Pops by Victor De Lavalle 4/20/08
Pages 161-176
This story is about a kid(narrator) that meets his father for the very first time. The kid asks questions to his dad about him but still he didn’t felt the love for him as a father. They went to the park and drank beer while they were there. They only got to spend one day together because his dad had to go back where he was living.
I don’t think that this story is about the American Dream because obviously the American dream has to having a family. Well that is my opinion of the American dream. Having a father and not getting along with them not even as friends is not an American dream. Both the father and the son are just talking not even trying to act like father of son.
The narrator(kid) on his mind also admits without even realizing that he doesn’t wan to get along with his father. I know this because he says “I don’t want to see any movies, I told him. I didn’t want to be in the dark with this man because I was friendlier to everyone when a room was one big shadow. I felt comforted and sure when the lights were out.”(P.169) This shows that the kid likes his father but he doesn’t want to be able to get along with him. They don’t trust each other that well.
In addition, as well as his son Louis(narrator’s dad) wants to be close to his son but there is a fear that doesn’t let him. The feat I think he has is that he might love his kid but them his kid might reject him because of all the time he was alone. An example of how he feels is when “The man reached out to touch my shoulder or my face but hesitated when he got close, let his hand fall back to his lap; I pretended that drinking veer had left me oblivious.”(P.175) His father tries to get near him but the fear doesn’t let him. Instead he goes another way; takes another direction.
Chuckie by Victor de Lavalle 4/21/08
Pages 91-94
This story is about a group of kids that are biking with the narrator on another neighborhood. When the kids leave the neighborhood one of them gets stop by older guys and he gets beat up and no one helps him out. The narrator does not care about no one but himself, he once cared of another kid but not anymore.
The narrator shows how he really is by not caring about others and only caring about himself. As he says that “There was only one kid I ever cared for and his name wasn’t Chuckie.”(p.94) He tells how he doesn’t care about the kids he hangs out with but he only cared once for another kid. He identifies himself as a selfish person that no other kids matter for him no more.
In addition, the narrator also shows in another form of how he doesn’t care about the kids he was biking with. When other older guys are bullying one of the kids he was with he doesn’t do anything and he just ignores it. Also,”When a loud -pop- echoed from across the street I didn’t flinch, wasn’t even sure it had come from nearby.”(p.94) The narrator heard the kid when he got shot and he still didn’t do anything about it.
I would define the narrator as careless for others. Also, he pretends that others are not there. He makes them feel invisible to him. The narrator is not going to be a very friendly person later on in life. Depending on how the kids act on their young life it shows how they are going to act later on in life in their adult hood. The narrator instead of telling the other kids what happened on how he really doesn’t like them he just keeps it to himself.
I think this because on the story the narrator really does not pay attention to the other kids. He doesn’t want to be friends with them. Also, another reason for thinking this way is that the narrator is also jealous of the kids because they can do tricks on their bikes and he can’t.
In the other hand I also think that the kid is acting like that because the friends he had they all left him. now that he is alone and new kids come in and out of the neighborhood he doesn’t want to be friends with them, he might have a fear that they might leave him as well as the other kids did.
Just Don’t Touch Anything by Russell Banks 4/25/08
Pages 1-15
This book is about a fourteen year old kid named Chappie that lives with his mom and stepfather. His stepfather just doesn’t like him anymore and he is ashamed of him. He starts doing drugs and then he gets kicked out of the house because he steals his moms coins that her mom had given her, and that were eventually going to be Chappies. He has to go live over at his friend Russ’s place. He has to give drugs to the bikers that live there with them so they wont kick him out.
Could Chappie stop himself from taking the coins from the bags? I think that he could had stop taking the coins if he decided to just ask his mom for money instead. But, instead he “took a couple of coins from each of about six Baggies so he wouldn’t know any were missing if he happened to check.”(P.6) Chappie really doesn’t have any idea whose coins they are but then it comes to his mind that they would be Ken’s (stepfather). He just takes a couple of coins from each bag so Ken or his mom won’t notice coins are missing.
Does Chappie have a good reason to prefer to live with his friend instead of with his mom? Maybe he decided to live with his friend because he knows that they wouldn’t tell him anything that he is using drugs. Also, I think that he didn’t wanted to live with his mom anymore because of all the problems they were having because of how he dressed and his hair style, not talking about drugs. Since he got kicked out of the house he had to go to Russ’s apartment and when his mom or Ken weren’t home he went and he ” hauled my stuff over to Russ’s place and stayed there until the last of the coins and the weed ran out and Russ said the older guys didn’t want me hanging around anymore.”(P.15) Even though he knew about the coins he still took the one’s that were left because he didn’t had any money and had got kicked out of Russ’s place.
