Catherine Ryan Hyde's Pay It Forward

Imagine a world where people would do big favors for people they didn’t even know. Catherine Ryan Hyde created this world in her novel Pay It Forward. The story is about a boy, Trevor, who decides to start a movement called “Pay It Forward” after being assigned to change the world as an extra-credit assignment in his social studies class. Trevor ends up creating a worldwide movement of people helping each other, and he dies because of the cause. Trevor shows the power of one because he helps a homeless man get on his feet, helps his teacher find love, and creates a worldwide movement of people selflessly helping each other.
First, Trevor starts his movement by helping a homeless man named Jerry. After being assigned the project by his teacher, he decided to put up flyers and help someone in need. As the crowed of people in need gathered around Trevor, he explained that he wanted to give someone money “to get ’em started, you know? Like food and something better to wear, and some bus fare.
Without knowing it, Trevor’s movement spread from the west coast to the east with the help from a gangster named Sidney G. Reporter Chris Chandler then hooked onto the story and tracked it back to Trevor. After finally getting through to talk to Trevor, Trevor mentions that “I invented this thing called Paying It Forward. It was for last year’s class. I got the best grade. But you know what? It was a total bust.” (Hyde 323). This shows that even though Trevor didn’t know that his movement had spread across the nation, it had, and Trevor wasn’t even aware of it. After wanting to help one more person, Trevor gets stabbed and dies, which really sends the movement into a full-fledged, widespread phenomenon. Because Trevor wasn’t interested in the fame of this movement, and that he wanted to continue helping people himself after becoming famous, it really illustrates how selfless and important Trevor’s project