I started the book The Greatest Things That Almost Happen by Don Robertson a little while ago. I then learned it was the third book in the series I was readying so I stopped and read the second. I started up again now. The series follows a young boy named Morris Bird III. In this book, the last of the trilogy he is in highschool and getting ready to go to college. Over the course of the series Morris has dealt with a lot of death. The main part of each book so far has had to do with a death. In the first book he deals with his best friends death. In the second it has to do with his grandmas death. Even though I have only just started this book the issue of death has already come up. His mother died.
        Don Robertson makes each book centered around death to bring out the characters truest self in a realistic way. When authors want you to see a characters real emotions and the way they are, a lot of times they cheat and use a way that would not work. When someone dies your raw emotions come out. It is a time when you are very fragile and exposed. This is a point where you can explore a characters subconscious emotions. This is what Don does with Morris Bird III. When he sees his friend Stanley killed in an explosion he becomes less aware and all of his subconscious emotions came through. This is the realest part of a person. Ever times a new death occurs you learn something new about Morris. When Stanley dies you see Morris stop being a kid. When he is traveling to see his friend he is still very innocent, but when Stanley dies you see a change. He stops looking to be helped and starts taking things into his own hands. There are many other people that were hurt from the explosion. He is just in elementary school but he steps up and helps people that are hurt. Then when his grandma dies you see that how ever mature he is still young and he wants his family together. But he doesn't get his family together so when his mom dies you see him push his family away and start to reside in his girlfriend Julie.
        Don choses who and when he kills people to illustrate all the sides of Morris. Each death has its own significance to the arc of the story and to Morris