The critical lense I chose for this novel was a psychological character development one and this novel does a very good job with proving great material for this subject.
Because this novel revolves around the social issue of racism, there are many characters that are psychologically impacted by it, and some influence others around them such as their own children because of racism.
One character, Rashad’s dad, is only one example of those who grew up around racism and have learned to accept it as their everyday life. “ Never fight back. Never talk back. Keep your hands up. Keep your mouth shut. Just do what they ask you to do, and you’ll be fine.” (Page 50). This emphasizes the fathers acceptance of a second class citizen that still needs to jump through unnecessary hoops simply because he’s black.
Other characters like Quinn’s best friend is afraid for his brother Paul,( the cop who beat up Rashad) because his brother means the world to him and can do no wrong in his eyes. To make matters worse Paul took on the role of a father figure to Quinn after his dad died years ago. Now Quinn’s friend Guzzo, feels betrayed by Quinn and attacked by his black friends and teammates at school because they know what Paul did was wrong and Guzzo is insisting that his brother was just doing his job. “ Paul was just trying to help someone inside the store. That’s what he says.” (Page 176).
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