Not so Black and White

I have to say, from the beginning of this novel, I kind of felt like the author was setting up one cliche after another. From the original story of the white, has it all Eddie and the black, doesn't have so much Marcus, I felt like the author was exploiting this friendship but it was not until I reached the scene of the crime and the aftermath of that crime that I understood or saw how deeply that friendship was exploited. From the moment that Eddie pulled the trigger and changed the course of not only his life, but also Marcus's, I felt that he was a very exaggerated version of a stereotypical white, upper-class "I can do whatever I want" mentality. I want to think that this is just the author making a more interesting story, but I fear that this mentality is beginning to work its way into the minds of more and more teens in our country. I think this is why I became so frustrated at the end of this novel, because I fear that some young people that read this would feel that Eddie got away with his crime because he was more "valuable" for lack of a better term than Marcus. I worry that this mentality, as true as it may be, is going to cause more and more problems in the future between classes in our country. I also found the author's lack of guilt on Eddie's part to be somewhat unbelievable. I just cannot fathom how someone could allow their best friend to go to jail and give up practically their entire lives in order for me to go free, especially if I were as guilty as Eddie was. I think that the author wrote about real issues that are going on in our country today, but I also feel that some of these issues were dramatized and exaggerated for dramatic effect.