The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (pg. 269-335)

Summary

Summary
At the beginning of the last section of part two, Oscar is still living in a world of misery by his curse called fuku. This whole last section is from the point of view of Junior. Lola was pregnant but aborted because Junior was Cheating on her. Oscar looses twenty pounds at a point and feels good enough to start fresh in D.R. Oscar, Beli, and Lola all go visit La Inca and reunite in the Capital called Santo Domingo. Oscar decides to stay the whole summer there instead of going back two weeks later with Lola because he falls in love with Ybon Pimentel, a prostitute. He starts talking to Ybon at a coffee shop and finds out she’s middle aged. Oscar goes to Ybon's house constantly and La Inca and Belicia get mad that Oscar is talking to a prostitute. Oscar and Ybon Grow really close as friends, and she like him but they never got intimate with each other. Next, Ybon gets a boyfriend who is a cop known as "El Capitan," this aggressive man claims he wants to meet Oscar and actually shoots at La Inca's house. Ybon kisses Oscar for the first time(dream come true)in her car when she’s drunk, then two policemen tell her to step out. The captain beats him out of pity and threatens him. His two cop friends take him to a canfield to beat him up to death. Like Belicia, the mongoose leads Oscar to a cab driver that saves him. Oscar lives, as Beli and La Inca are in the hospital room they remember the coincidence of the situation. Three days after, Oscar’s is better and Belicia tells him that he is leaving back to Paterson. Oscar slowly accepts it and starts to believe in the fuku. He looks for Ybon, and she finally comes also with black eyes and tells him that they can NEVER talk again. He returns home and his mom doesn't talk to him, he is depressed over his heart brake.
Part three, Junior starts talking about his relationship going down the road with Lola. Oscar tells him that he is deciding to move away and start a new life, so He asks him for money. Instead, he goes to D.R and follows Ybon everywhere asking her to leave. Oscar follows Ybon for 27 days, when he doesn't follow her is writing letters about his experience with her. Lola even fly's down to tell him to leave, and Ybon tells him constantly to leave but he doesn’t listen. One day, El Capitan’s friends get a hold of him and beat him up again, they again take him to the canfields. Oscar tries to convince the two men that what they’re doing is wrong but they don't listen. They burned him, Clives the same taxi driver picks up his body. Beli dies ten months later from breast cancer. Ybon never changes, Justice didn't occur with the cops, and La Inca moves back to Bani. Oscar's death, even after Junior and Lola don’t work out. Lola gets married and has a girl. Even after five years Oscar dies, Junior dreams about him. Junior decides to change and becomes a teacher and gets married. Lola besides having a daughter, travels the world. Junior hopes that Lola's daughter will finally put and end to fuku. Letters arrive to Junior that was from Oscar after, except for the last one. They include information about how he managed to escape with Ybon from the capital and they finally get together.
Quote
"Love was a rare thing, easily confused with a million other things, and if anybody knew this to be true it was him. He told them about Ybon and the way he loved her and how much they had risked...because of her love...if they killed him they would probably feel nothing..." (Diaz 321)

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This quotation occurs when Oscar is taken to the canfield and El Capitan's cop friends are about to kill him. It shows Oscar's hopeless romantic side till the end. The narrator starts out at the beginning of the book explaining Oscar's love for love. The book and Oscar's life ends with Oscar speaking of his love for someone. This shows Diaz poetic way of writing and how he makes his story comes full circle and makes perfect sense at the end. Besides the whole story showing Verisimilitude, "love was a rare thing" shows the way things society was at the time, and also foreshadows Junior and Lola's breakup further on. Oscar was born and dies a lover, the irony in this is that the character is expected to change into a Don Juan, but he dies a lover.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (pg. 205-267)

Summary

   Part two of the book starts out with Lola, back when she is still a teenager and in Dominican Republic living with La Inca. La Inca makes Lola go back to Paterson, New Jersey, this means that Lola has to go back to her abusive mother and has to leave her happiness behind in DR. Before she leaves, Lola breaks up with her boyfriend, and then prostitutes herself to her friend’s father, who gives her two thousand dollars in return. Lola's mom arrives in Banilejos to pick her up after seven months of not seeing her and treats her the same bad way. Lola's older narrator voice jumps in and explains to the reader that she later realized that, that was just the way her mom is. The reason why she sold herself was to get money in order to escape to another country but instead her old boyfriend Max dies and she gives his family that money. She then sadly goes back to Paterson. In the Next Chapter, Oscar’s Grandfather called Abelard Luis Cabral, a doctor life story, and the starter of the family curse called fuku by talking badly about Trujillo. Trujillo is Dominican Republic's evil dictator according to the details given. Abelard was a wealthy man and was extremely intelligent, he had a wife named a Socorro and two daughters named Jackylene and Astrid. Also, he attended Trujillo's events but wasn't really close to him, he always tried to avoid him because he knew Trujillo would be interested in his good looking daughter. The countries decorum at the time was that a man had to offer his daughter to Trujillo no matter what and Cabral was against that. Trujillo even had spies that worked on just finding girls for him and if a man didn't give up his daughter or wife they were charged for treason. Cabral had taken a huge risk to not take his daughters and wife to these events.  He only told three people about his insecurity such as his wife, his mistress, and his bestfriend. At a presidential gathering, Trujillo asks Cabral if he has a wife, and humiliates him by admitting that he thought Abelard was gay. Trujillo then tells Abelard that he heard that he has a pretty daughter and Cabral responds by telling him that if he likes mustaches then that is a yes. The next presidential event, the invitation states clearly to him and his whole family. This makes him become depressive and too attentive with his daughters and ends up not taking them. Four weeks later, Cabral gets arrested for slander and gross calumny against the president. He had gotten drunk and said a joke about the president’s secret assassinations and claiming these murders as natural catastrophes. His mistress Lydia almost gets pregnant and Abelard Considers marrying her, but he loves his family too much. When he gets arrested he was put in a jail cell were he was stripped of his clothes and made to sleep in the bathroom because the guard lies to his jail mates and says that Abelard is a gay communist. He soon finds out that Socorro became pregnant with there last daughter and gets sentences for 18 years, he starts to believe that Trujillo put a curse on there family. He supposable didn’t get arrested for a joke or because of his daughter but he started writing a book about Trujillo’s supernatural state and powers. No evidence of his had written work or books remained. His last daughter, named Belicia had a dark skin complexion, which was at the time a family omen. The reader is left to decide whether he believes in the curse or not. Next, Socorro kills herself, Lydia's body was never found, his bestfriend who was a spy and ratted Abelard out became a millionaire, Jacky kills herself, and Astrid gets shot in church. Abelard dies 14 years after on an electrical chair. Belicia was taken care of Toila a servant, nobody wanted her because she was dark Socorro’s distant family took her and they didn’t get a reward for it so they gave her to another distant family who went on vacation and they came back without a baby. La Inca hears about Belicia years later and adopts her. Belicia had been abused severely. Growing up Belicia doesn’t talk about her horrible situation, she stays quite for 40 years. In the next chapter, Oscar graduates still without being in love and moves back home. Seven Months later Oscar becomes an English teacher. His students all make fun of him and he is just laughed at. Everybody in his life has moved on and he is just lonely.

Quote

"So which was it? you ask. An accident, a conspiracy, or a fuku? The only answer I can give you is the least satisfying: you'll have to decide for yourself. What's certain is that nothing's certain. We are trawling in silences here" ( Diaz 243)

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   This quotation is an excellent example of the author’s style of writing. The speaker jumps out of the story and actually speaks to the reader, he makes him think about the stories dilemma and doesn't give him an answer. In this quote, the speaker is asking the reader to decide weather the whole book is based on an accident or a curse. In my personal opinion, I truly think it was a curse. The speaker is able to make the reader decide on there own conclusion of the story and at the same time informs them about DR's history.

The wondrous Life of Oscar Wao By Junot Diaz (Pg.135-201)

Summary

Continuing on with the last section, Belicia becomes obsessed with being like her Gangster who didn't have anybody like La Inca always bothering him. Soon after, she found out that she was pregnant, this was a very huge shock to La Inca but not really to the Gangster, he really didn't care. Belicia then finds out that this man is married, but not by just any women but by Trujillo, the government dictator at the time, his sister. Trujillo's sister goes all the way to Belicia's town Banilejos Beli time to run away. Spies are able to catch and they take her far away to a cane field where they beat her up and give her 167 injuries all over her body and she loses her baby. Meanwhile, La Inca has an intense prayer session with a lot of the women in the community who find out about this dilemma. At this point when she is left there, a mystical Monogoose comes out and talks to her and gives her directions that lead her to a truck. In the truck, there is a band, the band for some weird reason feels that they should take her with them. Belicia wakes up five days later in a hospital being treated by La Inca's friends who happened to be the two best doctors in Bani. Around the same day, Trujillo dies and this is sort of the end of his dictatorship in Dominican Republic, so it makes it easier for people to get in and out of the country. Therefore, Belicia decides that the safest thing for her to do is to leave to New York were she could start all over. and screams at her and tells her that she was going to make her get an abortion. At this moment, the people that she used to work with save her, her old boss named Juan pulls out a gun and gives

In the next chapter, the narration changes to Juniors point of view that is Oscar’s roommate. Junior gets to experience Oscars problems while living with him, even in college Oscar is still overweight and cannot get a girlfriend. So Junior decides to help him by taking him out with his friends and working out with him. But Oscar feels that things will never change for him and gives up. Next, Oscar starts falling for this girl named Jenni who is very much attracted to, and Junior sort of gets jealous of their close friendship. Jenni starts talking to another boy, who makes Junior suspicious and Oscar finds out and just gets Depressed. One day, Oscar decides to barge into Jenni's room and catches her with another boy, and starts screaming and tarring apart her room. Everybody on campus then thinks that Oscar is crazy. When the Semester ends Junior decides he wants to move out, but on the last day they decide to have a couple drinks. Oscar being a lightweight, becomes drunk easily and goes to a bridge were he attempts to commit suicide. This event brings the whole family to the schools health facility and Oscar moves back to his house after this. Junior never forgets about Lola and shows a deep attraction to her besides his other girls. Junior always checks up on Oscar and at the beginning of the Spring Semester they move back in with each other.

Quote

" But later, when she was freezing basement apartments in the Bronx and working her fingers to the bone, she reflected that he had told her exactly that but like lover girls everywhere, she had heard only what she wanted to hear. " ( Diaz 137)

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In this section, Belicia is talking about The Gangster's reaction to her being pregnant and talking about later in her life when she moves to new york. Junot uses a lot of literary devices to portray Belicia's the hard labor shes doing at the time. Also, we see the sort of writing style that Junot uses by using stereotypes, in this case he speaks about "lover girls everywhere" who only hear what is good for them. This type of writing is beneficial to the reader by generalizing the situation a bit more and using verisimilitude. It also shows his style by going back in forth in time, and in other cases changing narrators constantly.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (pg. 67- 133)

Summary
At the end of the past section, Lola's mother ends up catching her during her escape and sends her to the Dominican Republic. There, Lola develops sense of joy, she lives happier with her Grandmother named La Inca, learns how to dress like a real Dominican girl, and becomes a track star. As she explores her family, she discovers her mothers past. La Inca adopted Lola’s mother named Belicia, and there were three lovers in her life that changed the way she was. First of all, Belicia attended a private school on a scholarship and was one of the most attractive girls in her town called Banilejos. Her first love is Jack Pujols; her affair with Jack causes her to get kicked out of her school. After being heart broken, she promises to herself that she would never take the lead of anybody else but herself. As a result, Beli decides to not go back to school but to work in a restaurant as a waitress. According to La Inca, She does the opposite of what is expected, she actually keeps and works well at her job. During this time, La Inca and Beli's relationship had changed completely, they hardly even talked. Even though all the men in her town absolutely adored her, she stayed in love with Jack. After a while, a new waitress arrives at her job named Constantina, this women is the type of party lady who convinces Beli to go to a club with her. At the club, meets a Gangster this criminal who’s named Max and was middle aged man. This man spends money on her and takes out as an exchange for comprehension, even though he had all they money in the world now when he was little he had nothing and nobody just like Beli. He was also tormented by his crimes, Belicia helped cradle him and make him feel better. Belicia falls in love with this gangster and he makes ridiculous promises to her of giving her houses. As a result of there relationship, Beli spends more time in love motels than in her job and gets fired. Beli lost her aspirations for going to school or even college, as a result La Inca were no longer as close as they were. At last, she started noticing these bad signs about this man who disappeared for days and didn't even have an address. She then found out that he had cheated on her but he made it up to her by taking her to a trip to Samana and she starts wondering how it feels to be free like how she is now, free from La Inca.

Quote
" She endured school, the bakery, La Inca's suffocating solicitude with a furious jaw. She watched hungrily for visitors from out of town, threw open her arms at the slightest hint of a wind and at night she struggled Jack-like against the ocean pressing down on her" (Diaz 88,89).

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In this quotation, Beli's younger life is basically shown, Belicia is a lonely girl that is struggling to get out to the world because shes trapped by her mother. Junot uses figurative language to describe La Inca's Suffocating Solicitude by saying she does this with a furious jaw. Also, he uses figurative language at the end of the sentence when speaking about Beli trying to hug the wind. Using this form of imagery helps the reader understand Belicia's situation furthermore. The conflict is clearly shown, and by this the genre of this book is revealed, it is a buildungsroman. Even though, this is a tiny section of Oscar's mother, but it is still a short Buildungsroman story in whole one. This qoutation connects to the plot through showing a point where one of the somehow Antongaonist (Belicia's) coming of age starts. This qoutation explains many of the events that happen in the story making it crucial.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (pg. 1-67)

Summary

            The first part of the first section introduces the protagonist called Oscar. The book starts out with Oscar talking about his childhood having a turning point when he turned seven, when he was seven he had two girlfriends. But as his life starts progressing he turns obese, and turns into a “sci-fi reading nerd” and hopeless romantic. Being Dominican, he was expected to be some kind of Don Juan, but he is the complete opposite. His only two friends Al and Miggs are Video Game dorks too and is allergic to trying to improve his appearance. When Oscar finally tries to change his image the people around him like his friends and his mom mock him. When he goes on a trip to the Dominican Republic, he starts writing novels, which is a huge step for Oscar  because he stops reading his comics and actually does something different. In Oscar’s Senior  year, he falls in love with a girl named Ana in Sat class.  The worst part about it is that Ana has a boyfriend named Manny who abuses her, this hurt Oscar so much that he went to Manny’s house with a gun to shoot him but he wasn’t there. Oscar then gets rejected by Ana for the last time. In June, Oscar graduates from high school, his mother goes who now has cancer, and his Uncle who is a drug addict, and his sister Lola. He then enters college at Rutgers New Brunswick and feels the same as home, finds no love and is still a geek. The Second Section now becomes a first person point of view by Lola. Lola starts out by explaining to the reader the abuse and the cruelty of her mother towards her.  While her mother starts dealing with cancer, she takes out her anger on Lola.It makes Lola look like she is the worst daughter ever when she rebels against this. Lola decides to runaway from home and to move out with her boyfriend. Living there, she starts to miss home and to feel that she didn’t love her boyfriend. She called Oscar to come to were she was staying to bring her money and Oscar tells her that there mom is going to kill her.

 

 Quote

      " What it's like to be the perfect Dominican daughter, which is just a nice way of saying a perfect Dominican slave. You don't know what it's like to grow up with a mother who has never said a positive thing in her life, not about her children or the world, who was always suspicious always tearing you down and splitting your dreams straight down the seams. " ( Junot 56)

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     This quote is said from Lola's perspective, at this second section of the book the book actually switches from third person describing Oscars life, to First person focusing on Lola's side of the story. Even though the book is focused on Oscar, Lola plays a crucial part in his life. In this quote, she is describing her mothers way of treating her, she in the first sentence translates the euphemism of being a "perfect Dominican daughter" to " a perfect Dominican slave", then the quote switches at this point to second person, where the character actually reaches out to reader and lets them know the role that the mother plays in this family. Additionally, she uses alteration, such as "...suspicious always...splitting your dreams straight down the seams." The quote uses all these words that start with S. This shows the authors descriptive way of writing and the sort of verisimilitude that goes into the story but the way the narrator speaks about her situation. Finally, the author also uses a metaphor by saying that her mom splits her dreams straight down the seams.

Hole in my life by Jack Gantos (pg.165-200)

Summary
   The Chapter starts out by Jack discussing the drug activity in the federal prison. All types of drugs were brought to the jail through various methods, even some guards brought them inside the prison. When Jack worked at the x-ray room he had to deal with pretty rough situations of men almost dying because of overdoses of drugs. He helped one man who brought drugs in his stomach and they wouldn't come out, so Jack decides to help him out. Jack also learns a lot of medical skills through working in the hospital floor. He's is sentenced a two year set off before seeing his parole board again, when he went to court tried to be cooperative and sincere but no matter how hard he tried the board found him uncooperative and ignorant. Later on, Jack discovers that writing about his childhood memories took him back in time and filled him with positive energy to get through the harsh prison environment. One day, as he was cleaning a administrators office, he discovered his file and it said he was "uncooperative" he then realized that no matter what he did, it was what he had done that defined him. When he was in his room shortly after, he almost kills himself with his razor but then forces himself not to do it. His father and uncle visits him when they are drunk, and his father tells him that he loves him, this means a lot to Jack. He realized one day that his struggle as a writer had been a lot like his life. He then devised a plan to get out of jail, he decided to tell his caseworker that he wanted to enroll in college and if that he did maybe he would have the chance to be taken out. He applied to a college with the help of a caseworker and a prison administrator and got accepted. His father got him a place to live and a job, luckily the people that received him were very kind and filled Jack with happiness. He quit doing hash and became a fabulous writer.
Quote
"...I understood I had come all the way to prison to realize that what I had in my past was so much richer that what was before me. My struggle as a writer was a lot like my life..."(Gantos 186).
Reaction
 The authors style is shown in this quote as an Epiphany that the Character has, the turning point of the book that the author realizes that he had made up rules for himself and broke them and made more until he had got them right. This quote shows the irony of the book on how his life was alike to his writing. He had always thought that everything he was writing did not have value, or anything that he did in life did not have value to it, but then he realized that everything he did or wrote about in life had value to it. This quote connects to the rest of the story by being the turning point of Jack and guiding him to getting out of jail and going to college to fulfill his dream as a writer. This point gave him a reason to change.

Hole in my life by Jack Gantos pg.118-165

Summary

When Jack finally thinks he is safe from the FBI, he calls his father from a pay phone and finds out that the FBI has been stalking his parents in St. Croix and they are out looking for him. Jack's father is able to get him a lawyer who advises him to turn him self in, Jack then does so. Jack talks to his lawyer and develops a plan for how they are going to try to prove Jack innocent. Jack then spends time around New York reflection on his actions and at least trying to prepare himself for jail. When he speaks to his lawyer he realizes that the person that snitched on him was Rik (the head honcho) and that the only way he could get out of the situation was by naming a couple contacts he had in St. Croix, but sense Jack was innocent had none. He also realized that he was in fact not only hurting him but his family and others by smuggling drugs. The lawyer makes him look in front of the judge as if Jack were just a kid and was granted a youth sentence which is anywhere from 60 days to 6 years. His dad makes Jack give up his car because his families broke. Jack's first night in a federal holding prison was terrifying; he experiences his jail mate wanting to rape him and other men raping his mate. Jack was then transferred to an actual Federal prison where he got lice and was treated in the hospital section, after he was cured he started working in the X-ray lab and experiencing even more drugs that are done in a prison. He learns to do X-rays and shows the reader the horrible nights that the prisoners have in the jail.

Quote

" The slightest fluctuation in the weather outside my window, the smallest passing cloud, the changing position of the sun affected the mood of that room. And my mood shifted with it. I found myself crying, laughing, numb with depression, nervous and pacing, ambivalent, angry, and filled with self-loathing" (Gantos 154,155).

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  This quotation shows the authors style by assimilating his the weather outside to the mood of his jail cell and thus his mood changing. His room symbolizes him and he's change in emotions as the world around him which is the” weather" controls his emotions. This quotation has to do with the story as a whole by demonstrating the conflict of the book, which is man versus society. Though, in this quotation he is reflecting on his life in his jail cell which has to do a lot with the story also because it is clearly about Jack making a mistake, realizing it and then succeeding as a famous writer.

Hole in my life pg.81 -118

       Summary
    At the beginning of the section, Jack is still on his voyage to New York with his partner Hamilton. He starts writing about his journey in a journal. He talks about his experiences with Hamilton and his crazy personality.Such as Hamilton firing at the air. Hamilton at some point tries to shoot Jack and Jack has to ask for permission to get back on the boat after he jumps off for his life. One day, the encounter a Japanese ship that lends them oil and this is what helps them get to New York faster. The boat then sails into the Coast guard training base, Jack gets really scared and makes the reader wonder think that this is when Jack finally gets caught and sent too jail like he is at the beginning of the book. But Jack and Hamilton do not get caught, they get guided off to Cape May and get off too search for Rik who will pay Jack for his smuggling job. The next chapter, Jack starts to talk about the reasons why people get caught, then he states that he got caught smuggling. Then he stays in New york for a couple days waiting for Rik to sell all the Hash to be able to pay Jack. Jack always feels like he is going to get caught, then one day, two FBI agents arrive at the hotel and catch the two men that sold the Hash all the way from Morocco and Hamilton. Jack runs to his hotel room, grabs his money and escapes out the back window. Just when the reader thinks that Jack is going to get caught, he grabs a train to Florida. In Florida, he stays in the Motel where he was staying at the beginning of the book.
Quote
 " The entire time I felt an invisible hand about to grab my shoulder. my neck was clenched as hard as a tree stump" (Gantos 116).
Reaction
This quotation shows the author using similes, saying is neck was as hard as a tree stump. Additionally, Gantos uses imagery when saying that he felt a hand grabbing his shoulder. This quotation reflects on the deep guild that he feels in hiss writing, of getting caught and put in jail for smuggling. Throughout the book, his actions make him guilty, and these actions stop him from being successful. This quotation shows this guilt to the reader in a very descriptive way.
   

Hole in my life by Jack Gantos pg.51-81

Summary
    In the first section, Jack calls Tim which is the friend who in the previous section steals his money and Tim gives Jack an explanation on what had happened that day and promises to pay back the money that Jack had given him to buy Medical Marijuana to steal. Jack Moved to St. Croix with his parents. This new drug culture in St.Croix is introduced where reefers and drugs are seen everywhere and the police doesn't care about it, they are too busy paying attention to other issues. This is when Jack gets into smoking dope. Also, the black movement in the island is shown were the black people are revolting violently and creating a "white extermination" movement were white people are killed and hurt because of being white. There is a great racial divide between whites and blacks, the violence rate increases and people stop working. White people cancel there house building vacation jobs, so this affects Jacks father and his business. Jack and his father are forced to work building containers. A man named Rik one day orders a container to transport drugs, he hires Jack to transport a sail boat and drugs to New York and Offers ten thousand dollar's at the end. Jack without thinking of the complications but of the money for paying his writing career, accepts this offer immediately. He goes on this adventure with a man named Hamilton, he finds himself struggling between surviving with a man that he clearly thinks is crazy.
Quote
   "But I dried my eyes and after a few beers and a couple of joints around back I imagined the great books I might write. Of course, I didn't write a word. It was easier to smoke joints and have someone deliver deliver drinks than it was for me to deliver sentences." (Gantos 53)
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   The word But starting this paragraph really shows the way the author writes about his writing being contradicted by Drugs and Alcohol. He feels as though when he is under the conditions of Drugs and Alcohol he is able to expand his mind more and write freely, but this quote shows that he under the actual conditions is not able to write effectively. His style is describing his problems in a very clear way but showing the reader his perspective by using Verisimilitude through his conflicts between Drugs and Writing. This quotation is important to understand because it explains a mini-synopsis of what the whole story is about which is Jack Gantos having difficulty fulfilling his dreams of becoming a writer because of drugs.

Hole in my life by Jack Gantos 1rst ROAR blog post

pg. 1- 51 Summary
      The story starts out of Jack talking about a picture on the first page of when he first got into jail and he describes himself and his appearance. On the next page, the setting is changed to him moving to Puerto Rico with his parents because they were going to start a company there. He starts to live in a hotel and goes out and drinks a lot of Alcohol, he takes advantage that hes not exactly living with his parents. Then his parents decide to move to the Virgin Islands, but Jack decides he doesn't want to live there and rents a room in a families house called the Bacon's. He starts to get home late and misbehave, and comes home drunk. Jack then gets kicked out of that house for throwing up on there living room carpet. Jack then moves to a motel were he spends his whole year, he introduces the reader to his love for writing and books. Jack Starts to smoke Marijuana and decides that he does not want to go to college because he doesn't have enough money so decides to move back with his parents to work for a while. But before that, a friend named Tim, Tim stayed over his house for some days then tricked him into going to Tallahassee to get Medical Marijuana to sell, Tim took Jacks money and ran off with it.
       " My school had been a former prison...at the end of each day wold announce on the intercom that we were "free to go." And we fled. The school cleared out in minutes just as any prison would have if the warden opened the gate" (Gantos 23)
       The author is very down to earth and has the ability to describe characters personalities very well and portray his own internal conflicts. He does this by speaking of his dreams and his loves for books but speaks of his temptations of doing drugs and drinking. This is a important a important quote because it portrays the type of environment that Jack lives in, he lives in a small room like a Jail, with walls built everywhere, its hard to escape from. He uses a lot of symbolism with everything he does and his experiences but definitely demonstrates that is a person that does not fallow the Bandwagon.