Acceleration By Graham McNamee Term Paper Examples

Acceleration is a novel by Graham McNamee. It follows a young boy named Duncan, who lives in Toronto; he works at the Toronto Transit Authority, sorting through items in the lost and found. In the beginning of the novel, Duncan is sorting the lost and found objects, and trying to avoid the older man he works with, whose name is Jacob. While Duncan is sorting the lost and found when he finds a small, leather bound book. This book is not what it seems, apparently; it is lost in the bottom of the lost and found pile, but Duncan picks it up and begins reading it.
There are a variety of words that can be used to describe Duncan and his relationships within the book. For instance, one of the important words that can be used is the word conflict. Duncan experiences a significant amount of conflict throughout the novel, both with the serial killer that he is hunting and the other people throughout the text. Another word that can be used to describe the text is the idea of class. Class struggle is a common theme throughout the book, and the characters often struggle with the issue of different classes for different people in the text. The characters experience a lot of suspense as well, so the text can also be described as suspenseful and mysterious. As the text becomes more suspenseful and mysterious, it also becomes more complicated, with the many different stories acting as layers on top of themselves. The layering becomes important for the text, especially in the context of the secrecy that occurs throughout the story.
There are other words that can also be used to describe this novel; enthralling and enticing are two of the words that encompass the bulk of the novel most effectively. In addition, the novel demonstrates significant complexity, something that makes the novel much more interesting for the reader.
The main characters of the story are Duncan, Vinny, and Jacob; however, the women who were victims of the serial killer also become central to the story. Jacob is a lonely man, grumpy at the beginning of the text, but soon a character that evolves into a much more complex and interesting character. Vinny, on the other hand, is a little wild; he is often on the so-called “wrong side” of the law. The final character that is important in the text of the story is the character of Roach. Roach is the killer in the story, and the one responsible for the death of a number of women. He is the serial killer that has left the diary in the lost and found, and thus, he is another of the important characters in the text. He is depicted as being disgusting and disturbing to the other characters, but he is also cunning and clever; it is for this reason that he is so difficult to catch.
When Duncan first picks up the little leather book, he is not certain what he will find. What does he find as he starts to read is certainly not what he expected. The book is full of depraved and disturbing information. The book chronicles the secrets of a serial killer who is going through the subway, stalking people. At first, Duncan does not know what to do with the information that he has gotten from the little book is true, but he begins to see clues that lead him to believe that whoever wrote the diary was not writing down ideas or thoughts, but was instead writing down things that had actually happened. He also goes on to realize that he cannot stop reading the text, and that the serial killer’s plan is becoming more and more devious as time goes on.
The police are the first problem that Duncan faces in his attempts to solve the problem of the little leather book that he has found. The police refuse to take the book seriously, so he tries to find out the identity of the author alone. His friends try to help him as well, but he is really relying on two friends in particular-- his best friend and his new friend. The book goes on to show the developing relationship between the three boys, and develops the suspense of the novel similarly along the way.
At the end of the novel, Duncan catches Roach and saves many more women from being killed. However, he has significant guilt and sadness in his heart over the women that he could not save from death, and it is this sadness that drives the book forward over the course of the story. Duncan feels responsible for the death of any woman that is killed by the killer after he finds the book, and it is that responsibility that ushers him into finally cornering and capturing the killer at the end of the story.