Pay It Forward

Pay It Forward is a novel that centers on the lives of three individuals in Atascadero, California, a California city roughly equidistant from Los Angeles and San Francisco. Reuben, a middle school social studies teacher, has recently moved to the area. Reuben is disfigured and one of the few black people in Atascadero. The second character, Arlene, is a single mother who struggles with alcoholism and her poor taste in men, namely Ricky, her son’s father, who has disappeared and left her to make payments on an expensive, ruined truck. She is trying to raise her son, Trevor, a seemingly unremarkable adolescent boy whose only goal in life appears to be helping people.

At the beginning of the novel, Reuben gives his class an extra-credit assignment that asks his students to go out and effect change in the world. Although he has given the assignment many times, Trevor latches onto the idea, coming up with a system he calls Pay It Forward. In Trevor’s mind, he will help three people to change their lives, who will in turn help three people, until the idea grows so exponentially large it takes over the world. Trevor begins with Jerry, a homeless drug addict for whom Trevor buys food and clothes so that he can turn his life around.