Blindness versus Sight In Tangerine Paul may be blind physically but he can see what his parents’ and the townspeople can’t. Paul, a middle school student and the main character, is physically blind and is looking for answers from the past. Erik, Paul's big brother, is a superstar football kicker and bully who is driven by anger and frustration. Their parents are struggling with the secrets from the past and the effect that they have on the family and the families future. Tangerine county in Florida has the well off town of Lake Windsor, where the Fisher family lives, and the poorer town of Tangerine. The author Edward Bloor utilizes blindness to symbolize how Paul may be visually impaired but can see social injustice, while Erik and his He has been bullied most of his life about being visually impaired. Paul is used to being judged by others. The injury to his eyes supposedly occurred by looking at a solar eclipse but there is more to this story. More than his parents have been telling him. Paul playing soccer is contradictory to his blindness. While playing soccer, he participates and plays like everyone else. He is moving beyond his disability. In fact, Paul is an outstanding goalie, “The ball stuck in my outstretched hand like they were Velcro.” The soccer field is the only place he is able to do this, not at school, not at home, and not in his community. Paul has to leave Lake Windsor to be able to play soccer in Tangerine. The kids in Lake Windsor are snotty, rich, and self-centered but the kids in Tangerine are hard working, resourceful, and proud. During their first soccer game, Paul described the game as, “The Palmetto players got down and dirty right away, and their fans cheered them on.” The Palmetto players were bearfaced when it came to playing rough. The kids from Tangerine were used to being picked on by others in society and not being treated fairly. Paul observed, “I looked at my teammates, the victims of all of this, and was amazed at how calm their faces were.” Paul learns through soccer how teams like towns may be mean or unfair to His parents lied to Paul his whole life. They said, “ We wanted to find a way to keep you from always hating your brother.” Erik is a bully and blind to appropriate social behavior. Erik thinks he has discretion over everyone else. He is a star kicker for the High School football team, and hopes to play in college and then professional ball. He jokes about a football teammate being killed by lightning. Erik tells Arthur, his ball holder and sidekick goon, to punch Tino’s big brother Luis, and hits him on the head with a “blackjack” club. Luis then dies of an aneurysm about a week later. Erik is blind to how his actions affect others. He is not able to take accountability for what he does to other people. He is not accountable for the harm he has caused Paul, Luis, or anyone else. If he is good at football he acts like he can be an exception to the rules of
Paul’s parents prove to be threshold guardians when they favor Paul’s brother Erik, and hide how Paul really lost his eyesight. To start, Paul once, accused his father of favoring Erik, and Paul’s dad just makes an excuse for himself by telling Paul,”All I can say, in my own defense is that this was a critical season for Erik. College
Erik is a star player of the Lake Windsor High football team, so I chose a bright yellow hue for him so show his ‘star personality’. His traits aren’t very likeable - he is very self-absorbed - so I chose a star-looking form for him, the pointed sides displaying his bullying habits. Erik is bonded to his father by a thick, black line to show their stable relationship, while a red, mountain-like line connects him and Paul in a unsteady and cautious bond.
Outcasts United by Warren St. John is a wonderful book about a community of refugees who live in Clarkston, Georgia and their struggles to adapt with foreign environment of the United States. The book tells the stories of refugees that come from different background and countries in which they are connected together by an American- educated Jordanian woman called Luma Mufleh. Despite their difficulties in establishing new identity, they found their passion in soccer and with Luma Mufleh as their coach they create a soccer team called Fugees. In the early chapters of the book, it illustrates the difficulties to make a group of kids from different background unite and work together but later, Luma’s program become popular throughout the neighborhood. Children are happy to spend their spare time playing soccer while parents are glad they can keep the children off the streets when they are working. Regardless their effort to bring together the children into a team, they have to face bad sentiments from the local residents when they are kicked out from the training field and forced to occupy other place as their training field. The Fugees team also have little supporter as their parents are working and become a subject of humiliation. Nevertheless, Luma is able to maintain the team spirit and expanded her program to include tuition for the soccer team. Throughout the stories, some kids stay while others give up the program due to influence of gang and other incidents but the remaining members who stay are able to achieve recognition and find new opportunities for better living in the community.
What seemed to be a very long and difficult game, the Worland High School Varsity Girls come through to winning the game against Powell. Still remaining number one in the 3A division in the state of Wyoming, Worland has put up a fight regarding their loss against Lander last year at state soccer in Jackson, Wyoming. Worland’s very first game of the season this year in 2014 was against Jackson. The defending state champions were demolished by the Warriors, and Jackson also did not score a single goal. Majority of the girls soccer players this year are very young, only three seniors are on the team this year. As observed on April 4, 2014, the Warriors went against a stronger team in their division, Powell. Not only does Powell have bigger, stronger, and faster girls, but they also started worrying the Warrior crowd after they had put two shots into the goal of the goal keeper. With the score 2-2 it became more and more intense in the crowd. Only about 10 minutes were left in the game, and like last year at state Worland did not want to go into overtime because if there was no goal after overtime match it would lead into penalty kicks. As horrifying as it is to have that kind of pressure within about 6 minutes left of the game a goal was finally made for the Warriors! The score was now 3-2, and Powell was not happy. As the head coach from Powell was jumping up and down saying that they have this game motivated his girls. However, Worland put up a fight and as close as it was Worland finishes off the game with a win. An evaluation of the game was indeed a struggle to write on; however, Anna Hepp will give me information from her perspective of the game along with the another senior, Yesie Herrera.
In conclusion, the choices made by Paul's parents in the novel Tangerine, by Edward Bloor, affected Paul in several ways. The decisions they made included moving to Tangerine County, being neglectful towards Paul, and being dishonest when it comes to the truth of Paul’s blindness. Although some of their decisions influenced him severely, at the end, Paul became stronger and
Lastly, Erik made Paul lose his self-esteem by being frightened of him. Erik does many things, for example “ ❤️” (Bloor //). Paul always thought he starred in a solar eclipse for too long because his parents told him that was the reason. Erik and his friends called him “Eclipse boy”. Paul didn't know any other reason for his vision problem, so he had to take the heat that Paul gave him.
Uncle Jim, and Erik Weihenmayer both are not born blind, but are both able to overcome their blindness to live life to the fullest extent. Both protagonists in the story share similar qualities, and traits to one, and another like being resilient, perseverance, determination, and a little bit of stubbornness to keep going, and never allow their blindness to dictate how they are able to live, but instead they are the ones who dictate how they want to live. Both stories showcase brilliant characters that were able to overcome their shortcomings which led to the betterment of their prospective
Things that all three flashbacks have show that Erik attacks only with at least one of his friend, they relate to Erik’s harassment on paul, and their parents never punished Erik. In the first flashback, he was getting
“‘I gotta tell you, you’re comin’ in here with the wrong attitude’” (151). In these quotes, Paul is noticing that Joey is changing and that the death of his brother changed how Joey sees things. By Joey’s comments, it affects Paul and hurts his feeling by the darkening words as he talks to Paul. Also, Gino, one of Paul’s friends at Tangerine Middle, recognizes Paul for his bravery during the sinkhole and the unfairness of Coach Walski decision. “ Someone snatched my glasses away from me, right out of my hands. It was a big guy, with a towel, and he proceeded to wipe them clean. He said, “Mars, my man! Good work out there.” … “They should have bent the rules for you, Mars. They bent the rules for the other guys, lots of them, so
Youth Soccer has evolved into a fiercely competitive arena. More and more children are leaving recreational leagues to play in highly competitive select leagues. Select leagues are made up of teams, which players must tryout or be selected to play for. I had the unfortunate task of being an evaluator at such a tryout. Fifty ten-year-old boys had come out for a three day tryout in which forty five of them were placed on three teams. Cuts were made on the field and for those boys who had made a team it was a very exciting, but for the five boys who were cut it was absolutely heartbreaking. Had the children been older they might have been able to deal with the disappointment better, but for most of them it was their first real experience with public "failure". Select leagues have the potential to teach and promote important life skills such as hard work,...
Coming of age is essential to the theme of many major novels in the literary world. A characters journey through any route to self-discovery outlines a part of the readers own emotional perception of their own self-awareness. This represents a bridge between the book itself and the reader for the stimulating connection amongst the two. It is seen throughout Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huong, Hang’s coming of age represents her development as a woman, her changing process of thinking, and her ability to connect to the reader on a personal level.
Erik always gets more attention than Paul because he plays football and not soccer. He is spoiled because he never gets in trouble with his parents for hurting Paul. He likes to hurt whoever he pleases. Erik shows no respect to his family because he was the first born, the “golden child” and abuses his power to never get into trouble. Erik’s goon named Arthur is ordered to hurt Luis, one of Paul’s friends.
First of all he punched Tino really hard. Secondly, was involved with the killing of Luis. Lastly, Paul figured out Erik spray painted his eyes that cause his eye problem. The first reason that this character made a big impact on Paul was when he punched Tino in the face.
The opening scene of the novel introduces the theme of blindness. As the narrator says, “When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination-indeed, everything and anything except me,” (Ellison 3). This quote shows how people do not see the narrator. The narrator says that people “refuse” to see him. An example of this is when he bumps into a white man at night. The narrator says, "…when it occurred to me that the man had not seen me, actually, that he, as far as he knew, was in the middle of a walking nightmare!” (Ellison 4). This quote is an example of how people are blind and do not see the narrator. The narrator realizes that the man had insulted him because he did not see him. Blindness is a recurring theme in the novel, and shows how people refuse to see the truth in their community. Another example of blindness in the beginning of the novel is the battle royal that the narrator is forced to take part in. All of the fighters are blindfolded, and therefore are blind to see how the white people are taking advantage of them. Blindness is shown as a negative theme in the novel.
Though he had already stopped playing football after his teary high school graduation ceremony, I still wished he could resume his football career. When I was small, I repeatedly waited for him at the front door of his school while stretching hard to reach my dad’s big and balmy hands. He was already the leading player in the school’s football team, and had played at the position center-forward while being fully enclosed by his opponents. Nevertheless, even in these worse situations in the matches, he could still drag the ball to his teammates like a meandering snake. After the training that day, we were invited to the match by the enthusiastic coach with his large lively hands. Though sitting in the farthest seat to the pitch, I could still feel the current of passion rushing from every player on the field towards me, which left me infected with more desire to crush the rival. I detected him on the green sea filled with white clothing by searching for the zebra-like cuff he wears in every match he has attended. He seems to be dedicated to many beliefs I had never thought of before. “For me, this cuff is a symbol of my sweat I sprinkled for this one game. This faith will follow me to finish this game, and every other game.” The words had appeared on a luminous morning in his apartment before the match. The harsh wind sliced his dense and thick hair backwards into few scattered pieces while his eyes still gazed at me like a leopard waiting for his