Monster Flashbacks

     There are three flashback scenes I will attempt to analyze. The first scene is where Steve is with his friend, Tony, and they are at a park. The second scene is when Steve overhears a conversation between two women as they are discussing the robbery and subsequent murder at the drugstore. The third is at Steve's apartment where is watching a news telecast about the robbery and murder. I will argue that Steve is not the innocent person he makes himself out to be.

    Flashback 1: Steve and Tony are trying to hit a lamp post with a rock. Tony throws his rock first and misses. Steve teases him and attempts to do the same thing with his rock. He also misses, however, he does hit a woman who is standing with a "tough guy" who immediately spies the two boys and heads their way. Steve immediately hollers for Tony to run who starts move away. When the tough guy sees Tony move, he hits him. Steve backs away and the tough guy leaves with the woman. Tony reminded Steve that he was the one who threw the rock, but Steve replied, "I didn't say you threw it. I just said, 'Run.' You should've run" (36).

     We can see that at the age of twelve, Steve was already adept at the art of shoveling the blame. He didn't think he was guilty because he tried to tell Tony to run.  He decided to look out only for himself. He was ready to leave Tony to his fate.

Flashback 2: Steve is playing with his basketball when he overhears a conversation between two women discussing the robbery and murder. The next thing we know is that Steve is trying to disappear in the crowd and he has left his basketball in the gutter. That tells me he is feeling guilt over something about the incident at the drugstore. If he had nothing to do with it, why the panic over the women's conversation?

Flashback 3: Steve is watching a news program that is reporting about the robbery and murder. He seems to be in shock or scared because "[H]e is staring straight ahead, mouth open, in absolute shock..." (92). This tells us that he feels guilty over the incident otherwise, why would he care?

     These three flashback scenes show us that there is probable guilt that links Steve to have been complicit of the robbery which lead to the murder. This would have made him an accessory to the crime, although deserving of a lesser sentence.