Summary Of The Shelter By Harlan Cohen

739 Words2 Pages

The Shelter by Harlan Cohen is about a boy in high school name Mickey Bolitar trying to reveal a question, which has been brought upon in his life. His life takes a major turn when his father dies in a car wreck. The tragedy cause his mother to go into a rehabilitation center from drug abuse. After starting at new school, he mets Ashley ,”The Love of his life”, she suddenly disappears. This brings mystery in Mickey’s life as he tries to find out where she is. Along with the mystery of Ashley, the town’s myth “Bat Lady” claims Mickey’s father is still alive. Throughout the book Mickey is trying to find out all this information, which conveys the theme. The theme would be the truth Mickey would like to find out. Unfortunately, the courage is …show more content…

Solitary is very much similar to loneliness. Mickey was experiencing being solitary, because of the death of his father and his mother in a rehabilitation center. A direct quotation from the book is “I closed my eyes for a moment. I thought about my mother, who is coming home from rehab soon. I thought about my father, who was dead and buried. I felt very much alone.” The author of the book did not always give a direct inference to Mickey’s solitary. After his girlfriend became missing, Mickey experienced more loneliness and kept more to himself. When his soon to be mystery solving partner, “Spoon”, wanted to sit with Mickey at lunch. Being the first time the two met, Mickey tried to find a place where he would not follow him. This shows Mickey wanted to go to his usual place outside by himself and not be accompanied by …show more content…

Throughout the book, Mickey and his friend are searching for answers about all the events happening in his life. Unfortunately, Mickey fears the truth might not be what he wants to hear. Throughout the book Mickey and his friends get closer and closer to the truth. At times, Mickey questions his curiosity of knowing the truth as he does not know how he would take it if it happens to not be in his favor. Throughout the book, the symbol of a butterfly comes in some of the chapters. First being in chapter three and making it way to the ending of the book. The butterfly, is a symbol that Mickey is getting closer to finding out the truth. When Mickey read his father’s resignation letter, it said “I know that no one really ever leaves the Abeona Shelter.” Later Mickey finds out that the butterfly’s name had Abeona, which showed that Mickey was closer than he ever was to the truth in Chapter 20. Another example on how the theme was conveyed throughout the book, was discovering the secrets that Ashley his girlfriend was keeping from him and he does not find the truth to be

Open Document