The Bully

“It isn’t fair he thought. Why did things happen this way? Why did he have to leave his home and his best friends?”

At the beginning of the novel, Darrell sees the world in a passive way. The rhetorical questions here make Darrell a victim of circumstance—“things” that aren’t “fair” are “happening” to him, leaving no space for his own agency and emphasizing his helplessness. This kind of negative self-talk only reinforces Darrell’s belief that he has no control over his life.

“‘You been a real brother to me,’ Darrell said. ‘I…I love you, man,’ Darrell blurted, his voice melting into embarrassing sobs.”

This conversation comes from Darrell’s last evening spent with his lifelong best friend, Malik. The raw emotional vulnerability of Darrell’s statement of love and his freedom to cry embarrassingly emphasize the deep intimacy of that friendship and serve as a stark contrast to the isolation and lack of emotional vulnerability that he will experience in his new environment.

“If she were doing this for some selfish reason, then he could be mad at her, and it would almost feel better.”

Although it will take Darrell the entire novel to do so, he will eventually be able to openly rely on his internal moral compass—a quality that is on display in this passage. Although he is miserable at the thought of leaving Philadelphia, he refuses to be unreasonably mad at his mom. Even in his pain, he can see that she hasn’t moved them for “selfish reasons”—instead, his welfare is top of mind for her.