Still Missing Essay, Research Paper
Still Missing
Author: Beth Gutcheon
The Setting of the novel takes place in Boston, Back Bay on Sixty-three Fremont Street
The characters are Susan Selky, Alexander s mother and a psychiatrist, Alexander Graham Selky Jr, a 6 year old boy, the son of Susan Selky, Graham Selky, the father of Alex, and the ex-husband of Susan, Jocelyn, Susan s best friend who s little daughter Justine go to school with Alex, Detective Al Menetti, the detective who help investigates the missing of Alex, Malvina Roberts, the lady who tips the people off where Alex is.
The conflict happens when Susan gets this lead from a crazy lady named Malvina Roberts who calls in from Connecticut and says that the devil has Alex next door in her neighbors house. The police doesn t believe her at first. Then Detective Menetti tells Susan and she says check it out it might be the real lead. Menetti then goes over to Connecticut and find out if there really is a boy there. He goes over to the house that Malvina tells him. Then this guy come with a little boy, Alex s description. Menetti then watches them . Then he waits until they go in the house, then ring the doorbell and arrests the man and brings Alex home.
The internal conflict is when Susan is fighting with herself, that if she hadn t trust Alex so much, and make him walk him to school by himself that maybe he would be home. The external conflict is when Susan blames Graham for losing Alex because if he was home she could have walked him to school and this wouldn t have happened.
The plot of the novel is Susan Selky, she lets her little boy Alex walk to school and from because he is a responsible 6 year old boy. When Alex leaves the house in the morning he never returns home. Susan gets scared, and calls Jocelyn, her friend and asks if her daughter saw Alex in school. Jocelyn says no, Alex wasn t in school. Susan then calls the police and tells them her son is missing.
The theme in the story is that even thought you think that a little child is capable of being independent because they act responsibly, that is not possible they all need a grownup figure to guide them in the right direction. Each child need to be taken care of until they are older to be independent. They may be responsible but they still need to be led the right way by a parent, because they can t always depend on themselves.
This novel is about a mother named Susan Selky who lets her little son Alex, who is 6 years old, go to school by himself. On May 15, 1980 Alex tells his mother bye and gives her a kiss, then goes out the house to New Boston School of Back Bay. Meanwhile Susan gets ready for work, as a psychiatrist.
She rushes home from work to make sure she comes home before Alex. She reaches home before him and starts preparing dinner. While she is preparing the food she is wondering what is taking him so long to get home, it has been two hours . She then gets tense and calls her friend Jocelyn to see if her daughter Justine saw Alex in school, and the little girl says No, he wasn t in school because he owes me my eraser. Susan gets real nervous then and calls the police and report a missing child. The police then send over Detective Menetti to help with the investigation. He asks her questions like, where did you see him last, what was he wearing and do you have any enemies. He then calls his men and they come to the house and put tapping units on the phone, in case the kidnapper called asking for ransom money. The detective then asks Susan where her husband is. Susan tells them that she and her husband are divorced, and start telling her life story. Just as she finishes, Graham bursts in the room asking Susan where their son is, because the police called him. Susan and the Detective then explain to him what happened.