2nd Quarter SSR Blog post

The book I read this quarter, The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger, was filled with many truly interesting and dynamic characters.  One that especially stood out to was a character named Billy Tyne. Billy's a young man living in the coastal town of Gloucester, Massachusetts. He's part of a fishing boat crew aboard the ship, the Andrea Gail, who are about to set off on a month-long fishing expedition. He's the baby of the crew, even though he's in his early 20's, meaning that he's picked on a lot by the rest of the crew. He's a nervous guy who has only been fishing a few times and those few times it was more a leisurely fishing trip rather than a commercial fishing expedition. This gives him some character due to the fact that he's a nervous wreck both on the outside and the inside when on the other hand, the rest of the crew members have thick skin and acknowledge the danger in long commercial fishing trips. This dynamic personality helps the story because it provides a variety of different characters and personalities to season the story. Because this book is based on a true story, the author would have to try and obtain as many different personalities as he could in order to give the story and the real-life characters justice.
At the beginning of the story, Billy's the kind of guy who you wouldn't think would go on a big fishing expedition like this due to his nervous nature. He has a girlfriend who doesn't want him to go but he knows he must in order to make good money due to the fact that fishing is the biggest industry in this coastal town. Towards the middle, the reader can take note of how Billy is having a hard time adjusting to life on the water in a rustic fishing boat. He's struggling and he's homesick because he's never been away for this long before. This all changes toward the end of the story when the climax is finally approaching. The storm that takes down the ship and its men brings Billy to his peak moment where he tries to be the hero in a situation where no one is going to survive. He ends up becoming a true member of the crew thanks to his bravery, which I belive, is pretty cool.