Reading Response: Critical Reading Question

Reading Response Question: How does this text deal with individuals and groups? Are people acting alone and in competition with one another, or does the text help us imagine people working together?

 The book I am currently reading is "I am Number Four,"by Pittacus Lore. This book is about a teen alien called John Smith that comes from a planet called Lorien. He is running from Mogadorians on Planet Earth, and there are nine aliens like him called Garde, known by their numbers. They are scattered in different places on Earth. Mogadorians are aliens from a different planet called Mogadore. Their focus is to take over Planet Lorien and kill all the Loriens. Numbers 1, 2, and 3 were killed. When one of the Garde are killed, the others will get a scar embedded in their ankle, symboling one of the Garde have died. Each of the Garde children have a Cêpan, which is a protector/guardian also from the planet Lorien. Cêpans have to train the Garde children. Garde children have powers to help them survive and defeat the Mogadorians. John lives in Paradise, Ohio, which is a small quiet town. John goes to high school, meeting a girl he likes and has a new friend. The girl's name is Sarah Hart, and his friend's name is Sam Goode. In the end of the book, John trusts Sarah and Sam enough that he could tell them about who he was and where he came from.
  In this book, many people are working together. The nine Garde children are of the same species and work together, trying to find each other. They are against the Mogadorians, and trying to stay alive from getting killed. The people in Lorien are all working together. They are also tryiing to protect their planet. The Mogadorians are also in a group working together. They are trying to kill the Garde children and take over the planet Lorien. All the Cêpans and Garde children are working together too. They help each other and would die for one another. However, the planet Lorien and the planet Mogadore are in competition because Planet Mogadore is trying to take over planet Lorien, and planet Lorien is trying to protect it. The Mogadorians are also in competition with Garde and their Cêpans.
  At the beginning of the book, Henrí (John's Cêpan) was very close-minded about their identity and did not trust or tell anyone. Henrí was not sure about telling Sam that they are aliens, but because Sam risked his life to save Henrí from the Mogadorians, he deserved a explanation. John was against telling Sam and Sarah because he didn't want to get them involved, but they insisted so he told them. He also did not tell them because he did not trust them at first.