The main character is Eddie. He is a very random boy that has an IQ of a genius, but nobody knows it. In the beginning of the book, when he goes in for an IQ test, he scores a 65, so he is considered a mentally challenged person. Billy, Eddie’s best and only friend’s dad goes behind the principal’s back and gives him the IQ test again, five questions at a time. He scores a genius IQ, and the principal doesn’t put him into a special class, but he doesn’t put his 2nd IQ test on record. The only people that know of his IQ are Billy, his best friend, and Billy’s dad. This is how Billy and Eddie become best friends.
When Billy dies, Eddie goes crazy it seems. He lost his dad and his only and best friend in two months. He doesn’t talk for four months and he always seems depressed. He gets over that by the help of Billy’s dad and by Billy too. By the end of the book they really do think that he is crazy enough for the loony bin, and put him there until he proves he isn’t. Now the question is, “how can a dead boy help his friend out with talking?” The answer is that Chris Crutcher is talking about a sensitive subject that is very fictional, but can be true in some cases in my opinion. That subject is talking to the dead, and the dead being there in spirit.
In my opinion is that the dead can be there in spirit, but they can’t really be there like in the book. The book talked about Billy, “bumping” someone or touching them so they feel your presence. I think that that is a bunch of BS, or bologna sandwich. That can’t be possible, I mean, has Chris Crutcher had a real life experience that he can tell us that this can happen? If he can tell me this, then I might believe him, but I thought that his stories are supposed to be about real life, not about the dead. If you get to the meat of the story though, it really about the church and banning books.
Should the church be able to run everything? That is one of the big questions in the book. When you live in small town like Eddie does, the church, or whatever big organization runs everything, and that includes the board. The small town has everything, well almost everything infiltrated. The one place they don’t is the town library where by the end of the book is where all of the kids and even adults are getting the books that the town is banning. This shows that even the best of infiltrators can’t get to them all, expecially the libraries where you should be free to read whatever you enjoy.
I have talked about the big issues. The main character, how he goes crazy, the controversy of the dead, and my opinion, and finally what the church did to the books. The big picture can be a little different sometimes, and can jump around from one subject to another. In the end though, it revolves around one thing and that thing is Eddie, the boy that never gave up.
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4 comments:
Arae2011, I felt similarily about the subject of life after death. As a Christian, I do believe in life after death, but I think that Crutchers vision may have been a little bit too unrealistic for me. I have never thought about if souls could 'bump' people before, so it was interesting to read about, but it was too much for me. I am not saying that it is impossible, but just higly improbable that someone who has passed can communicate with their earth-bound friend. I would like to know if Crutcher actually believes in something like that, fabricated it for the sake of entertainment, is mocking religion, or some other reason. Please tell me what you think.
This was a very good sumery of the book but it is supposed to be a blog not a sumary. I belive the same thing that mnag9130 says in saying that it probly is not possible for spirits to bump into earthbound people. I would also like to know if Chris Crutcher believes in this type of stuff.
I think that Chris Crutcher was a person who didn't really know what he wanted in his book and he was trying to mock the chruch and the way it controls people in society. I agree with your comment on the bumping to be a bit far-feched. Thank you for commenting on my blog.
I didn't think that I left a summary of the book. I thought that that I just talked about the issues at hand. I'm glad that you agreeed about the bumping to be a bit far-feched! That means that I'm not crazy! Thank you for commenting on my blog.
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