The First Stone Analysis

The stone of power
What is a title? What is it is purpose? Is it stating something, or asking a question? Is it the name of a character or the deepest secret in the book? When you lay eyes on a book, the title is your first impression on what you are going to read. A title acts as if it is an indirect hint, making it intriguing to read deeper and deeper until you discover the secret that lies somewhere beyond the cover.
A title has some sort of relevance to what you are reading. It can take time to reveal the title’s meaning or it can be a very informative title that is easy to understand like a name. In The First Stone, the character Reef has a name that connects to the title. Chad Kennedy receives the nickname “Reef” from his friends,

Reef shows great compassion and love towards the characters that have had a large impact on his life. His grandmother was an important figure that motivated Reef to reach his fullest potential even through times of darkening rejection. Reef and his grandmother collect stones together and use them to symbolise things in their life. “It was his grandmother who had somehow made the hardness bearable, and it was she who had placed the first stone in his hand” (Aker, 32). So what is this quotation trying to explain to us? It explains how his grandmother placed the first stone in his hand, she was the person that made Reef fall in love with rocks. She used rocks to symbolise important parts in his life. This relates greatly to the title as it is explaining what the title “The First Stone” means. Reef had nobody to love him, except for his grandmother. She was the only one who truly loved him for who he was, cared for him, believed in him, understood him and listened to him. She used to give him rocks for difficult times for example the sick stone, the stone for strength that he could use to learn to trust people and push through hard times. Consequently making their relationship very close. When his Nan’s cancer worsens it takes her life. Reef becomes an emotional wreck and angry at himself that he was not able protect

The author explains how Reef shares a close bond with his grandmother, Reef’s anger, and his overall development and growth as a character. Don Aker does this by showing Reef’s extraordinary development and growth as a person with the help of influential characters (Nan), overcoming his fears, anger, doubts all with the help of a stone. Nevertheless with the help of the stone guiding him, Reef was able to overcome the obstacles that lie ahead of him.Coincidence. The word is like a strange foreign language to us at times. When the moment of a coincidence occurs, people can think it's fate, or something more. With Reef and Leeza it was all a coincidence. If he had not thrown the stone, if he had missed Leeza’s car, or if he did not work at the rehab centre were Leeza had been recovering. These were all signs of a coincidence that brought them together and helped Reef heal. Reef accepted what life threw at him and learnt to use it in a beneficial way for himself and those surrounding him. “Reef Kennedy lived in the moment. Not ten years, ten months, ten minutes from now. Why waste time worrying about couldabeens and gonnabes?”.Live in the