paranoid+park

On your group's wiki page, describe the main characters in your text.We yet to know our narrators name, which is the main character, and he seems like an average teenage boy. He has a best friend named Jared, who is really into being with girls, and enjoys skateboarding just like the narrator. Briefly the boy tells the readers about how he dislikes his home life. His parents constantly fight and are now separated. He has a little brother which the reader can tell is not mentally stable. His little brother physically makes himself sick over their parents issues. There is also this girl Jennifer, who has a crush on the narrator. Everyone in our group agreed we kind of feel like she is obsessive and annoying. She really likes the narrator and asks him every day, every second to hang out. The narrator always denies her which was a surprise to us because of how interested his best friend is with girls.
 * Discussion Leader- Week 1 Chelsea Macchione**


 * Quotations for Book Club- Week 1 Jake Comito**

“Nobody’s ever ready for Paranoid Park”- Kind of gave me a vibe of how the rest of the book is going to be considering it is called Paranoid Park.

“She had a homemade tattoo on her wrist and black nail polish and this kind of cave-woman shape to her face.” –Vividly depicts the type of people we are dealing with in this book, this girl is about 14 he is describing.

“Obviously, this security guard was out of his mind”- I completely agree with him, I honestly don’t even understand what he did so wrong that got him so mad.

“It was like a rag doll getting folded up and stuffed inside a narrow container.”- Wow

“Scratch bolted. He sprinted down the gravel track bed, jumped the ditch and scrambled over the dirt bank.” – Why he would do this I don’t know, because he had saved his life and then he ditched him.


 * Questions for Book Club- Week 1 Celeste Esposito**

Q1. Do you think the narrator meant to kill the cop? A1. We think the narrator did not mean to cause any harm to the cop, of course he was trying to defend himself but he didn't want to kill him.

Q2. Do you feel he should have stayed after the cop was killed or ran like he did? A2. We believe he should have stayed because now if the cops get involved he will be majorly suspicous and look sketchy. Also, he will always feel guilt now whenever he thinks of it.

Q3. What would you have done differently if you were in that situation? A2. If we were in his position we would have jumped off the train and not worried about the other kid getting beat by the cop, we would have just ran there considering we didn't even know the other kid Scratch.

Q4. Would you be friends with the people the protagonist is? Do you think he has good friends? A4. Personally, we wouldn't be friends with those types of people that aren't reliable. But in his position we probably would because he has no one to turn too.

Q5. If the protagonist was caught by the cops would he be found guilty? A5. We think he would have been found guilty because there was no evidence and no witnesses since Scratch ran away. He wouldn't be able to prove that he was innocent.

We started off our discussion with the quotes. The quotes really described the major points of the first segment of reading. It shows how the protagonist was caring and protecting Scratch from the security guard who was attacking him, and Scratch just ran as soon as the security guard got killed. We discussed how the protagonist might have touched something in the security car after the security guard was killed. That might come back and get the protagonist arrested, because they will scan for prints in the car. We also talked about how the protagonist freaked out because he might not get to live his life.
 * Group Summarizer for Book Club - Week 1 Paul Rosalia**


 * Questions for Book Club- Week 2 Jake Comito**

Maybe he is going to kill himself, he is twisted in the mind after this incident.
 * 1. Why do you think, on page 36, the first full sentence is highlighted? **

Mixed feelings, some people think he did the right things but I personally think he should of immediately called the cops or his dad or someone to make it seem like he is innocent, which he is. Calling someone immediately would not make him seem guilty.
 * 2. Do you think he should of told anyone? **

Yes, he could of told them. But he did do a very bad job of trying to act normal. He was acting very different than he normally does.
 * 3. Could of this kid screwed up any more with his mom and Jared? He was acting very sketchy. **

No, unless he tells someone. Keeping it inside will keep him the same way.
 * 4. Do you think this kid will ever get back to normal? **


 * 5. He is clearly writing this story in the third person... where do you think he is writing it from? **
 * She just thinks he is just writing in his room, not going out. I personally think he is writing from an insane asylum because he never gets better than how he is now. **


 * Group Leader- Week 2 Paul Rosalia**

1.**Why do you think, on page 36, the first full sentence is highlighted?** Maybe it is metaphorical because it says how people kill themselves when they get twisted, and the security guard got all twisted up in the train. Maybe the security guard killed himself after all.

No he definitely should not have told anyone. People talk, and word gets around, and if there community is anything like Hillsdale, NJ the school will get involved and/or the cops.
 * 2. Do you think he should of told anyone?**

Yes, he could have told them that he killed a security guard.
 * 3. Could of this kid screwed up any more with his mom and Jared? He was acting very sketchy.**

No probably not because once you experience a horrific event like that, you are scarred for life.
 * 4. Do you think this kid will ever get back to normal?**

Maybe he is writing as himself and he actually killed a security guard.
 * 5. He is clearly writing this story in the third person... where do you think he is writing it from?**


 * Group Summary- Week 2 Celeste Esposito**

This week we read to page 77 in Paranoid Park, and learned different characteristics about our main character. (Who's name we still do not know.) In our group we discuss how our main character was conflicted between deciding on whom he should share his problem with. Dealing with the conscience of killing someone he needed to turn to anybody who would listen and not tell the cops. We discussed on his options and what we would personally do in his position.

We said if we were ever in his position we would probably have told Jared or his Mom considering they would never make him do something he didn't want too. We think if he told Jared, Jared would probably freak out at first but would eventually help him and try to get him to do the right thing. We think he should probably go to the cops by now. We also talked about the whole him wanting to go to church and tell his secret during confession. But then he concludes he doesn't want too just in case the priest turns him in. We think he's more scared of getting in trouble for something he didn't do then actually telling. We predict he will soon tell someone what he witnessed.


 * Quotation Finder- Week 2 Chelsea Macchione**

“For the first time I thought: maybe I can get away with this”- How could the narrator think he can get away with a crime as big as murder. How could he live with himself after that?

 “For once in my life I genuinely needed help, and where could I go”- I felt like a lot of teenagers could relate to this sentence. Many adults always tell us that they are here for us and want to help but with some problems and situations you just can't go to the people that care about you and want to help because your scared.

 “They would barely hanging on. Something like this, it would blow their world apart”- Teenagers often pick to hid problems and lie to protect other peoples feelings. In this case the narrator knows that his family has been struggling a lot and if they found out about what had happened to the guard he wouldn't know what would happen.

 “I don’t know if I believed in God”- This sentence made me think the narrator was a hypocrite. When the situation first happened he turned to god to help him and prayed that everything would work out. Now that things have only gotten worse i believe he is blaming other people but himself, like god.

“What was I supposed to do?”- I would not know what to do in a situation like that either, no one would be able to handle something as serious as murder, by accident.


 * Quotation Finder- Week 3 Paul Rosalia**

1. "This is lame, we should go to Paranoid" Paul Auster said. 2. "I'd do her" Said Paul Auster 3. "I'd see him in front of me, mangled on the tracks." 4. "At least i was sleeping better now. I started taking these allergy pills my mom got me. If you took a couple, they kinda knocked you out. 5. "When i saw a cop car, my whole body froze up"


 * Group Summary- Week 3 Jake Comito**

The last 36 pages we read in this book was very intense, therefore my group members and I had a lot to discuss. We are reaching a big point of the book and the media is finally realizing that the death of the security guard was not an accident. My group and I now wonder whether or not it was a good idea to hide what he did. My group chatted a lot, mostly keying around that point. We also talked about what happened between him and his girlfriend, and why he was acting so weird with the whole situation. A lot more is to be read, and we left off at big part that will leave us talking for a long time next week.


 * Questions for Book Club- Week 4 Paul Rosalia**

1. Do you think he is going to get caught? Why, give an example Yes, because the detective is all over them. 2. Do you think him and Jennifer are going to break up? Why, give an example Yes because Jennifer was very mad at the protagonist because he was blowing her off. 3. Why did the detective only call back Jared and the protagonist? Because the protagonist was very sketchy in his answer's to the detective. 4. Where did the protagonist want to run away to? Mexico 5. Do you think the protagonist is covering up the manslaughter well? No not at all he is always choking up when he talks to people.


 * Group Leader- Week 4 Jake Comito**

The theme of this book is to do not back someone up who won't have your back. If the narrator did not hit the cop with his skateboard he would not of killed him and would not be in the situation right now. The imagery for this book is pretty graphic. The scene where the cop was killed put bad images in your head of a innocent person laying cut in half on the train tracks. Also, this book makes you think of how bad of a situation you could be in if you do not do the right thing. He is always paranoid, and stressed out and that is the type of vibe you get from this book.


 * Quotation Finder- Week 4 Celeste Esposito**

"My boss had this idea that some kids might have been riding that train, just for fun which apparently happens a lot. They're riding along, the security guard sees them, and he tries to kick them off. There's some sort of confrontation, maybe a struggle, the guys ends up dead, and the kids take off."

"What if the other kids were your friends? Would you call the police on your friends?"

"You'd run probably," said Detective Brady. "And you'd go back to the skatepark and tell your friends. Or if you were smart, you wouldn't go back to the skatepark; you'd head for the river and hope nobody saw you."

"A detective showing up at school. Talking to skateboarders."

" I'm sorry if i'm not Mr.Popular, like Christian."


 * Summarizer- Week 4 Chelsea Macchione**
 * While jake ate his peanut butter sandwich we discussed what happened in this weeks chapter. We have now discovered that the jury is out, people know about the dead officer. Skaters from around the area including Jared and the protagonists school started to get question relating to the murder. As the protagonist got questioned we all agreed that he was acting suspicious, he was definitely nervous talking to the detective. The detective thought nothing of it and the protagonist thought we was in the clear, until jared started to tell about where he was that weekend. Jared told the detective that he was at a college all night and wasn't around the area, and the protagonist, not thinking on his feet, sketchly said he was driving around that neighborhood all night and "didn't see anything". As a group we all believe he is going to spill about what actually happened that night. **


 * Quotation Finder- Week 5 Jake Comito**

"Better to have my dumb parents know where I was than be out in the Canadian wilderness somewhere, alone, eating dirt, slowly going insane...." - Adds a little humor to this big crisis.

"Any place could be a prison, I realized, if your head wasn't right." - Emotional, showing what rough times the narrator is going through.

"Maybe it was true that time healed all wounds, but it could not erase the scars" - Really good line, well put.

"So were the thick hands that helped me up: It was Detective Brady. Of course it was." - Very unfortunate, climax of the book.

"So I guess that's what these are. My letters to you, Macy McLaughlin." -Finally figure out who all these letters were going too.