11/6/13 Page 11 and 12
"The class filed out, to his relief, and he looked up to see a boy standing in front of his desk. A thin white boy, but very dark-haired, possibly part Hispanic, who said, "Hi." "Hello." "What happened to your face?" Reuben smiled which was rare for him, being self-conscious about the lopsided effect. He pulled a chair around so the boy could sit facing him and motioned for him to sit, which he did without hesitation. "whats your name?" "Trevor" "Trevor what?" "McKinney. Did i hurt your feelings?" "No, Trevor. you didn't." "My mom says i shouldn't ask people things like that, because it might hurt their feelings. She says you should act like you didn't notice." "Well, what your mom doesn't know , Trevor, because she's never been in my shoes, is that if you act like you didn't notice, I still know you did. And then it feels strange that we can't talk about it when we're both thinking about it. You know what i mean?" "I think so. So, what happened?" "I was injured in war." "In Vietnam?" "That's right." "My daddy was in Vietnam. He says it's a hellhole." "I would tend to agree. Even though i was only there for seven weeks."
This passage tells you a lot about the characters in the book.
My question to this passage- What do you think Reuben the teacher think's of Trevor the new student? Did he get assaulted by his comment and think Trevor is a rude little brat? or does he think that he thought that Trevor is brave for standing up and asking him what happened to his face, because everyone else tries to act like they don't notice.
ReplyDelete