Trouble by Gary D. Schmidt Literary Analysis Essay Example

Trouble by Gary D. Schmidt is about two completely opposite high school boys Henry and Chay. Henry comes from form the richest and most well-known family in blithbury, while Chay is a poor Cambodian immigrant struggling to find his footing in a new country after getting into a car crash and hitting Henry's brother Franklyn.  The story is told from Henry's point of view and how he deals with the death of his brother and Chay. Henry decides to climb Mount Katahdin in memory of his brother but to get there he needs to hitchhike and Chay is the one who picks him up.  As the story develops one theme that evolves is stereotyping people which leads to misunderstanding and conflicts. In the beginning, Henry follows the stereotype and assumes Chay purposely hit his brother because he bullied him. This is reinforced by negative thoughts and hatred towards Chay. Henry also tries to fight Chay to get his ¨revenge¨ for his brother. In the middle of the book, the theme starts to change and develop when Henry defends Chay after some drunk fisherman tries to fight him because of his race. We see a major change in Henrys' character because he is starting to understand and become friends with Chay.  Finally, at the end of the book, the relationship between Henry and Chay had completely changed and Henry almost sacrificed his own life to save Chay. 

At the beginning of the book, Henry believes accepts the stereotype and continues to stereotype chay. Henry thinks chay isn't a good driver because of his race and that he hit Franklyn on purpose because of how his brother treated him. From what Henry learned about Chay from the court case he has no reason to think otherwise.  In the middle of the book henry´s thinking starts to change but he still somewhat believes the stereotype. In the conflict with the fisherman, Henry sees Chay's innocence and knows he deserves to be defended. But, he still has negative thoughts toward chay and tries to fight him to get vengeance for his brother. At the end of the book, Henry's thoughts completely change and he no longer believes the stereotype. Everyone made assumptions about Chay after the accident because of his heritage and where he was from. Nobody even considered the fact that it wanted chay who hit frank because of the hatred towards Cambodian immigrants in Merton racial stereotypes and thinking.  Even before he found out his relationship with chay completely changed. He looked past the accident and saw Chay for who he really was, an innocent Cambodian immigrant who was struggling in America and was suffering from racial stereotyping. Henry and Chay became really close and he risked his life to save Chay when he got shot on the mountain.  

To conclude, one theme that developed in Trouble was stereotyping and making assumptions about people that lead to misunderstandings and conflicts. At the beginning of the book, Henry stereotypes chay and makes assumptions about who he is before he's even met him. In Henry's household and community, there is a strong hatred toward Cambodian immigrants in Merton. His family and the people around him make racist comments and actions. Henry grew up in this environment and was taught to believe the same thing. However, Henry realized none of this was true after getting to know Chay. he realized that stereotypes can be untrue or that people can defy them. Henry goes through many experiences with Chain including the fight at the bar and then later on the mountain which helps him learn this life lesson. Overall, This theme of trouble is a very important and valuable lesson to be learned; stereotypes need to be confronted and recognized for people to change and become better.