Tangerine: Summary

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Paul at some points thinks about his old town he had lived in, Houston, but each time it is brought up it either is much different compared to the town Tangerine or very much alike every once in a blue moon. When Paul refers to his old town, it mostly describes bad memories. In a way to relate, it is like someone gets lost in the sea but then gets rescued. The person would still have memories of being lost, it’s just that they're not living anymore. That is the same thing with Paul, remembering things that he wished he never knew. The town of Houston was not an I-will-miss-you-when-I-leave type of connection with Paul. The memories Paul experienced there wasn’t anything he missed. But if Paul were to move away from Tangerine, he’d be hanging …show more content…

When he had moved to Tangerine, to him it was basically the start of an entire new life: new environment and new friends. As Paul is adapting to their new town, nature controlled more than half of the book. The citizens in Houston would not even have a reaction if they were in Tangerine’s shoes. Traumatizing sinkholes swallowed the local school, fire burns underground for years, and lightning strikes at the same time every day. But, a lot of these natural issues give Paul more and more chances at life. For instance, when Paul was forced off the soccer team for his IEP, the sinkhole later “ate” his school. Luckily for Paul, he was given a choice to go to Tangerine Middle, where he could educate and play soccer with no IEP. Paul begged him parents on page 94, saying “Mom, you ruined my life at Lake Windsor Middle when you turned in that IEP. This is your chance to unruin it! Dad, I don’t mind if you never pay any attention to me for the rest of my life, just give me this chance”. For this example, it almost seems like Paul knows that Tangerine gives him second chances. But unlike Houston, his life ended theirs with tragic shame in himself. All in all, Houston was just a start and a finish, but Tangerine is an on and

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