you still have them. This story is about having enough courage to pull through the tough times and stick it out, Dillion shows that by staying strong throughout the whole story, he does hit rock bottom though. After that he realizes he needs to start getting out and living his life the way Preston would want him to. This book honestly showed me to show more respect for my family, I have a little brother who is four, and I know if I ever did something as selfish as what Preston did he might not be able to understand, but he would miss me a great amount. When my brother, Jake, gets older I’m going to show him this book so he can also learn from it. One of the problems in this story was Dillions father, he became depressed after Preston killed himself, that had a negative effect on Dillion, almost as if his dad was never around to help him. They actually do resolve this after his girlfriend’s coach helps him with some advice.
The story starts off with Dillion running a triathlon and his brother cheering him on, memories. It then proceeds to hint at drug abuse, by his brother Preston. Dillion wakes up one morning to find Preston sitting in his driveway, emotionless. Dillion goes outside to talk to his brother, Preston is very rude during this whole confrontation and pulls out a gun, he starts waving it around and then eventually shoots himself in the head. After that Preston seeks help from his girlfriend, Jennifer and they cope through it and talk about it while he writes in a journal expressing his feelings. The story ends off in a good note after they have all discussed Preston’s life and retrieved his ashes after being cremated, the whole family has gone to counseling, and it all ties together in a good, happy note.
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