Crash by Jerry Spinelli: An Analysis
Rising action: There are a series of dramatic scenarios played out in Jerry Spinelli's novel Crash, including the stroke of Crash's grandfather Scooter, and the issue of whether the mall coming to the city will be stopped. But the main line of 'rising action' is the question of whether Crash will make a personal sacrifice of his pride to allow Penn Weber to run in the Penn Relays.
The incidents leading up to Crash's decision to sacrifice his determination to always be the best and to lose a race so Penn can run are the 'rising action,' a series of incidents that pile up that lead to the climax. Scooter's stroke generates Crash's sense of compassion for Penn and Penn's elderly relative. Crash's rejection of his cruel friend Mike and acceptance of Penn cumulate in the climax of Penn being able to run in the relays.
Climax: Penn's race in the great Penn relays is the climax. This takes the reader by surprise, given that at the beginning of the books, most of the clues Jerry Spinelli gives about the sporting climax of the book suggest that the climax will be a great football victory by Crash
Falling action: The falling action takes place when Jane, the cheerleader who is friends with Penn (a male cheerleader) asks Crash to her 4th of July party. Jane rejected Crash before at a school dance, because she found him arrogant, but she perceives the change in Crash. Now Crash is compassionate, when before he was completely self-interested and only cared about football -- and himself.
Resolution: Penn runs in the relay, his namesake sees him run, and Crash does not 'win' the girl, but he wins a new friend in the form of Penn and at least has a chance at winning the pretty cheerleader.
Problem / conflict: How will Crash learn to be a mature individual and deal with his talent but lack of insight about others?
Solution: Crash learns about compassion from his grandfather's fragile physical condition, and the limits of proving yourself through physical excellence. He loses a race and wins a friend, and rejects someone who he thought was his friend, but realizes that the two of them only bonded through cruel tricks.
Works Cited
Spinelli, Jerry. Crash. New York: Yearling, 1997.
Crash Spinelli Crash by Jerry Spinelli Identify the quality that makes Penn a good friend. Support your answer by using examples from the text. Kids can be spoiled and materialistic without ever really realizing it. In the book, Penn is a Quaker that lives a relatively simple lifestyle; this also makes him different from the other kids. This also makes Penn the target for much teasing and criticism from the other kids his
Crash by Jerry Spinelli is a story of an unlikely hero that challenges many of the conventions of young adult novels. Instead of a serious, introspective protagonist like so many books geared at a teen literary audience, the title character of Crash is a jock and a football player. At the beginning of the novel, Crash is very intolerant of people who are different from him and who threaten his
Crash and his best friend Mike Deluca make a sport of teasing Penn at every opportunity and Penn is so pure, so clueless (or so true to his Quaker principles) he acts as though he does not notice. Penn is not entirely a wimp -- like Crash, he is a good runner. Crash tries to beat him whenever they run, because he hates to loose. But Crash begins to reevaluate
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now