Blindness versus Sight In Tangerine Paul may be blind physically but he can see what his parents’ and the townspeople can’t. Paul, a middle school student and the main character, is physically blind and is looking for answers from the past. Erik, Paul's big brother, is a superstar football kicker and bully who is driven by anger and frustration. Their parents are struggling with the secrets from the past and the effect that they have on the family and the families future. Tangerine county in Florida has the well off town of Lake Windsor, where the Fisher family lives, and the poorer town of Tangerine. The author Edward Bloor utilizes blindness to symbolize how Paul may be visually impaired but can see social injustice, while Erik and his He has been bullied most of his life about being visually impaired. Paul is used to being judged by others. The injury to his eyes supposedly occurred by looking at a solar eclipse but there is more to this story. More than his parents have been telling him. Paul playing soccer is contradictory to his blindness. While playing soccer, he participates and plays like everyone else. He is moving beyond his disability. In fact, Paul is an outstanding goalie, “The ball stuck in my outstretched hand like they were Velcro.” The soccer field is the only place he is able to do this, not at school, not at home, and not in his community. Paul has to leave Lake Windsor to be able to play soccer in Tangerine. The kids in Lake Windsor are snotty, rich, and self-centered but the kids in Tangerine are hard working, resourceful, and proud. During their first soccer game, Paul described the game as, “The Palmetto players got down and dirty right away, and their fans cheered them on.” The Palmetto players were bearfaced when it came to playing rough. The kids from Tangerine were used to being picked on by others in society and not being treated fairly. Paul observed, “I looked at my teammates, the victims of all of this, and was amazed at how calm their faces were.” Paul learns through soccer how teams like towns may be mean or unfair to His parents lied to Paul his whole life. They said, “ We wanted to find a way to keep you from always hating your brother.” Erik is a bully and blind to appropriate social behavior. Erik thinks he has discretion over everyone else. He is a star kicker for the High School football team, and hopes to play in college and then professional ball. He jokes about a football teammate being killed by lightning. Erik tells Arthur, his ball holder and sidekick goon, to punch Tino’s big brother Luis, and hits him on the head with a “blackjack” club. Luis then dies of an aneurysm about a week later. Erik is blind to how his actions affect others. He is not able to take accountability for what he does to other people. He is not accountable for the harm he has caused Paul, Luis, or anyone else. If he is good at football he acts like he can be an exception to the rules of
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
Outcasts United by Warren St. John is a wonderful book about a community of refugees who live in Clarkston, Georgia and their struggles to adapt with foreign environment of the United States. The book tells the stories of refugees that come from different background and countries in which they are connected together by an American- educated Jordanian woman called Luma Mufleh. Despite their difficulties in establishing new identity, they found their passion in soccer and with Luma Mufleh as their coach they create a soccer team called Fugees. In the early chapters of the book, it illustrates the difficulties to make a group of kids from different background unite and work together but later, Luma’s program become popular throughout the neighborhood. Children are happy to spend their spare time playing soccer while parents are glad they can keep the children off the streets when they are working. Regardless their effort to bring together the children into a team, they have to face bad sentiments from the local residents when they are kicked out from the training field and forced to occupy other place as their training field. The Fugees team also have little supporter as their parents are working and become a subject of humiliation. Nevertheless, Luma is able to maintain the team spirit and expanded her program to include tuition for the soccer team. Throughout the stories, some kids stay while others give up the program due to influence of gang and other incidents but the remaining members who stay are able to achieve recognition and find new opportunities for better living in the community.
During the novel, Erik does many different things that demonstrate he is possessed or insane. In Tangerine, erik orders his slave, Arthur, to hit Luis Cruz with his blackjack. The book states, “I said, ‘I’ve already been in the right place at the wrong time, you low life creeps. You pathetic losers. I was under the bleaches on Tuesday afternoon.’ I raised my finger like it was loaded, and I pointed it at Arthur. ‘I saw you kill Luis Cruz.’.” This definitely proves that Erik Fisher is a maniac! Whereas, Paul is sane and talks his problems out with words not with grim actions. An example from the novel of Paul being sane, is when he found out he was getting kicked off the Lake Windsor soccer team. CRAZILY, he freaked out a little he didn’t take it extreme. Tangerine says, “I knelt down on that sideline, took off my sports goggles, and started to cry.” This takes place after Coach Walski kicks Paul off the team because he visually handicapped. Although, Paul has little meltdowns he stays calm, unlike Erik who is insane and does truly crazy
While Luis was talking about the dangers of “fighting the freeze” he says, “if you get too cold, come in here. If you get too tired, come lay down”(219). Those words demonstrate that Luis understands the risk they are taking. He really thinks things through, and is also is a good leader by the way he takes charge of the boys. When they woke up the next morning, paul tells Luis that he saw him get hit with the blackjack, and Luis tells him not to be afraid of them. Luis’ advice makes Paul think, “how could I be so afraid and Luis not be the least bit afraid of the same thing”(229). Through Luis’ bravery, it encourages Paul to overcome his fear. The quote shows that Luis has a big impact on the way Paul views Erik and Arthur. His bravery also makes Luis seem like more of a mentor to Paul because it displays how much Paul looks up to Luis. Clearly Paul feels so strongly for Luis because Luis is there for him in ways Erik never was. By giving advice to Paul luis is a
Throughout the story, he makes fun of Paul by calling him a martian. Erik always gets more attention than Paul because he plays football and not soccer. He is spoiled because he never gets in trouble with his parents for hurting Paul. He likes to hurt whoever he pleases. Erik shows no respect to his family because he was the first born, the “golden child” and abuses his power of never getting into trouble. Erik’s goon named Arthur is ordered to hurt Luis, one of Paul’s friends. In the process of hurting Luis, Arthur hit him too hard with a blackjack and ended up killing him. Erik never got in trouble for what he has done to Paul and finally gets it when the police comes to arrest Arthur for killing Luis. Erik shows no respect to his family because he was the first born, the “golden child” and abuses his power of never getting in
My evidence is on page 211 it states, “Arthur reached Luis, turned, and whipped the blackjack around with a loud whack against the side of Luis’s head. Luis’s arms shot up to cover his head but he staggered to the right and fell on one knee. Arthur stuck the blackjack into his gym bag and continued walking, as if nothing happened”. I did not like that Arthur had to use violence for something bad that they caused. This impacted Paul because it gave him the choice to tell or not to tell about Erik’s violence. The evidence that supports this is on page 246 it states “should I come right out and say, actually mom he wasn’t killed by a tree branch he was killed by Arthur Bauer on orders of Erik”. Even though someone else’s choice makes it more challenging for us, we can still do the right
“He had something pulled over his face, some kind of ski mask, and he was holding a long metal baseball bat in both hands, like a murder weapon. Then he brought it forward in a mighty swing, right at my head.” Erik makes terrible choices that some of those choices affect Paul majorly. Obviously they don't get along that well because Paul had a flashback about Erik, and that flashback wasn't a good one.
In conclusion, Erik has affected Paul in many ways throughout their time together. Erik has caused Paul to have vision loss, lose a friend, and for Paul to lose self esteem. Erik chose to hurt Paul to either fit in, be funny, or even to be as cruel as possible. Paul has suffered a lot from Erik and he needs to know the
Not only do we know the effects of playing football at a young age, we also have real life stories that have occured to real people. For example, In 2006 a 13 year old named Zachary Lystatdt’s head hit the ground in a routine tackle. He was in pain, so the coach took him out of the game for two plays. He returned to the game and on the last play he collapsed. Zachary was rushed to the hospital and was required to have emergency neurosurgery. After this life changing surgery, 9 months later he was finally able to communicate. Now, he is still learning how to walk (Hamblin, James. “Football Alters the Brains of Kids as Young as 8.”)This story sets an example of why children should not be able to play contact sports until adulthood. Unfortunately, this is not the only sad story about a child who has had life changing effects from playing
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man was a crucial literary tool in raising awareness of and forwarding the equal rights movement for African Americans when it reached readers of all races in the 1950's. The Cultural Contexts for Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man claims that the novel envisions nothing less than undoing African Americans' cultural dispossession. Ellison's words are indeed an eloquent unraveling of social stereotypes and racisms. He employs allegorical conceptions of blindness and invisibility to dissect culturally ingrained prejudices and ignorance towards African Americans. Ellison also uses IM's settings and characters to reflect America and its stereotypes in order to achieve this goal.
Youth Soccer has evolved into a fiercely competitive arena. More and more children are leaving recreational leagues to play in highly competitive select leagues. Select leagues are made up of teams, which players must tryout or be selected to play for. I had the unfortunate task of being an evaluator at such a tryout. Fifty ten-year-old boys had come out for a three day tryout in which forty five of them were placed on three teams. Cuts were made on the field and for those boys who had made a team it was a very exciting, but for the five boys who were cut it was absolutely heartbreaking. Had the children been older they might have been able to deal with the disappointment better, but for most of them it was their first real experience with public "failure". Select leagues have the potential to teach and promote important life skills such as hard work,...
Coming of age is essential to the theme of many major novels in the literary world. A characters journey through any route to self-discovery outlines a part of the readers own emotional perception of their own self-awareness. This represents a bridge between the book itself and the reader for the stimulating connection amongst the two. It is seen throughout Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huong, Hang’s coming of age represents her development as a woman, her changing process of thinking, and her ability to connect to the reader on a personal level.
Joes High School’s total enrollment consisted of sixteen girls, and twenty boys. Ten of the boys that had enrolled there played basketball. All of the boys were over six feet tall. Lane Sullivan, the new coach of the basketball team, had never even touched a basketball before he started coaching. Sullivan had never coached anything at all before he started coaching the Joes basketball team. In order to gain knowledge about the sport, he got a book about it. He started coaching in 1927, but before the 1928 basketball season, Joes High School didn’t even have a gym. Instead, they’d practice outside on a dirt court, and two times a week they’d take a bus to the nearest gym, which was ten miles away. In order to play home games, the boys had to play in the local dance hall. The “court” was nowhere near regulation size, and the ceiling was so short that the boys couldn’t shoot an arched shot. The people who attended these basketball games had no place to sit and watch the game, the all stood around the edges of the court and on the small stage. Joes High School finally got their own gym around Christmas time because the people of Joes donated their time and material in order to make it happen.
“‘Athletics last for such a short period of time. It ends for people. But while it lasts, it creates this make-believe world where normal rules don’t apply. We build this false atmosphere. When it’s over and the harsh reality sets in, that’s the real joke we play on people’” (Bissinger xiv). “Friday Night Lights” shows the darker side of high school football. Players are taught to play games to win, and thats all that matters. Football players are put under a tremendous amount of pressure, almost enough to be considered unfair. Even though football is a “team sport”, pressure on individual players is unnecessary. Some players have the burden of the team, the city, their family, and their future, resting on their shoulders. These players are put under pressure that is physically and emotionally damaging, not to mention future ruining.
All Alex knew was to be violent due to the failure and lack of family structure, the school system and the law. The lack of these assertive institutions Alex couldn’t properly generate proper moral values and social norms. According to Mead he analyzed that a child gets some sort of understanding of how to act properly by how others act toward the child. Later on in the child’s development he/she learns and understands “the generalized other”, values and cultural rules (textbook). Alex was never pressured into going to school, there is one scene where his mother wakes him and tells him to get ready for school and Alex tells her “he doesn’t feel like going today” and that was the end of it. With Alex missing out on school he never really self-aware and knowledgeable. His family is absent also. Again with Alex telling his mother he doesn’t feel like going to school and his mother just lets it go shows the carelessness of his parents. Alex can pretty much do whatever he wants when he wants. With their lack of parenting he never truly gained proper values and morals and instead he created his own by the morals and values his “droogs” know. He had many run in’s with the police even before he was