Story Review of The Goodness of Matt Kaizer

The Story “The Goodness of Matt Kaizer” written by Avi talks about a boy who did bad things but suddenly turned good. Marley the narrator said that in the past all of his friends and he would do bad things, but the baddest of the bad in their school was Matt Kaizer. Matt Kaizer’s father was a minister and was nice and kind, while Matt Kaizer or known as the Spirit would be bad and would take all the dares. For example, if you dared him to touch a dead animal he would. One day he was dared to go to a classmate's house and see their dying dad. He went with Marley and the classmate’s dad mistook Matt as an angel, but Matt refused. Matt then had a meeting with his father, and his dad wants him to go again, because the classmate’s mom asked if he could. Matt was then dared by his father to go, and since Matt never refused a dare he did, and once he went the next day with everyone from Marley’s gang he had changed. Matt said that he had heard some really bad things the dad did, and every time he went there Matt would turn more and more kinder. Marley and his friends didn’t like it, and then the dad was healed, but Matt was sad, because he couldn’t meet the dad anymore because he was cured. 

Families can help shape individuals of their family so they can be how you want them to be. Family’s influence can go into two ways: positive and negative influencing. If you turn it into a positive influence then you make them kinder and smarter, but being a negative influence can cause them to be bad. Matt had a good influence from his mother and father, he was shown by his mother to bring flowers when someone is ill or dying, like when his aunt was dying his mother had gone and got her flowers. His dad also influenced him to go another time so his classmates' dad can get better, and he decided to go more because his dad had influenced him to go. But since his dad was a minister he got pressure from other people and so he took daring to show he was bad and not good. When families cheer for their kids they are influencing in a good way, like if you were to cheer for a little sibling in a baseball game the little sibling will have a boost to do better. But when you influence them badly like drinking or smoking you may influence them to do that when they are older. Families can help their siblings with positive and negative influences in many ways, just like how Matt’s family did. 

Everyone has a human nature for wickedness or virtue, people would usually have a hard time facing one and the other they would have a better choice with. People would usually have a hard time in one, of either evilness or goodness. Matt Kaizer has a hard time figuring out what was good, because he would usually do a lot of bad stuff, opposite from his parents who are good. But when he went to his classmates' houses more and more, he started to figure out what was more good than bad, and soon became good, because of the stories he heard from the classmate's dad. Whenever someone is bad we try to teach them to be more good, like how Matt Kaizer was taught by the dad, to be good because then he could end up like the classmates dad and maybe die with a bad life. Families should help to try to teach their kids at a young age to be good, because then we could have a kinder world, and not have as much anger as we have inside. It is part of our human nature to be mad, but we do not have to be so mad. Matt Kaizer was taught from being a very bad kid opposite of his parents to start being good from a lesson he had learned. 

Two different ways of shaping someone’s personalities are provoking and encouraging, and they both are two different things. When you provoke someone you are trying to get them mad and do it, shaping them into a bad or good shape very quickly. When you encourage someone you give them time and are persistent with them to be bad or good. Matt is provoked and encouraged, Marley and his friends provoke him, telling him dares to do bad things and if he is hesitant they say that he is a minister's son, and it provokes him. But his dad still has faith with him and believes that he will turn good, he also does this with a dare though telling him that he thought he would never back down on dares. When people are provoked or encouraged they will always shape into something. Dares are one of the ways to provoke someone when you dare them so they are pressed to do so, and they are on the spot when they do it. When you encourage someone is when you cheer on them, and don’t give up on them. Encouraging and provoking are two different ways to shape someone into being good or bad. 

The story “The Goodness of Matt Kaizer” talks about Matt turning good to bad. Matt was the opposite of his father and always bad because Marley and his friends always pressed him with dares, that he never refused. Matt’s family helps him shape to be a good person in the end, this is because his mother had shown him to give flowers to the sick, so he gave flowers when one of his classmates' dad started to get sick. But even though he was turning good, he still had trouble because everyone had a human nature feeling of being wicked or good, and Matt started with wickedness, meaning goodness was his weak side. Two different ways Matt was shaped to his personality was encouragement and provocation Marley and his friends provoked him with dares, but his father never gave up on him and encouraged him to be good which he turned out to be. The story “The goodness of Matt Kaizer” is a great book and it is a wonderful way to tell readers that people can change.