Random By Tom Leeven Summary

So far in this story the mood is very intense as many arguments and high stress situations have occurred. One of these high stress situations takes place during the Hershbergers’ family dinner:
“Another voice, male, shouts, ‘Have you decided on a plea?’ Dad’s chair flips backward when he stands up. My stomach contracts and pulls me taut against my chair, and Mom drops a fork. Jack doesn’t move, just sits there staring at his empty plate. Dad races to the front door. I hear him fling it open. ‘Get off my property!’ Dad shouts.” (Leeven, 3).
This is a high intense situation as Tori’s dad flips a chair, which shows that he is very stress out by the media as it’s causing him to lose his temper. As, Tori’s dad becomes more stressed out by the media

attention which instead of using a normal calm voice when telling the reporters to get off his property he yells, this makes the situation feel more intense. Another, very intense situation occurs when Tori tries to call Andrew back after hanging up on him when he told her that he wanted to kill himself:
“After the third ting I myself chanting, ‘Pick up. Pick up. Pick up.’ Because of he doesn’t answer— If he doesn’t answer, that just means he went to bed. Or something. Right? Pick up. Pick up. But he doesn’t” (Leeven, 36).
This passages shows that the mood of the story is very intense as Tori is repeating ‘Pick up’ over and over again and she is not just saying it, she is chanting it.

This creates the feeling that the situation is very nerve wracking. The pauses between the sentences also has a mood that feels intense as it creates urgency for the want for Andrew to pick up the phone.
After reading the first 50 pages of Random by Tom Leeven, a theme that has been occurring is bullying. This theme is first talked about when Tori explains Jack’s experience in high school with bullying, “Jack had cystic acne all through high school, and people always called him all kinds of terrible names, even up till he graduated last year” ( Leeven, 2). Jack being bullied by being called names makes upset at his sister as, he has now seen his sister become the bully. Kevin Cooper is the character that commit suicide after being bullied, this quote shows the first time that Kevin is bullied:
“Kevin Cooper: Not exactly. I’m surprised you didn’t hear. didn’t Jack tell you? Tori Hersgberger: Seniors don’t talk to FRESHMEN remember? :) Tell me what? Kevin Cooper: big black Magic Marker. my forehead. one word: ‘pussy.’” (Leveen,

25).
This shows that bullying is major scene because Kevin ended up dying because of bullying he encountered and this was the start of when it happened.
The narrative point of view for this story is in first person of the main character which is Tori/Victoria. She is the not only the main character but also the bully who allegedly caused Kevin Cooper to commit suicide. A part from being the bullying Tori has also became the victim to bullying as her trial date becomes closer. This gives the story a from different perspective than others as it is not only talking about what the bully is goes through but also what the victim goes through.