’SWOOSH!’’ That was the sound of someone’s foot kicking a soccer ball, or was it a football? Either way the only important ‘’SWOOSH’’ sound is the one that is heard on the sports fields that Erik Fisher plays. Why you ask? Because in Tangerine by Edward Bloor Paul Fisher will learn that even those visually impaired can see when someone is cruel. Author Edward Bloor lived in Trenton, New Jersey before attending Fordham University in New York, and now resides in Florida. He has penned books titled Crusaders, Storytime, and Soccer, Tangerine, and Me which are all fiction novels. He was nominated for Young Readers Award. There are many moments of character development for Paul in the novel Tangerine. Paul grows physically and mentally throughout …show more content…
Erik is the shining star in his parents’ eyes. The Erik Fisher Football Dream seems to be a main goal in the family. Paul’s life takes a back seat to his brother’s. This problem is resolved after Paul assaults a coach at the football awards program. After he attacked the coach, he ran home. When he saw the gray wall behind his house where the words “Seagulls Suck” had been cleaned off, he has a flashback in which he remembers the reason his vision is impaired. The text reads, “I veered off onto the perimeter road and stumbled along over the packed dirt until I found myself at the wall behind our house. Then I stopped still, clutching my side, gasping for air, doubled over in pain. When I was able to, I looked up at the wall. The paint had been cleaned off, but the words were still faintly visible in the moonlight: SEAGULLS SUCK. I stood studying that wall for many minutes.” Paul learns to not fear Erik, and helps to identify Erik and Arthur as the cause of Luis Cruz’s death. Erik’s true nature is then revealed to his family and Paul is no longer neglected by his …show more content…
The soccer field is important to Paul because playing soccer is his passion and the soccer field is where he finds his almost only confidence. When Paul is on the soccer field, he doesn’t care about Erik or his parents, or anything else going on in his life. It’s just him, his teammates, and the sport. For example, “War Eagles! War Eagles!” We started moving our hands in unison, up and down, changing the chant into the frenzied cry of “War! War! War!” This evidence shows how Paul was just happily shouting along with his teammates, not focusing on anything or anybody else. People who enjoy realistic-fiction novels that include sibling rivalry, sports, making life changes, and the tension of a dysfunctional family environment will be interested in reading this journal writing from the first person perspective of Paul Fisher. This novel includes characteristics of middle school encounters ; therefor, ages 10 and up will appreciate this
The main point of this story, Tangerine, by Edward Bloor, is how the people who are looked down upon see from different points of view. An example of this is the main character, Paul, who is considered blind by many and is often looked down upon in society, however, he often sees what others do not and has excessive knowledge of the world around him. Even though he sees everything, he does not say what he knows and others do not ask him, for they believe he has no knowledge of the problems. After moving to Tangerine, he sees his brother doing horrible things and his parents none the wiser. His friend suffers at the hands of his brother and is eventually killed, and afterwards, Paul feels much guilt for the words unsaid. Since Paul is often looked down upon, he notices facts and clues society does not, however he fears saying something, in which causes his friend to be murdered.
Paul was about to start school at Lake Windsor Middle School and Mrs. Fisher tapped in on her ‘overprotective mother’ side. In the book Tangerine, Edward Bloor writes, “ ‘Mom, you ruined my life at Lake Windsor Middle when you turned in that IEP,’ ” (94). This shows that Paul really was miserable without the ability to play soccer. He was so sad that, when his Coach told him about the insurance problem, Paul sat down on the field and cried. It actually says in the book that when he had the opportunity to start over at Tangerine Middle, he thought that, “...the heavens had opened up for me…” (94). This is important because Paul would have been able to play soccer at Lake Windsor, and he would have, at the very beginning, been happy. This choice, though, had good effects in many ways. One is that he ended up going to Tangerine, which is where he ended up playing
In the novel Tangerine By Edward Bloor, we read about Paul a twelve-year-old boy who struggles with legal blindness, and he also feels neglected by his parents. Paul realizes that his older brother Erik is a cruel and a twisted child. Paul tries to get his parents to see his point of view, but has trouble getting the message to them. Paul and his brother Erik, though related have many differences, but also a few similarities that make them unique characters of interest in the novel.
“The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership”- Harvey S. Firestone. In the book Tangerine, seventh-grader Paul Fisher just recently moved to Tangerine County, Florida because of his dad’s new engineering job. He lives with his two parents and his antagonizing brother, Erik Fisher, who is constantly bullying him. As time flies by, Paul transforms into a new character. Paul Fisher’s choices he made during his development truly shaped who he is now because he finally got the courage to tell the truth about Erik and Arthur, assaulted a staff member, and chose to go to Tangerine Middle School.
In conclusion, the choices made by the fisher family in Tangerine affected Paul greatly by making him feel fear, unimportant and gave him a low self
Coming to Tangerine Middle was “quite the ride” for Paul. Paul was able to see how the Tangerine students are really like to compare to the dirty image that they have on them. First of all, transferring to this school has made Paul develop confidence in himself to speak the truth, which builds up a strong relationship with his teammates. Yet Paul still can’t get over his main fear, Erik. Although it may look like Paul grew an enormous amount, mentally in the novel, he still has a long way to go in order to face Erik. At the end of Part 2, Edward Bloor expresses Paul’s growth, emotionally in a strong way.
The choices that Erik made throughout his life never came without consequences, many of his choices, whether they were choices directed to him or not, affected Paul. Paul illustrates this idea by saying, “When we moved to Houston, when Erik was eleven, he realized that football was the star attraction,”(Bloor 29) This is talking about the “birth” of the “Erik Fisher Football Dream”; Erik use to play soccer and was successful at it, but he realized that football was the place to be if he wanted attention. Paul could’ve started playing soccer at that time as well and Erik didn’t want to risk being outshined by his younger brother. Another way Erik affected Paul, in a more indirect way, was when Arthur becomes Erik’s crony, “What will Arthur do
Everyone has been misunderstood at one time or another. It’s part of the human life. Difference. Difference is what brings us together. Paul Fisher is different. In the novel Tangerine by Edward Bloor, the protagonist, Paul Fisher, is legally blind. Misunderstood his whole life. While he legally cannot see, he can see what others can’t. Or won’t. This has plagued Paul’s life and throws a shadow over his memory. His memory is holding Paul back. He has been told his whole life that he became blind from staring at a solar eclipse for an hour. But he can’t remember it. Paul and his family are now moving to Florida to start a new life. Paul’s zombies are following, waiting to come out of the shadows and finally reveal what they’ve been hiding from Paul. As Paul struggles with the secrets in his family and changing schools, he feels intimidated and misunderstood, but he soon learns that he’s been a coward all his life, but there’s nothing to be afraid of, and he begins to stand up for himself and
In Literature, symbolism is a powerful force. It can lead a story along & will usually be a vital part to said story. It can build tension, advance characters, and create plot. This is seen clearly on page 130, where the author states, “His front was still clean and white, but his back is now filthy.”. This excerpt from the football game where Antoine Thomas essentially pranks Erik is very, very rich in symbolism. It’s really a an amazing summary of Erik’s character in less than 2 sentences. Clean on the front, dirty of the back. We see this all throughout the book, with Erik acting all nice with his smiles and student body stuff, but in reality, we all know the truth. We know Erik is rotten to the core, especially after he spray-painted Paul’s
“Life is a matter of choices, and every choice that you make, makes you.” -John C. Maxwell. In the book, Tangerine, Paul had most of his life based off of the decisions his older brother, Erik, made. Erik’s choices impacted Paul by not allowing Paul to feel safe in his own home, causing Paul to become blind, and hurting many of Paul’s friends.
Many characters made careless choices in the book that affected Paul but Eric made the most. In the book Tangerine, Eric’s choices and the consequences of his choices affected the development of Paul in three ways. When Eric hit Tino and when Paul figured out that Eric was the reason he was blind. Paul is a boy who just moved from Texas to Florida. He moves to a place called Lake Windsor Downs. He goes to school at Lake Windsor Downs Middle School, but there was a tragedy at that school so he moved to Tangerine Middle School. He goes out for the Tangerine soccer team and makes it. Then horrible things start happening.
In the novel Tangerine, by Edward Bloor, the character Paul had made many choices that affected others and himself. He made good choices that might have improved something. But he also made many choices that were bad and he really regretted. He also made choices that were bad in the beginning and probably ended up as good choices afterwards.
This affected Paul by now he can play soccer and he has a fresh start in his school life. In conclusion, this is a good choice for Paul because now he has a new start.
In Tangerine, the author uses the novel entries of September 20th and October 3rd to describe Paul’s relationship with Joey. Paul’s perspective of his friendship with Joey changes during these entries.
the love and care he unknowingly needs. Paul takes on roles that disguise his own traits and turns him into what he believes to be a person nobody can say no to. When he takes on these roles, he