Chapters #7-8

Chapters 7 and 8 – Questions 9, 10, 11 and 12

9- When Bryon talks to M&M’s dad, he thinks about how his own mother raises them: “I could have told him that Mom never worried about Mark and me –she loved us but let us run our own lives”. What do you think about the way Bryon’s mother raises the boys? Do you think it has consequences on their lives? What are the consequences?

I think it might not be the best way to raise children. They are kind of left alone, by themselves without any adult supervision. Also, Bryon and Mark are living in difficult situation: they don’t have a lot of money; they live in a poor and dangerous neighborhood. Although, it’s not because she isn’t present in their life that she doesn’t like them, on the contrary. She loves them and cares about them. She just demonstrates it in a different way that usual parents who protect their children. There probably will have some consequences in their future and probably had in their past. They do whatever they want, even bad things without any punishment.

10- In chapter 7, Mark says: “So are we [just kids]. Nothing bad happens to you when you’re a kid. Or haven’t you realized that?” Do you agree with Mark? Do you think Mark’s opinion is going to change? Why?

I do not agree with what Mark says. Nothing bad happened to them when they were kid. I would call it good luck, but not every kid has it. It is not because Mark never got caught or never been into serious trouble that life is safe when you are a child and you don’t worry about a thing. I don’t think Mark’s opinion will change until he gets confronted to an actual situation where he could be in danger. Basically Mark thinks like a kid, he doesn’t take his responsibilities, he steals frequently and doesn’t think of his future: nothing affects Mark.

11- In chapter 7, how does Mark’s previous statement from chapter 2 (“That is one stupid guy. [… ] if anybody ever hurt me like that, I’d hate them for the rest of my life.”) become prophetic?

In the previous chapter, Mark got incidentally into a fight at the school party. He unfortunately got badly hurt and end up at the hospital. In fact, it was because Angela had asked a guy to beat up Curtis, but it was Mark who hit. Angela didn’t seem to bother or to feel guilty. As Mark said in chapter 3, if anyone ever hurt him like that, he would hate this person for the rest of his life. I think Angela is one of them. Thus, when they saw Angela and her friends on the side of the road Mark wanted to revenge himself. He invited Angela in the car for a ride; he bought some alcohol for her and Bryon so he could have his payback without Bryon defending Angela. So basically, he was quite mad about what Angela did to him and probably hated her. He got his revenge to satisfy himself but will never forgive her.

12- In your opinion, why does Mark know where to hunt for M&M in this chapter?

Mark probably understand M&M situation. He has been through a lot of things in his life: his parent’s death, his stealing problem, his friendship with Bryon suffering because of Cathy… Perhaps, Mark may have felt the same way once in his life and might have been to this house of hippies. He possibly went there to feel better so he thinks M&M could have done the same thing.  In fact, when he went there with Bryon, people in the house knew who he was.  Actually, they were saluting him friendly. He was right about it though. Unfortunately M&M left before they came.