Free Sample Essays > North American
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The analysis of "The Client" by John Grisham
would be more than complicated to find a child who, being only seven, could hit drunk father, abusing his mother, with a baseball bat. He is the head of the family, an eleven-year-old father who must take care of his younger brother Ricky: “He’d taught him to throw a football and ride a bike. He’d explained what he knew about sex. He’d warned him about drugs, and protected him from bullies. And he felt terrible about this introduction to vice. But it was just a cigarette. It could be much worse.” (pg. 2) Mark is responsible for his eight-year-old brother, he is responsible for his life, his well-being, his future (at least he thinks so), Mark is the only Ricky’s example, Ricky imitates him, because he has no other model to follow. There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in, and Mark is there to help his little brother to open these doors, he himself has already opened them, he has already made his first steps towards manhood. Mark Sway is a very mellow child, he explains everything in the tone of an adult, of a little wise man. Here is an example how he explains the process of smoking to his brother: “ ‘Don’t try to swallow the smoke. You are not ready for that yet. Just suck a little then blow the smoke out. Are you ready?’ ” (pg. 4)
Mark and Ricky are sharing a forbidden fruit (a cigarette) in a weedy lot on the outskirts of Memphis and they notice a shiny Lincoln pull up to the curb:
The engine quit, and the car just sat there in the weeds for a minute. Then the door opened, and the driver stepped into the weeds and looked around. <...> He stumbled to the rear of the car, fumbled with the keys, and finally opened the trunk. He removed a water hose, stuck one end into the exhaust pipe, and ran the other end through a crack in the left rear window. He closed the trunk, looked around again as if he were expecting to be watched, then disappeared into the car.
The engine started. (pg. 7)
Yes, the engine starts again, but the car is not about to move. All this scene is a deliberate plan of a drunken Mafia lawyer to commit suicide, and it does not take a long time for Mark to fathom what is being perpetrated. He suspects the man’s secret aspiration to commit suicide, to raise his own hand against himself. But how can a little boy of eleven so swiftly conceive the quintessence of such a complicated matter? It proves that Mark is a remarkable child, and he not only comprehends everything, but he even makes every endeavour possible to stop the man from this vicious act, to hamper his crime against himself by creating impediments. What a brave and tenacious boy! Mark Sway is a compassionate little man, a street child with the heart of a hero, [next page]