Are you a guilty person?

Author's Note: In this piece I wrote about an amazing book, and what the theme is, and how it relates to me and society.

Have you ever felt so guilty, that you want to cry? What about breaking something, running away and never telling anyone about it except your best friend? These connections are real similar to the book I Know What You Did Last Summer. No one can explain guilt the way Lois Duncan can, and she uses the theme of guilt differently with altered characters. The four friends are driving down the street, when something pops up out of nowhere, so tragic, it turned out to be a little boy on his bicycle.

“A ten-year-old boy was killed last night in a hit-and-run accident…” Reading those words, and knowing you had everything to do with that, just doesn't make sense. The emotions going through your body and that point makes you want to faint, and never want to get up again. Let’s stop and think for a minute though. Was it really an accident? Did he really not mean to see that little boy on his bike? Maybe they had “had a few beers and smoked a little pot,” but they still could have seen that innocent little boy on the side of the road.

I have never, ever, smoked or drank beer, but I have still had that feeling of guilt lodged in my stomach. Society these days does not even think about what they are about to do, or what they have done before stepping a foot in that car. There has been so many accidents from drunk driving, and there are so many people out there asking for another chance at life. Barry Cox, the one driving the car, didn't even want to go back and say sorry for hitting the poor kid. He wanted to create pack for the four people that were in that car. A pack that you couldn't break.

Although you have your pack, do they really have your back? What would you be thinking if someone figured out you killed someone last summer? Receiving letters, strange phone calls, feeling like people are following you, and news papers from last year. What’s wrong with these people? Sometimes, I feel that people get I kick out of scaring people, but why? I have received many calls, saying bad things will happen to me. I never even get scared anymore, just hang up. It isn't worth my time.

Not only are those few things creepy, but seeing them in other books and stories just means that you’re not the only one. Although I Know What You Did Last Summer,  was the only real “Mystery” book that I have read, Ms. Shay had told me the book,  Who Killed My Daughter, was very comparable. Not only in analogous did Lois Duncan write this, but it is just so similar in the accidents. A “random-drive-by-shooting” and a “hit-and-run”, are so identical. Also seeing that they have never really found out who did it in the beginning. Having to search and search for that one individual person.

Not only can it be strange but this is devastation all tied up in a story. Not only is it devastating to hear that you killed a kid and not trying to, but to have someone nagging you on about it, when you have finally might have forgotten it. The story to the book can connect to so many people in this world. Kids who have been hit, and even kids you haven’t. These lessons that you can learn in these books are wonderful. Think before you always do something that could change your life, and you should never run away from your problems. Face them! Changed characters with different themes, and still can explain guilt the best way possible.