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Eve Baker

Mrs. Cramer

College Comp 1

November 15. 2019

Depicting the Emotions Through It All

In Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult depicts a range of certain emotions as a result of

tragedy through the characters Peter, Josie, Patrick and Alex. The novel reveals emotion that not

every human being gets to experience in their lifetime. The emotions that are felt by each

character are a partial key in the way the story is told. Not only does this story share about the

damaging effects that bullying, peer pleasure and modern day teenage society can do to a person,

it also tells the stories of the individuals who have been traumatized enough to actually have the

ability to even think of doing the unthinkable to their school along with their peers.

Peter Houghton is the shooter in Nineteen Minutes. Peter has been the victim of being

bullied by his peers since the time that they had all started elementary school. Although there is

no excuse for the actions Peter had taken, he had still been the victim of years of physical and

psychological abuse. In the first half of the book, Peter is shown spending all his time in the

conference room where he will soon be questioned. “I mean people are crying over them and

they were a**holes.” (Picoult, pg. 134), in this direct quote from Peter himself he is taking about

the kids that he has shot and killed. He has learned that after his years of abuse from the kids,

that he thinks he was doing the right thing; he did not want other people to suffer from the

bullying and torture that he had dealt with his whole life. Ultimately in the end Peter shares his
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story at the stand, and he ends up getting life in prison, along with Josie being sentenced for five

years for also playing a role.

Josie Cormier was the daughter of Alex Cormier in the book. Josie had also been Peters

long lost best friend. Josie had been a victim in the shooting, but Josie was not killed. She lost

her boyfriend Matt, and Josie was later found guilty in the novel of shooting him one time in the

stomach after realizing he had treated her with nothing but disrespect and for controlling her for

the years they had been together in high school. She told everyone she could not remember

anything from that day, and she was believed because of traumatic incident she had just gone

through. Josie had awoken for the first time in the hospital and was startled to find herself there

because she didn’t remember anything that had happened. Later in the novel we find out that this

had been false and she was trying to hide the truth.. This part depicts the intense amount of

feelings that Josie had been experiencing at the time. A small example of what Josie had been

feeling once being discharged could be described as disbelief. Although Josie has been involved

in the shooting of one of the students you can tell throughout the book how wounded she was

about the death of him even with the way that he had treated her.

Patrick Ducharme was Sterling’s detective on the police force. When Patrick had first

heard about the shooting at the high school, he had whipped the police car around and headed

straight there. In the book you get to see the feeling that Patrick was experiencing when he first

arrived at the school, he had been in a haze and could not believe this could happen. Patrick had

been given orders to not proceed into the high school and to wait for further instructions. Patrick

had disobeyed those orders. While entering the school, Patrick had to make it a point to not take

a double look at the bodies on the ground. He doesn’t know the name of the shooter but a few

pages later we learn that the name is Peter. Peter holds the gun to his head as soon as he realizes
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that he is not alone in the room anymore, he demands that Patrick drop his gun or else he will

shoot himself and end it all. Patrick drops his gun and as soon as it ricochets on the ground he

goes for Peter. Patrick takes down Peter and flips him on his stomach. Patrick feels the rush of

adrenaline surge through his body as he realizes that it's all over just as quick as it had started.

Alex Cormier is not only Josies mom but is also the judge that has been asked to be on

the case presented to us in Nineteen Minutes. Alex and Josie don’t have a fantastic relationship,

Josie feels that she is not able to talk to her mom because of the popularity that she has

throughout the town and it does not get better after the shooting. Eventually, Alex ends up

dropping the case to be able to fully be a mother to her daughter in the situation and so that she

can in no way let her feelings about the case cloud her judgment because of her daughter's

involvement. Alex does not play the biggest role in Nineteen Minutes, but she shows that you

need to be able to give up those certain things to make sure that the right thing is done at the end

of the day.

In Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult depicts a range of certain emotions as a result of

tragedy through the characters Peter, Josie, Patrick and Alex. In the novel, we learn that the

emotions of individuals that go through the same tragedy, can be extremely different. Peter is

happy about the outcome of the scene he has caused; he faces the jail time without and argument.

Josie lies about the role she plays for fear of the reaction from everyone. Alex and Patrick are

key examples of outsiders who also mean everything to the case.

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Works Cited

Picoult, Jodi. Nineteen Minutes: A Novel. 1st Atria Books hardcover ed. New York: Atria

Books, 2007.