The Blind Side by Michael Lewis | Teen Ink

The Blind Side by Michael Lewis

April 6, 2017
By caellosenegger BRONZE, Monroe, Wisconsin
caellosenegger BRONZE, Monroe, Wisconsin
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

In The Blind Side by Michael Lewis, Michael Oher is a teenager who has been living in poverty in a rough part of Memphis throughout his entire childhood. Michael does not regularly attend school. His dad is in prison, his mom is a drug addict, his siblings are scattered around Memphis foster homes, and Michael lacks morals and values altogether. He knows he loves his family, but that is about it. Otherwise, he is just fighting to survive. When Michael starts hanging out with “Big” Tony Henderson and his son Steven, he finally has a place to sleep. When Tony enrolls Steven in Briarcrest Christian School, a school on the safer side of Memphis, he takes Michael along as well. After Michael has been going to Briarcrest for a while, a rich white family, the Tuohys, notice Michael spends the majority of his time walking around on the streets of Memphis. They take him in and quickly notice his insane athletic ability, on top of his easily noticeable size. After he goes out for the football team, he becomes the number one ranked high school player in the country, and the Tuohys adopt him. After being adopted,  Michael commits to playing college football for Ole Miss, the favorite school of the Tuohy family. This causes a lot of turmoil among the family as they are accused of wrongdoing by people throughout the country.


The Blind Side teaches us that people's success is determined by how they overcome obstacles. Michael is faced with numerous challenges that he has to overcome in order to be as successful as he is. The author, Michael Lewis, seems to know that there are people in the world that are not fortunate and are living in poverty. But he believes that by adopting Christian values and receiving help from others, that can be changed. I learned what people in a similar situation as Michael have to go through, living in poverty, not having a reliable source of food or shelter. This is sadly common, but The Blind Side shows that it does not have to be like this for people.


I personally enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the fact that it was about football, which I could relate too. But I also enjoyed how it gave me perspective into Michael’s life, which I could not relate to. I got insight on what it was like to live in a bad neighborhood like Michael did and on what the culture was like in these places. I enjoyed reading about how Michael had decided to turn his life around and worked hard. These were traits and values he already had, and I liked the contrast between Michael's original morals and values and the morals and values of the people he lived among. I also enjoyed reading about Michael's journey from the bottom to the top. I recommend this to people who are looking for a feel-good success story.


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