Tangerine Paul Fisher Character Analysis

“May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears”-Nelson Mandela. This quote from Mandela relates to the novel Tangerine by Edward Bloor. The characters in Tangerine have you make difficult choices in their lives, but the choices don’t always end up right. Erik Fisher’s choices affect Paul in the novel by causing Paul to have vision loss, lose a friend, and lose self esteem. A choice made by Erik causes Paul to lose some of his vision loss. In the novel Tangerine, Paul Fisher wore huge glasses to help with his vision. In the novel Paul said, “But right after the eclipse, I was wearing these thick lenses that I now call my regular glasses” (Bloor 34). Erik ruined Paul’s eyes by holding his eyes wide open for Vincent to spray paint
Erik replies after, “ Arthur takes care of my light work” (Bloor 212). One day, Tino came over to Paul’s house to work on a project. Erik came home to find Paul and Tino outside in the backyard. Almost immediately, Tino and Erik started up trash-talking and insulting each other. “Immediately, faster than I thought he could, faster than Tino thought he could, Erik lashed out, smashing him so hard that Tino spun halfway around in the air and landed on the grass, “ Paul thought (Bloor 205).
Lastly, Erik made Paul lose his self-esteem by being frightened of him. Erik does many things, for example “ ❤️” (Bloor //). Paul always thought he starred in a solar eclipse for too long because his parents told him that was the reason. Erik and his friends called him “Eclipse boy”. Paul didn't know any other reason for his vision problem, so he had to take the heat that Paul gave him.
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