The Testament

"The Testament" by John Grisham is about a old man named Troy Phelan who has made many mistakes and 1 success in his life. His mistakes were his marriages, which all ended in a divorce. But his success was owning the largest company in the world and having over 11 billion dollars. Troy was getting old and didn't know what to do with his money. Also, he was tired of life. So seconds before he jumps to his death, he signs a will giving all of his money to the only successful child he has. Her name is Rachel Lane. No one knew he had this daughter so the rest of the family fight for what they think is rightfully theirs: the money.

In the real world, no one is perfect. But they still have to try. In this book, Grisham introduces a family that is far in debt, spoiled, not so smart, know-it-all, and most of all, greedy. In the real world, there are people like this. But, if they try hard and do good deeds, they can redeem themselves. Personally, I don;t think there are lots of people like this. Most people are only like this a few times in their life. But they can try not to be.

The moral of this story is to not be greedy. Because if you are, you will get nothing. Good only comes to good people but bad goes to all. Unfortunately, this is the way it works. I wish that there was a way to change it. So try to be good, and when bad comes to you, don't change. Be good.

A Painted House

The book "A Painted House," by John Grisham takes place around the 1950's in Arkansas. This was around the time that blacks and Mexicans were being paid little to gather their crops. The Chandler family own the cotton farm. They are not wealthy people, but they are poor, either. They are in the middle class. They don't get hot water. They still have lots of debts to pay but they're farm is paying for it. They barely cut even each year. They're dream is to have a painted house.
I think that they're "painted house" symbolizes wealth. They want to pay off all of their debts and start making money. So far, they haven't done that well. Slowly, year by year, they are sinking further into debt. So far in the story, it has explained they're daily lives'. It is showing how much the everybody has changed since the time-period of this family.
In the book, the Chandlers don't have hot water. Today, every single person that owns a house has hot water. Also, the Mexicans and black people do not do the same thing that they did a long time ago. They are treated the same as any other person. Lastly, Our "painted house" would be more than just a fresh coat of paint. It would be a lot more. This shows how people have changed.

Cats Aren't the Only Ones With More Than One Life

In The Partner by John Grisham, Patrick Lanigan is having a horrible life. His wife is cheating on him. He has a child that he realizes isn't even his (from a blood test). People who he thought he could trust turn on him and cheat him out of millions of dollars. Patrick can't stand his life. He has a horrible life, a child he's supposed to love as a father, but isn't one, and he gets cheated out of millions of dollars. So what does he do? He kills himself, at night, in a car crash off the side of the road. The fire was so intense the only thing the people find is his ashes. Or so they thought.

In Patrick's "second" life, his name is Danilo Silva. He loses tons of weight and shaves his beard, looking nothing like before. It turns out that Patrick had faked his death. But why? To steal the money that he was cheated out of. But he doesn't only take his share. He takes the whole ninety million and runs. He runs to Brazil to hide, not spending any of the ninety million. There, 2 years later, he meets the woman of his dreams. Her name was Eva. After a few days, he finds her trustworthy enough to tell her about everything. He gives her the money and she hides it in banks around the world. She never betrays him. 2 years after that, the people who lost the ninety million found Patrick/Danilo. They tortured him and asked him where the money was. He didn't know since he gave it to Eva. Eventually the FBI came and arrested him.

Now that Danilo/Patrick is in custody, he is thinking about how if he could escape one more time. Live with Eva and the ninety million without ever being found. He starts thinking: Patrick is dead. Danilo has been captured. He starts thinking: Why you can't just start over? Why can't you have more than one life? So Patrick decides to press his luck one more time. To see how it all ends.

Theodore Boone: The Accused

Theodore Boone is a 13 year old kid that is obsessed with the law. Both of his parents are lawyers. Theodore was always a good kid and always tried to follow the rules. But one day, Theodore found out that his locker was open and his hat was missing. Theodore decided not to report to the principal and thought that he had just left his locker open. Later that day, he saw that his bike tire was slashed. Theodore got a little worried when he noticed a knife had cut his tire. Then he got accused for robbing an electronic store and stealing lots of devices. When the detectives checked his locker, they found three tablets that Theodore didn't put there. Theodore tried to deny everything, but all of the evidence pointed to him.
Theodore tried to follow the rules, but when some kids started calling him guilty, Theodore got into a fight. He got suspended for two days. This was the first time Theodore had gotten in this much trouble. Theodore realized that if he didn't find out who really robbed the store, they were going to blame it on him. He talked to his uncle, Ike, and Ike came up with an idea. He thought that the people who were framing Theodore was connected to his mom's work as a lawyer. Theodore broke into his mother's files and learned who had framed him. Ike taught Theodore that it is okay to break the rules if you are trying to do something right.