The Mailbox Analysis

Gabe Culligan Pace is the main character in the book The Mailbox by Audrey Shafer. Gabe really wants a family to care for him and he doesn’t want to be alone. Gabe has lived a tough life, his mother died when he was a toddler and he has been from foster home to foster home. Finally, after many years in foster care, Gabe goes to live with his uncle. Unfortunately, Gabe finds his uncle dead and well as the fear of going back to foster care, pushes him to keep the incident a secret. When the truth comes out Gabe finally finds a permanent home when he is adopted by his LA teacher Mr. Bohem. Gabe shows compassion and independence as he learns that life is not always in one’s control, one must learn to move on and accept help.
Throughout the book,

For instance, Gabe continues to go to school after Uncle Vernon dies. This shows responsibility because even though Gabe could have taken a few days off of school to mourn for his uncle or not gone back to school and sent a note in Uncle Vernon’s handwriting, Gabe didn’t, instead, he continued going to school and acted as if nothing had happened. This was the responsible thing to do because going to school is important and most kids don’t enjoy it. Secondly, Gabe makes a tally chart of all the money he had taken from Uncle Vernon’s cash box and titled it “Money Gabe Owes Uncle Vernon. ” This is proven by a quote from Sherif Hewitt on page 144 “For one thing he kept a shipshape house. But that's not all. He kept a tally of all the money he took from his uncle's cash box every cent it seems he called the tally “Money Gabe Owes Uncle Vernon” Isn't that remarkable in this day in age?” This demonstrates how Gabe is responsible because he tallied all the money he took and planned to pay it back. Not only that but Gabe also tallied the money down to every cent without forgetting to tally money or having to be reminded to tally money, this shows that Gabe is responsible as well as independent. Lastly, Gabe kept a clean house after his uncle died. This is also proven in the quote by Sherif Hewitt on page 144 specifically when Sherif Hewitt says “For one thing he kept a shipshape house.” This is significant