Nineteen Minutes Themes

By depicting a main character, Peter Houghton, who is severely bullied and goes on to kill 10 people at his high school, Nineteen Minutes explores the often blurred line between victim and perpetrator. One of the key questions the novel asks is whether Peter’s history of being victimized by others mitigates his responsibility for his crime. The same question applies to Josie Cormier, another student at Peter’s school who shoots her abusive boyfriend…

Nineteen Minutes is a story of revenge: it depicts a teenager, Peter Houghton, who murders 10 students at his school in a shooting spree after a lifetime of bullying. The book makes a strong case that vengeance isn’t effective because, although it might superficially appear to bring about justice, this isn’t how things usually work out in the end. The result of Peter’s act of vengeance is that innocent lives are lost, the underlying…

As a novel that depicts the terrible things teenagers endure and do to each other, Nineteen Minutes is concerned with the idea of lost innocence. This is theme primarily explored through Peter, who as a result of bullying (as well as other issues, from romantic rejection to violent video games) transforms from an innocent child into a mass murderer. It is also explored through Josie, who is a similarly sweet and innocent child…

As a novel that depicts the cruel realities of the high school social world, Nineteen Minutes considers the (often huge) gulf between appearances and reality. Nearly every character in the novel feels pressured to have an outward appearance of happiness, success, and popularity. Yet even for the characters who have the most convincing outward appearance, this belies a much darker reality. The novel’s exploration of this theme is rather bleak, suggesting that the demand to…