“In nineteen minutes you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it. In nineteen minutes you can take revenge” (Picoult). These words are the first lines of Jodi Picoult's best-seller, Nineteen Minutes. While this novel is heartbreaking and cuts through the “greys” of school shootings, it is far from original. The main character, Peter Houghton, is a near-perfect replica of the profile of the 1999 Columbine shooters, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. A simple personal analysis will reveal that both Peter and Columbine Shooters suffer from parental neglect, violent virtual world, ruthless peers and easy access to guns. One of the most obvious characteristics of a school shooter would be parental negligence. This negligence was evident in both the Columbine killers and the fictional character, Peter Houghton. If Dylan and Eric's parents had cared about their children, they would have recognized the boys' obvious dysfunctional thinking. On the cover of Harris' diary it was written: "I hate the fucking world." (Rosenburg). He went on to write that he hates racists, martial artists, and people who brag about their cars. In the following pages, he went on to state what else he hates, including Star Wars fans, people who mispronounce words, and other ridiculous things. If parents believed their children were normal, the boy's yearbook surely should have raised alarm bells. In 1988, the boys wrote about murder and retaliation and even drew a picture of a person holding a gun surrounded by dead bodies. One caption read: "The only reason you're still alive is because someone decided to let you live." In the boys' rooms there were also videotapes, guns and bombs. Harris also made a piece of paper to highlight the obvious connections between Jodi Picoult's portrayal of Peter's character and the Columbine Shooters. This connection marks Picoult's work as unoriginal, but the compelling novel allows a peek into a world that many choose to stay away from. Works Cited “Interview with Jodi Picoult.” Interview by Book Sfoglia. Browse the book. BookBrowse.com, 2011. Web. May 20, 2011. .++++"Nineteen Minutes." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. April 11, 2011. Web. April 4, 2011. .+Picoult, Jodi. Nineteen Minutes: A Novel. New York: Atria, 2007. Print.++++++Rosenberg, Jenifer. "Columbine massacre". About.com. Network. April 19, 2011. .Towsend, Suzie. “School Shootings: Columbine and 19 Minutes.” Web log post. Confessions from Suite 500. June 30, 2009. Web. April 4. 2011.