Unchained Essay

“Unchained” by L.B. Tillit, “Unchained” is a book that talks about the life of TJ, the main character, who's been raised by drug addict parents. His dad dies because of the drugs. He joins a gang, and when his mom found out, she told him that his father was afraid. That he tried to push them away so many times until he couldn’t take living in fear, so he bought drugs from them, instead of joining them. That this kept them off his back. He always thought he was a failure because he could never join the gang. He never wanted to. But TJ knew he was like his father, except that he did join the gang. He was afraid of living in fear. TJ knew that if he joined the gang, he would have to hurt people, he didn’t want to. But he did it anyway.

From

the beginning of the story, the details reveal the theme of don’t try to pretend to be someone your not. L.B. Tillit describes “If I joined the Vipers they’d make me hurt others, but if I didn’t, I’d live in fear of more beatings.” This line shows that TJ doesn’t want to be like his father. He doesn’t want to hurt others, but he also doesn’t want to live in fear like his father. In this next line, it’ll show you how TJ has changed after he got back home from the foster house. “There was a long pause. Billy turned to go, and then he looked back at me. ‘You’ve changed’. I smiled at him. ‘I hope so’”. In his neighborhood, he has always been known as the “Tough Guy”, he never had friends, he would always push people away. “I would watch Billy hold his mother’s hand as they waited for the bus to pull up. I wanted to reach out and hold her hand too. I didn’t understand why mom couldn’t walk me to the stop, and she told me that holding hands was for babies. That’s when I first started to be mean. At age seven I’d get on the bus and call Billy a baby. ‘Baby Billy holds Mommy’s hand.’ I would yell until the bus driver made me stop. But it was too late. Billy would already be crying. He didn’t play with me on the playground after that.” As you can see, TJ was always known as the “Tough One” that never hang out with anybody.

In the middle of the story, we continue to see how don’t try to pretend to be someone your not impacts TJ.

In this next line, L.B. Tillit describes how TJ always pushed away all the people, that he tries to make them afraid of him so that they could let him alone. “‘I’ve you be mean to nice people. You make them afraid of you. Like you don’t like anyone.’ I shrugged my shoulders. She continued, ‘You know, you could be here a while. You need to have some friends.’ ‘You can’t go on being mean.’ I frowned just a little. ‘I’m not really mean.’ I hated the word mean, I was just tough. ‘I only want them to leave me alone.’ ‘But why?’ Annabelle said. I paused and thought just a minute. ‘Because that’s the only thing I know how to do.’” This line showed that TJ always pushed them away, how that’s the only thing he knows how to do. This line here will show you how TJ got sent back home. “I shook my head. ‘How is this good news?’ I was not sure I could picture my mother drug-free. I didn’t believe it. Miss Miller couldn’t be talking about my mother. She had visited a bunch of times in the last six months. But the times had been awkward. The social worker uncrossed her legs. She turned to face me. ‘TJ, I know it’s hard to believe, but she has gone through all the classes and has shown up her drug tests. She is clean.’ She paused and then took a deep breath. ‘And she wants you to come home.’ ‘I can’t live with her again. This is my home.” (67) TJ didn’t want to go back “home”. The

foster house was his home. There was Annabelle, Mae, Miss Dixie, Prince. He didn’t want to leave. TJ knew that if he went back home, that the Hillside Vipers would still be there, waiting for him. He knew that nothing was free, that he had to pay them back one day.