"The Christmas Sweater" POST #4

(pages 184-235)
SUMMARY:


Eddie wasn't going to give up on his so called games. He's blocking his grandparents from his life because he hopes to decrease his possibility of getting hurt again. Eddie is showing anger for his pain inside. He doesn't realize that the his actions and words gives his grandparents pain. Also, he's blinded by what he thinks a family should be like in his perspective that he doesn't see that he still has a family. He took advantage of his grandmother's trust in him and told her that he was going to stay over at Taylor's for a couple of days. The real reason that he wants to live with Taylor instead of with his grandparents. So, Taylor's parents can "spoil" him and he can have the family that he "wanted". He ended up coming back, but then, he's running away to town with the bike that his grandfather had bought him last Christmas. Eddie didn't get to receive it on that day because he was giving his mother a hard time and his grandfather wanted to teach him a lesson. Also, that was when Eddie's mother died in the car accident.

QUOTE:


"We're all made up of two parts. There's a part that thinks and there's a part that feels (Beck 221)."

REACTION:


The author gives the reader contradiction to the main character but also a sense of how hard it is for him to accept what has happened. The words that were quoted in the story describes a great amount of anger and pain from a 13 year old boy. It gives the book more meaning because the words are not just words; They are the reason to every single teardrop that has fallen down from Eddie's grandfather, grandmother, and Eddie himself. So much emotion, and so much misunderstanding from a confused boy. Also, the author makes the reader want to yell at Eddie, when he's just a character in the book. The things that are said and done by Eddie makes it hard not to ask, "How could he do such a thing to hurt his grandparents, including himself?" The quote that was chosen is from Russell. He was trying to help Eddie realize that he needs to think about the happy memories, not the sad ones. Too bad Russell's effort wasn't enough to help Eddie, just yet.