Respect

     Have you ever found yourself loosing respect for the protagonist in your book?  That's exactly what I am experiencing in reading The Associate by John Grisham.  I think the main character, Kyle is becoming self centered and immoral.  Kyle cares not for those who he's harmed, but for how it will affect his life.  He also threw away all that he had learned from his mentor, his father, because of a threat to his career.

     Kyle cares a lot about his career and his future.  I think he cares too much.  Kyle was an accomplice  to a rape.  He was in college and drunk, he didn't do anything, but he didn't stop his frat-mates.  The police dismissed this charge.  Years later, when the scenario put his career on the line, all he was thinking was that nothing happened, even though, I think he knew something did happen.  He did not once in the situation feel bad.  He thought about the impact on his life, not how the rape affected the victim.

     Kyle has a very strong relationship with his father.  He became a lawyer just like his father.  However, his father hated corporate law firms.  Kyle was threatened and instead of showing courage, he chose to follow what his threateners wanted which was to join the biggest corporate law firm.  This showed a lack of courage.

     All in all, Kyle is a person who I do not respect.  However, I think he will become a person that I do. Or at least I hope so.  I am pretty early in the book, and I predict that Kyle will become a good man.