Literary Elements In Running On Empty By Don Aker

Running on empty
Essay (Rough Draft)

Will Ethan’s car crash to his dad’s new mustang turn into nothing or will it spiral down hill and leave him with nothing? See how everything happens through three main literary elements and how the author uses them to show the reader a life lesson in the book.

Running on empty by Don Aker, is a big life lesson for main character Ethan. Don Aker tries to present how cutting corners and making bad decisions destroys relationships and doesn't let you get to where you want quicker this is shown through conflicts, the story's mood, and through the story’s characters.

First in Running on empty Don Aker displays that cutting corners and making bad decisions doesn’t turn out well through the conflicts in the

book.

Cutting corners never works out in the end.

There are many examples of this point in book but some ones that stick out to me are: when Ethan was working his normal job as a table servant and one day during his job he serves Link Hornsby, Link Hornsby is known for knowing how to make some quick cash. So Ethan gets advice from him even though he has been warned several times to stay away from Link. Ethan ends up giving a down payment to Link for his advice and Link tells Ethan the foolproof way to beat the odds in poker even though Ethan is underaged. Ethan becomes addicted to poker losing all of his savings and burning many bridges in the process by stealing from his dad and asking to borrow too many times from his sister and friends. Soon enough he’s asking Link Hornsby for more help again which doesn’t turn out well.

Making bad decisions leads to consequences.

Link comes up with a plan that Ethan doesn’t like too much but he is forced to do it because he’s desperate for money so he agrees to do it. They are about to rob a gas station, When they get there mid way through the robbery he hears a thump sound in the back he hears his sister's voice saying leave my brother alone his sister Raye had been following them for hours. She turns around and hits Link but that wouldn’t stop Link so he turns around and shoots Raye. Ethan hold his sister in his arms as the gas station owner calls 9-1-1.

When you have conflicts vs the world it leads to bad decisions.

Ethan has conflicts against the world and he gets frustrated with it which leads him to making bad decisions like going to Link and agreeing to do Link’s schemes and tricks.

Hard work goes a long way and Ethan wasn’t willing to do it so instead he got frustrated and tried to cut corners which didn’t work so I think if Ethan just would have kept plugging away as being a table servant because he was actually starting to do really well with it before he saw Link.

As Well as the conflicts in the book the mood also demonstrates how making bad decisions doesn’t turn out well.

The mood in this book reflects the mood of a teenager this helps the reader understand the main character Ethan Palmer.

Ethan is the definition of a teenager and this characterization is known for making bad decisions so whenever he makes a decision in the book the reader can predict that something's going to go wrong like when he agrees to rob a bank or when he smashed his dad’s car in the first place.

The mood in the book makes the reader want Ethan Palmer to make bad decisions.

The mood in this book is humorous so when Ethan makes bad decisions like seeing Link, because it’s obvious that he shouldn’t do it and he does makes the reader want him to mess up so the book becomes more interesting and he does just that this is also why it’s such a good book because he makes these decisions and it leads to all sorts of things good and

bad.

The negative tone of the book helped get the point across.

The negative tone of this book helps the reader understand just how hard it is for Ethan and really feel Ethan’s frustration with how he is desperate for money to pay the insurance company for his dad’s car he crashed.The negative tone is represented through Ethan's bad decisions, how much bad language they all use and the anger that is shown through Ethan and his dad with all of their conflicts.

As Well as the conflicts and mood the thesis statement of cutting corners doesn’t get you anywhere is shown through the characters as well.

There are not many main characters in this book but two characters really portray the thesis statement being Ethan and his Dad.

Ethan’s Dad is all about learning life lessons and being good and proper so when he crashed his Dad’s car his Dad made it a big life lesson and this was really the beginning to the whole story because this is what frustrates Ethan at the start.

Raye, Ethan’s sister being shot was a prime consequence for Ethan to not keep cutting corners.

Ethan’s sister was the wake up call for Ethan when she was shot and was the end to Ethan seeing Link and his gambling problems. Ethan does a class presentation a couple days later about what he really cares about in life and he decides to do it on his Dad and sister for their strong character. Ethan stops making bad decisions because of his sister and Dad so they are two very important characters in this book.

Ethan is the main character of this book he is the one making the decisions so everything in this book is his fault.

All the decision were made by Ethan so he controlled his own destiny therefore if he would have made better decisions and listened to the people he really cares about he would have been a lot better off. For example when he decides to give Link money for advice it says in the book that he was actually was starting to do well with good tips because he knew everyone that came into the restaurant. If he would have made the right decisions I think he would have been a lot better off financially and with his relationships.

The thesis statement of cutting corners leads to destroyed relationships and doesn’t let you get to where you want to go is strongly shown through these three main topics. Through conflicts it conflicts because bad decisions lead to conflicts and consequences, through mood because the book is in a negatively toned mood it helps the reader understand and shows portrays the thesis statement well, and through the characters because Ethan makes the decisions and the people in his life help him make the right one in the end. In today's world we still have these problems with cutting corners because there are many gamblers out there and people just trying to make a buck out of desperation and it doesn’t always end in a reasonable fashion like Don Aker’s story of Running on Empty.