False rape accusations are one of the most contentious incidents to occur. They are not quite common, but when people are falsely accused of rape, that person just took another’s next twenty years of their life away. Brian Banks’ autobiography, What Set Me Free, marvellously illustrates his own journey through a false rape accusation when he was a teenager, and how he was able to pick himself up through this hardship. Banks was supposed to become the next football star at USC and maybe even drafted into the NFL, but that dream was quickly cut short by one party during high school. Many of us would be discouraged throughout this situation, but this occurrence determined Banks because he knew that somebody else’s lies would not crush his dreams. Both the author’s main purpose and the theme are quite evident very quickly through the book.

Banks’ main purpose for writing about his story was so people could understand how much his own life was affected when he was falsely accused of rape. Very early into the story, Banks is telling himself, “This is not my life. This is not happening. This is not real right now” (34) giving us a clear picture of the terror he is going through as he is walking to his cell. No teenage boy should have to go through such a brutal experience like this especially if they were completely innocent. Furthermore, he is a junior in high school that has already committed to USC for football, which is beyond incredible for someone to do at that age. Anybody would hate it if they got a letter saying that they have earned what they have worked so hard for, and then essentially tearing it right in front of you. Even by the end of the book, when everybody gets to celebrate that he is finally found innocent and even gets to play in the NFL, Banks reminds us that the feelings from his childhood first getting arrested, will never leave him.

The theme of What Set Me Free, is also fairly apparent throughout the book as we go along Brian Banks journey through wrongful conviction. Although it is a quite simple theme, it is one of the most important as well, which is to never give up. Although most of our faults are nowhere near as significant as this, they both follow the same principle which is to not let our mistakes get the best of us, and that we should keep pushing forward no matter what. Even when Banks was first getting convicted, he may have felt weak and helpless, but he also kept the determined mindset telling himself, “ I’ll be okay. I’ll be out of here soon” (46). This example of a young Brian Banks proves that you will never be able to push yourself and fight through your hardships if you do not have a positive mentality even through the lowest points of the journey. No matter what, everybody should have this mentality because I have kept this same positive mentality throughout some of my own difficult experiences, and it helps so much if I actually believe in myself and know that I could still fight and push through my hardships.

Brian Banks has gone through an experience that nobody would ever want to go through. None of us will ever experience a point in our life where we spend six years of our lives in jail for something that only we know we are innocent. Banks perfectly illustrates the theme by showing his challenging journey and teaches us that we should never give up on our dreams, and once we reach that dream, we push ourselves for another one. The scary part of this story is that this is only one man, and there could be many more people in the same shoes of Brian Banks out there. Overall, What Set Me Free is a fantastic and inspirational story that teaches incredible life lessons and brings awareness to an ongoing problem and I highly recommend it to others.