If I Ever Get Out of Here

“All this time, I thought I had been the problem, not my address.” 

Lewis becomes aware, for the first time, that some of his social struggles at school are not caused by anything he has done or is doing to alienate himself from others, rather that some people are going to look down at him or disassociate from him simply because he is Native American. The thought introduces the reader to the racism theme that plays out in the novel.

“Look, I don’t know you, really, and you make your own choices, but me? I don’t do things to make life harder on myself. Trouble’s going to find you often enough without you seeking it out.” 

George is slowly becoming friends with Lewis, and early on in their friendship he already begins supplying Lewis with sound advice. Oftentimes throughout the novel, Lewis does or says something that draws undue attention upon himself, causing him problems. 

“But the cost of becoming Paul McCartney would be giving up the identity of Billy Shears for the rest of his life, never being a member of the Shears family again. Could I be a Dear Boy and still be an Indian?” 

Lewis struggles with his identity throughout the novel. He longs to be accepted as one of the other “white” students (that is to say, one of the “Dear Boys”), but he is proud of his Native American heritage. He does not want to surrender one in order to keep or attain the other.