In the novel by Edward Bloor, Tangerine, Paul Fisher, the main character, meets a lot of people. Some of the people he meets he really likes, but others he despises. In the end, all of them in some way or the other, but his own brother, Erik, by far affects him the most. Erik’s choices impact Paul the most by ruining his vision, ruining Paul’s self-esteem, and ruining most of his relationships.
One of the choices made by Erik ruins Paul’s vision. When Paul was little, Erik got mad at him for telling on his friend, Vincent Castor. In revenge, Erik spray painted Paul’s eyes. The paint caused Paul to be legally blind, and have to wear coke-bottle glasses. His vision, or lack thereof, causes many problems in the novel. For example, Paul joins
Paul Fisher endures a great deal of obstacles in the novel Tangerine, to him being kicked off the soccer team because of an I.E.P paper his mom filled out and a underdog in his own family, due to his athletic brother who plays football, Erik Fisher; as well as having a shaky memory. However in spite of all of that, Paul does his absolute best to hold his head high, have self-confidence, and overcome these
A choice made by Erik affects Paul by causing his classmates and peers to view him as a freak because he has goggles and bad eyesight. This all incidentally happened because of Erik’s choices. This choice was made years and years ago by Erik and his friend, Vincent Castor, when they decided to spray paint Paul in the eyes. The reason
Paul’s parents prove to be threshold guardians when they favor Paul’s brother Erik, and hide how Paul really lost his eyesight. To start, Paul once, accused his father of favoring Erik, and Paul’s dad just makes an excuse for himself by telling Paul,”All I can say, in my own defense is that this was a critical season for Erik. College
Everyone has a mentor. Most people look up to their parents, a friend or sibling, but in Paul's case it was a tangerine farmer who was also the brother of his friend; his mentor was Luis Cruz. In the novel Tangerine, Luis Cruz represents the mythological archetype of the mentor by keeping Paul motivated, staying positive, and giving advice while acting as Paul's conscience. The first way Luis fulfills the mentorship figure for Paul is the way he motivates Paul. For instance, Luis was talking to Paul while “fighting the freeze” within their conversation, Luis says, “you seem kinda scared Erik and Arthur Bauer.you shouldn't be they're punks” (Bloor 229).
James Duncan’s book entitled, The River Why, focuses around the main character, Gus, and how he changes throughout the book. In this book Gus is discovering what life really is and that the whole world does not revolve around fishing. After moving out of his erratic house he spends all of his time fishing at his remote cabin, but this leaves him unhappy and a little insane. He embarks on a search for him self and for his own beliefs. Duncan changes Gus throughout the book, making Gus realize that there are more important things to life than fishing, and these things can lead to a happy fulfilled life, which in turn will help Gus enjoy life and fishing more. Duncan introduces a character, Eddy, who significantly changes Gus’s views on what he needs in his life and she gives Gus a sense of motivation or inspiration. Eddy changes Gus by their first encounter with each other, when Eddy instills in Gus a need to fulfill his life and when they meet up again, completing his need. Fishing is Gus’s first passion but he loses it after he puts all of himself into it, and when Eddy comes into his picture Gus feels a need to have more in his life, like love. Through finding love he re-finds his passion for fishing and learns more about himself. When Eddy and Gus finally get together, he sees this “equilibrium” between his old passion, fishing, and his new one, Eddy. Duncan’s use of Eddy gives Gus a new found sense of purpose and to have a more fulfilled life is a critical step in Gus’s development as a character. This is why Eddy is the most important character to this book, because she gives Gus inspiration to find himself.
The author Edward Bloor utilizes blindness to symbolize how Paul may be visually impaired but can see social injustice, while Erik and his parents’ can see but are blind to the emotional harm they inflict on Paul and others, and the townspeople are blind to their environment and social prejudice. He has been bullied most of his life for being visually impaired. Paul is used to being judged by others. The injury to his eyes supposedly occurred while looking at a solar eclipse, but there is more to this story.
Isn't it unfair that sometimes the choices other people make has a possibility to impact our life? Well in the novel, Tangerine, the protagonist, Paul Fisher, is faced with choices that he has to endure and overcome. The choices he face are not made by him, but the others around him. For instance, Paul's mom made choices that Paul has to simply live with and endure whatever problem comes his way, Such as moving from Texas to Tangerine County Florida, As well as her signing the "IEP" form without consulting Paul, Lastly She kept family secrets away from Paul. In general, the choices that Paul's mom make impacted Paul's life considerably, but the outcome of one choice ended up helping
Simon and Jeremy’s relationship took many shapes. For one moment, Jeremy would treat Simon as though any brother would by exchanging baseball cards rummaging through unknown mysteries down in the basement. Jeremy would tell frightening stories of ghosts, Indian burial grounds, and psychopathic murderers just as a normal brother would, but the desperate attempts of frightening Simon drove his brother mad. Simon was never good enough for his parents and was always half the boy Jeremy was. His mother spoke of him as “the changeling” speaking of him as if he generated from somebody else’s gene pool. Simon spoke of himself as “scrawny, an unlovely kid, and forever peering out at the world through a pair of thick glasses that Jeremy used to light ants on fire” and looked upon his brother as “blond, handsome, broad shouldered, friendly, and the kid everyone wanted to sit with in the lunch room.
“We tend to become like those whom we admire.” In the book Tangerine by Edward Bloor, Paul, the main character, just moved to Florida, and his main goal in the book is to find out what happened to his eyes that made him blind. Along the way he meets people that change his life forever. Everyone in Tangerine effects Paul’s life, relationships and his self concept but Luis Cruz’ choices make Paul the way he is at the end of the book.
In Paul’s Case, a short story by Willa Cather, she shares the story of Paul. Paul is introduced as a boy who in the beginning is a suave young man, but we slowly come to realize that he is, in fact, flawed. Paul is a boy who’s struggles to separate himself from his every day, common life. As a young boy, Paul is taken with the opulence of the theater. He admires everything from the lights and wardrobe to the colors, perfumes, flowers and the champagne. He realizes that it isn’t possible to have all these things, so he throughs away his life. Paul’s character shows us that because he focuses on what he didn’t have, he couldn’t live at all.As we take a closer look at Paul’s character, we will see that he is driven to have these feelings by his misunderstanding of money his overpowering love of art and the alienation of his sexual orientation.
As previously stated, in the beginning of the book, Paul was super quiet, shy, and lonely. In fact, his only friend was his mom. Paul never tried to change anything, and never made his voice heard. He had terrible self esteem - mainly because he felt it was his fault he was blind, and had to
Paul suffered setbacks and dilemmas because he never knew his mother as she died around the time of his birth. Therefore he is lacking the maternal guidance of emotional stability that every child needs to grow mentally. Paul is withdrawn from society, and he resorts to the arts and music to feel comfortable and free from his disassociation and sense of loneliness. One should not be confused and believe that his father was not loving or caring of Paul because his father did what he could to support Paul and to do all he could to get Paul out of problem situations. He just was not very keen on Paul's needs, especially his manners or clothing. The narrator described Paul's clothes as being "a trifle outgrown, and the tan velvet on the collar of his open overcoat was frayed and worn" (67). Men are not the gender who is as observant and uptight about people's attires. Men tend to desire less than women do, and this was inflicted upon Paul since it was his father who was overseeing Paul's limits on material well-being. It takes more of a female's point of view to judge if something looks perfect, and Paul and his father did not have this type of direction around. A master of Paul's noticed "what a white, blue-veined face it was; drawn and wrinkled like an old man's around the eyes, and stiff with nervous tension . . ." (69). The wrinkles apparently came from the stresses that ruled Paul. HE was constantly dealing with the pain of no mother and his nervous tension was that he knew how he did not fit in with all the other boys his age. He lacked the maternal stability and reassurance that most children had in order to be string mentally and emotionally. This stood out when he was aro...
In the beginning of the story, Paul seems to be a typical teenage boy: in trouble for causing problems in the classroom. As the story progresses, the reader can infer that Paul is rather withdrawn. He would rather live in his fantasy world than face reality. Paul dreaded returning home after the Carnegie Hall performances. He loathed his "ugly sleeping chamber with the yellow walls," but most of all, he feared his father. This is the first sign that he has a troubled homelife. Next, the reader learns that Paul has no mother, and that his father holds a neighbor boy up to Paul as "a model" . The lack of affection that Paul received at home caused him to look elsewhere for the attention that he craved.
The short story, "The Rich Brother," by Tobias Wolff represents the same concept that everyday people all over the world encounter. This portrays how having siblings can be an enormous part of a persons life. The rivalry between siblings is often very competitive, but at the same time similar to magnets. When they are not connected it may seem they are independent and whole, but when examined closely it is obvious they are really relying on each other to function properly. Although Pete and Donald's life are separate and completely different, they are in fact very dependent on each other.
Paul's father is a single parent trying to raise his children in a respectable neighborhood. He is a hard worker and trying to set a good example for his son. His father puts pressure on Paul by constantly referring to a neighbor, whom he feels is a perfect model for his son to follow.