Another Obstacle

pages 154-215

Summary   In this part of the story David choose to close himself from others, because he is scared of getting hurt again. David is out of school and he wants to play out in the summer sun but he is scared of other kids picking on him. As a result David steals candies and toys from the store to fill up the hole he has. Stealing and misbehaving is just a distraction from his reality. One day he gets tricked by a boy called Johnny to steal a toy from Walgreen but in the end he finds out that Johnny's father is the store manager. Another important event is when he runs away from his foster home even thought he comes back. Rudy and Lilian, David's foster parents,are aware of his odd behavior and decide to call Ms.Gold. David confesses that to Ms.Gold that he feels upset,because there's so many things he doesn't understand but he wants to understand. He doesn't know if he should love,hate, or forgive his mother.
            When David goes back to school he starts feeling ashamed of the clothes he wears so he starts hanging out with the wrong group. He becomes friends with a boy called John who has a gang. In order for David to join the gang he has to do something that shows he is tough. John makes him be a look out ,while John burns down the school. The next day David is accused of starting the fire but he was the one who stopped the fire by turning it off. The police obviously finds out so he is take to a juvenile hall in Hillcrest.
              During David's stay in juvenile hall David's father visited him ,after a year of no contact. His biological father said that he would never forgive David because he practically ruined their family and that he couldn't imagine what people thought of him in the fire station. Then Lilian visits David to inform him that his mother is fighting for him to get him into a mental institution. His mom was waiting for him to screw up and this was the perfect moment for her. David's foster parents won the case, so he wasn't sent to a mental institution. He just had to stay for 34 more days in the juvenile hall for being accused of arson. When David gets out of the juvenile hall he calls Lilian mom for the second time and calls her house his home. This was a very emotional moment.

Quote   " ... I didn't want to leave. In the "outs"-the outside world-it was too easy for me to get into trouble. While at Hillcrest I had grown use to my surroundings. I knew exactly what was expected of me. I felt safe and secure. As Carl Miguel escorted me to the front desk, he explained that the outside world would indeed be the real test of my survival." (Pelzer 215)


Reactions  When I read this it really made me realize how being rejected by his family made him feel. He felt confused and ashamed of he was, because he didn't really understand what he was going through. The narrator has an young voice in this part of the story. Although I can see what the narrator is feeling he doesn't really explain he feels that way. He just says he is confused and he doesn't go to deep into why he chooses to steal and join a gang. The reader has to put the pieces to gather and guess that David is just trying to take his mind off his life by focusing on unimportant things things that will get the wrong attention.
     This quote is important to the story since it shows that David is still going to face more obstacles. It kind of foreshadows that once ha goes back out he is going to have to face another problem. In this quote David tells us that he doesn't feel safe or secure in the real word, so I can assume that is why he got into so much trouble. As a foster child he is going to go through prejudice, but he is going to have find a way to survive.