The Book Gym Candy English Literature Essay

The book Gym Candy by Carl deuker is about a boy named Mike Johnson who struggles with trying to make his dad proud of him by playing football and being the best on the team. Mike soon thinks that the only way to become stronger is by steroids. This idea came from his personal trainer Peter Volz. This eventually leads to mike using it and makes him addicted leading to one very intriguing story.

The Protagonist of the novel is Mick Johnson. Micks dad Mike used to be a professional football player and since mick was little his dad would always go outside and play football with him and this is what made mick fall in love with football. Micks dad even made him stay back a year from kindergarten to make him bigger than all the other kids when he started to play pop warner (Football for people from 8-14, 15). Mick always regarded his father as being a star and being the best football player and he would always ask his father mike why he wasn’t playing football anymore his dad said that he got a really bad ankle sprain and that he could no longer play and was put on the reserve bench until finally he got kicked off the team for not being able to play. Mick begins to change first his his old Pop Warner coach leaves and a new coach from oregan state which is a collage. Mick’s new coach treats him badly because his dad made him look bad and stuffed him out in the end zone and it was all over ESPN. The coach kept talking about his dad This Made Mick want to quit. The Coach also said “Mick you are going to grow up like your dad a good athlete but a punk when you aren’t playing the game of football”. This made mick wonder why he said that about his dad his dad never said anything about him being a poor sport when he’s not playing Football. Mick gets home and goes to check the computer and see why the coach had said this so he goes on the internet and searches his father’s name he finds that his dad missed meetings, got into bar fights, got into arguments with the coaches, got in trouble with a dancer on the island, And even argued with all his teammates. The team his dad played for the chargers got sick of it and kicked him off the team

The author was able to keep me interested because he never made the story confusing and he didn’t add to many characters. The reason why I don’t like too many characters is because it confuses me when they try to add to many characters that don’t really do anything to affect the story. One scene that kept my interest is the one where mick got off the steroids because he thought he didn’t need it anymore. I thought the book was over and was wondering why he there were so many more pages and why he ended the story so plainly and I kept reading to figure out what was left in the story and I later found out that he finds a freshmen beating him at football so he goes back to Peter to become even better at football so that he can’t be beaten and this gets my attention even more.

One of my favorite scenes in Gym Candy is when Mick tried to shoot himself in the head. This scene stands out because it shows how Mick feels about the problems that he had faced throughout the Novel especially taking steroids. I felt like I was there because it was like the ending of a movie and it was an urgent event that draws you in to see what happens next. When Mick pulled the trigger his hand twitches which threw off his aim to where the bullet sort of grazed the top of his head and he falls unconscious so his friend Drew took him to the hospital. Another scene is when Mick is running to get the touchdown in the last quarter and he falls 12 inches away from the touchdown. I feel like in that scene mick realized how much more he needs to train and how much of that would be easier with steroids.

I learned that even if you want to be the best. You always have to know that drugs are not the way because it can ruin your reputation and your life. Even if you think everything is possible with drugs it’s not because somewhere someone will always be better then you and the only thing you can do is work harder and harder. Resorting to drugs doesn’t make you cool or strong it makes you stupid and it can hurt you a lot. I would recommend using this for students in the future it helps people know how steroids can completely mess up your life and your dreams.