Discrimination as a Divider

You think we gotta take every chump that shows up? You think ’cause your mommy buys you a jockstrap you’re automatically on my team?

In Part 2, Tuesday, September 19, Victor Guzman hazes Paul when Paul first shows up to Tangerine Middle School. He knows Paul wants to join the soccer team, a group Victor ferociously protects. Victor sees that Paul is a kid from Lake Windsor, and as such, he feels defensive. He doesn’t want Paul to think he can walk all over the kids at Tangerine Middle School just because he comes from a wealthier neighborhood where the mothers can buy their sons “jockstraps” and other expensive equipment the kids at Tangerine Middle School might not be able to afford. Later, Paul compares his soccer uniform with Joey’s and notices how much nicer Joey’s is. Paul easily submits to Victor’s insults, as he understands Victor’s position. Paul is desperate to make friends on the soccer team, and he is willing to endure some of the verbal abuse his new schoolmates throw at him in order to fit in. Paul’s approach stands in stark contrast to Joey’s, who is not as willing to adjust.

Nah. I just said I didn’t need it. What do I need a guide dog for?

In Part 2, Tuesday, October 3, Joey responds to a question from Paul on Joey’s first day at Tangerine Middle School. Joey transferred to escape the teasing from the kids back at Lake Windsor. Here, Joey answers Paul after Paul asks him if he requested Theresa Cruz as a guide for his first day at the school. Joey explains that he told the school officials that he didn’t need her, telling Paul he didn’t need a “guide dog.” Paul immediately senses the insulting and racist nature of the remark and asks Joey why he’s referring to Theresa that way. Joey then asks why Paul is being defensive and whether he’s attracted to Theresa. If he is, Joey says, he’s been at Tangerine Middle School “too long.” Joey carries the racist and prejudicial attitudes of his elders and the community of Lake Windsor. Paul realizes he and Joey are much more different than he originally thought.

Look at this. I think it’s great that these farm-labor kids get to spend a day away from the fields.

Here, in Part 3, Monday, 20, Erik’s sarcastic and cruel remark is aimed to insult and diminish Theresa and Tino Cruz when they first visit the Fisher household. In this scene, Paul shows Theresa and Tino his father’s computer, which he’ll use to complete their science report, and then they go outside to play soccer. Suddenly, they hear Erik and Arthur pull up in Arthur’s Land Cruiser. Paul freezes, realizing Erik is likely going to cause trouble. When Erik sees Paul, Theresa, and Tino, he makes this disparaging comment about Theresa and Tino being farm laborers. Erik’s comment is unprompted and completely vicious. Tino tries to defend himself by referring to Erik as a “funny man,” referencing Erik’s embarrassing fall in the mud on television. Enraged, Erik strikes Tino so hard he has the wind knocked out of him. Paul even fears that Tino is dead. This attack, prompted by Erik’s coarse prejudicial views, sets into motion a series of events that will ultimately lead to Luis’s death and Erik’s downfall.

The Values of Communities

Mom seemed to think they would be canceling classes at the high school today and sending everyone home early because of the tragedy with Mike Costello. Mom was way off with that one. They didn’t cancel classes. They didn’t even cancel football practice.

At first, in Part 1, Wednesday, September 6, it seems that Lake Windsor is a tight-knit community that cares for its residents. The housing development Paul lives in has a series of organizing committees all dedicated to regulating and making sure their community is a functioning and pleasant place in which to live. But when football player Mike Costello is struck by lightning on the field, the community faces a tragedy that will reveal where people’s true concerns lie. Mrs. Fisher assumes that school officials will cancel classes to pay respect to Mike, but they don’t. She is appalled and shocked at the lack of compassion. Here, Paul recounts how the school didn’t cancel classes or even football practice. This is the first window into the cracks in the fabric of the Lake Windsor community. Clearly, the school prioritizes football success over a student’s death. Later, the school makes a half-hearted attempt to honor Mike by planting a tree in his name.

If you’re a War Eagle, then you’re a War Eagle. You got brothers to back you up. Nobody’s gonna mess with you, not anyplace, not anytime.

In Part 2, Friday, September 22, later, Victor comforts Paul after Paul’s first day on the field as a War Eagle goes poorly. Throughout the day, Paul gets kicked around and harassed by Victor, the team’s star player. Paul wonders if he has a tough road ahead of him trying to maintain a spot on the team as a backup goalie, but Paul won’t give up his goal of being the team’s main goalie. He wants to be a soccer player as it’s the only thing that makes him feel connected to and part of the community. Victor, a fierce player who rallies his teammates with a “war cry” every game, carries a tremendous sense of team spirit. On the bus ride home, Victor approaches Paul to tell him he played a good game. He can see that Paul is an earnest player who wants to fit in. Victor tells Paul that now that he’s a War Eagle, they’re brothers, and he’ll defend him on and off the field. Paul feels that he has found a new home.

It’s a tradition in Tangerine. Kids from families that are in the citrus business, or the vegetable business, can stay out of school whenever there’s a freeze. Their families need them to help.

In Part 3, Thursday, November 23, Thanksgiving, Henry D. explains to Paul why many of the kids are absent from school. The first freeze has happened in Tangerine County. The freezes are the reason, Paul’s mother explained earlier, that many of the farmers from the area moved south; it is simply too difficult to grow crops in northern Florida. For the families who stayed behind, they have to be determined and persistent to keep their crops safe from the frost. This means that many of the kids stay out of school to remain home and fight the frost with their family. Later, Paul realizes just how strong the community and family bonds are in Tangerine County when he offers to help the Cruz family with their fruit trees. Paul spends all night spraying water on the fruits and building fires to keep the trees safe. It’s the first time Paul has worked so hard in his life, and he sleeps for eighteen hours after. Despite the hard work, Paul feels energized watching the Cruz family work together to keep their business alive.

Memory and Denial

An old familiar feeling came over me, like I had forgotten something. What was it? What did I need to remember?

At the beginning of the novel, in the Preface, Paul describes a flashback he experiences as he’s about to leave his home in Houston, Texas, to move to Florida. As he and his mother pull away in their Volvo, Paul watches the mailboxes in front of the houses file past him. The vision prompts him to have a feeling, like he’s trying to remember something but can’t tell exactly what it is. However, this feeling does prompt a memory of a scene in which a person wearing a mask chases him in a car with a baseball bat. In his memory, Paul feels frightened and rushes back home. Once there, Paul tells his mother that his brother, Erik, was chasing him, but Erik is home on the couch. Paul’s memory seems disordered, and he can’t put the pieces in logical order. Ultimately, a series of subsequent events in the novel prompt Paul to recall the full memory and finally put the pieces into place.

They told me that your eyes would heal, slowly. . . . But you would not be blind.

In Part 3, Saturday, December 2, after Paul confronts his parents about not telling him it was Erik’s friend Castor who blinded him at Erik’s bidding, Paul’s mother, frozen with fear, recounts in a robotic voice why she hid the truth from him: The doctors told her Paul’s eyes would be OK, that they would heal someday. However, it’s clear that her belief was nothing more than wishful thinking and a way for her to justify ignoring the true horror of the situation. She tells Paul she didn’t want him to hate his brother Erik forever and that she was trying to save him by not telling him. Paul is disgusted at his mother for her lies and for making him hate himself for all these years. Paul has always thought he caused the damage to himself by staring at an eclipse too long, a lie that his parents told him.

You’re paying now for what you didn’t do back then.

In Part 3, Sunday, December 3, later, Paul’s grandparents come to visit for Thanksgiving. They’ve only planned to visit for a few hours, as they are on their way to Orlando, which hints at the lack of closeness Mrs. Fisher has with her parents. At this point in the story, Erik’s involvement in Luis’s murder has been exposed, and Paul has told his parents that he knows the truth about his eyesight and that they lied to him all these years. His parents’ lives have completely unraveled. Here, Mrs. Fisher’s mother tells her that this is her fault since she never fully addressed Erik’s sociopathic behavior as a child. Mrs. Fisher only replies, “I know, I know.” She realizes the extent of the damage she has caused by not facing the truth and denying the reality of her family’s issues. Her parents pledge to help her because they are family, but it’s clear that they are not impressed by Mrs. Fisher’s preoccupation with pretenses about her presence in the community. In a final dig, her father sardonically congratulates her on having such a nice home, much nicer than the one he brought her up in.

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