Brent
fortunately gains maturity throughout the course of . He is, after all,
only a junior in high school. And his penance for the accident causes him to grow up and to
develop his own identity. But the first chapter, Party Time, is full of immature behavior on
his part. Here are three examples:
After he finds out that the party has a
dress code that he didnt fit:, we read that Fury rose up in him from a deep well. Hed been a
head-banger as a toddler and still threw tantrums when he didnt get his way. He knew he couldnt
afford a tirade here. At least for a few minutes, Brent understands and can control his anger.
But he lets it explode later when he attacks Chaz, just before he storms out of the
party.
When the conversation comes to cars and Porsches, Brent steps in as if
he has personal experience with them. He claims his father had one back in Atlanta but wasnt
happy with it and finally sold it. It was the sort of lie that would never be found out, the
sort hed drawn on often. Moving had at least that one advantage. Over the years, hed grown adept
at creating alternate pasts for himself. His fabricated stories make his family sound better off
than they really are. He feels the need to be equal or to be better than everyone
else.
The last two pages of the chapter show theof his immaturity, when Brent
listens to a drunken subconscious voice that validates his bad behavior and that prods him to
take his hands off the steering wheel. You have the power to end your life.
Now. Very slowly, he closed his eyes. Brents temper and selfishness combine to cause
the tragic accident.
Brent does show growing maturity as he devotes his
energies to the whirligig project. But there are still a few moments when his youth and
inexperience break through. In The Afterlife, during the mediation session with Mrs. Zamora,
Brent tries to express his remorse but cannot: When his turn finally came to speak, the long
apology hed rehearsed reduced itself to the two words €˜Im sorry, words he spoke over and over,
then wailed miserably through tears, not caring that his parents were watching. He is really
still a child.
Later in the same chapter, when Brent is on the road to the
Pacific Northwest, he realizes that maybe he should have done more preparation. At least he had
gotten a book about building whirligigs. Hed read only the chapter on supplies. He knew he
should have tried building one in Chicago, but he hadnt. Once his probation officer had
convinced Brents parents that the trip might help him, hed been in a rush to leave. Now he would
have to learn by doing, when he could have mastered the craft by practicing first.
As he builds the first whirligig, things dont go as he had planned:
He tightened the wood down to the table with a clamp, started in
with his D-shaped coping saw, and promptly broke the thin blade. He inserted the only spare hed
brought, feeling like a soldier down to his last bullet. He worked gingerly. The blade survived.
The file that followed the same path not only smoothed the woods edge but snapped off a sizable
chunk of the angels wing. He slammed the file onto the table. He hated wood. He took a break,
frightened by his anger in the face of this setback. There was no channel-changer here. €¦ He
sat down. He decided to do without the wing. The figure could simply be a harp player.
Brent loses his temper but is able to calm himself down and to get
back to work successfully, without anyone elses prompting. Finally, hes learning. This is the
last tirade we see from him in the book.
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