Tangerine Paul Taner Analysis

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Everyone has lost homework that was just had in our folders, and had to last minute try to solve the problem. In literature this is an example of a mythological archetype: threshold guardian, characters or situations that pose problems to the main characters that they have to overcome to grow. In Edward Bloor’s novel Tangerine Paul Fisher has three threshold guardians, his parents, his coach, and his friend Joey. 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 …show more content…

After Joey transferred to Paul’s new school, he started to saying mean things to Paul’s new friends. He ended up getting into a little fist fight. When things simmered down he turned to Paul and said, “This is how you survive here, right? You kiss up to these guys? You’re scared of them?”(154). This scene establishes Joey’s role as threshold guardian because it makes Paul be more than just a wallflower. First, before the fight started, Paul tried to get them to stop. However, he could have made the situation worse by screaming “fight”, but he didn't he chose the highroad. Paul stood up for himself after the comment Joey made, and he did it using words, not his fists. Still it made Paul come out of his comfort zone. The fact that Paul tried to stop the fight showed that he overcame the obstacle by using humility and by standing up showed that he was becoming bold. After the fight Joey and Paul’s friendship was almost non-existent. Nonetheless, Joey reached out to Paul: “He called to find out if I’m alright,”(252). Subtly, this shows Joey is the threshold guardian because it leaves Paul to deal with the metaphorical olive branch Joey extended. Initially, Paul has to realize Joey is trying to be friends again. Afterwards, Paul has to decide whether or not to forgive him. In the end, Paul does forgive Joey and realizes the value of friendship. Ultimately because Paul saw how valuable friendship was, it, in turn, made him see that if he never forgave Joey their friendship would never have been recovered. Joey proves to be a threshold guardian as he helped Paul to see the power of forgiveness by making him internally

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