Reading Response 3 Theme

In the book “The Boy Who Couldn’t Die” by William Sleator is about a boy name Ken who was invulnerable to anything that is hazardous. When his best friend died in a plane accident he was very frightened and didn’t want to die. So he finds a women who claims she can make him invulnerable to pain and death for only 50 dollars. When he became invulnerable his life changed into a strange and somewhat a good life. Whenever he gets bullied he would stand up for himself. He would of course get beaten up but he wouldn’t get hurt. Whenever someone beats him up his friends would get scared and would ask questions. Also whenever he sleeps he is getting horrifying nightmares. Throughout the book, the theme is the importance of being courage’s.
On page 3 the main character Ken goes to a lady that claims she can make him invulnerable for only 50 dollars. The lady tells him that she will make him go to sleep and then take his soul to make him invulnerable. Ken the main character is being very courage’s because he is giving himself up to a strange lady. The lady asked “You’re sure you want to do this, now?” This quote is showing that Ken is very courage’s because he is letting a stranger do stuff to him that is very risky. He is letting a stranger do magic on him which might kill him. He is also giving up 50 dollars for something that makes no sense in the human world. First of all Ken has no clue who this lady is or what is her personality. He doesn’t even know why she is doing this for only 50 dollars. I think that Ken is trying to teach us that if you are courage’s and take risks you might get what you want without getting hurt. This is one reason why I think this is the theme.
On page 20 the main character Ken, stood up for himself when some bullies tried to pick on him. On the other hand, he stood up for himself because he wanted to see if he was really invulnerable or not. “I just said I was going on a date. And now I gotta get home.” Ken repeated. “Sure by ambulance.” Adam said. This 2 quote shows us that the main character was being courage’s because he was letting himself get beaten up. It also shows that the bullies were going to injure him. As a result Ken was getting punched and getting kicked. When they kept hitting him Ken felt nothing but a touch. Ken was so courage’s that at the end he was safe and not injured. I think that Ken was trying to teach us that if you are courage’s and take risks you might get what you want without getting hurt.  This is another reason why this is the theme.
On page 35 the main character Ken, goes scuba diving to let sharks bite him. When he confirmed that he was invulnerable to anything he wanted to try it one more time. So he went to an island where you can scuba dive and he let himself get bitten by a shark. Although he wanted to try it, he was scared in the beginning. “What happens if somehow my invulnerable to pain don’t work?” Ken thought to himself. This quote shows us that Ken was taking a risk and being courage’s. He was so courage’s that he let himself get bitten by a shark. Ken is trying to teach us that taking risks and being courage’s will sometimes give you good results.
Therefore the main character was teaching us that being courage’s can lead to a good result. When Ken let a stranger do stuff to him he was scared and felt like he was going to get killed. When Ken let bullies beat him up he felt like he was going to feel those hits. When Ken let a shark bite him he felt like he was going to die right there. For all that he was very courage’s and as result he was safe and didn’t get harmed. I think being courage’s sometimes shows us that you can take risk and still be safe.