Blog 2-Main Character/Themes

I'm back again with more thoughts about Chris Crutcher's "Whale Talk". This time it's the main that I'm here to discuss. First and foremost his name TJ Jones, standind for The Tao Jones . I think that TJ is a very unique individual, racially, mentally,and backround.....ally. Racially, he is African-Japanese-American, which makes him a victim of much racism, but he doesn't seem to care too much about it anymore. He knows that racisms gonna come either way, and it's their problem, not his. His mentality is also unique. In Cutter High, people with letter jackets are seen as some sort of demi-god to most, but unlike the others who don't have one, instead of just bowing down to all the jocks with them, he sets out on a mission to show that anyone can get them. Backroundally (as I so profoundly put it) he has many stories about his past, ranging from his dad running over a baby to a fellow classmate shooting a deer out from under his arms to his past dating experiences. All in all I think The Tao Jones is a very unique character. Being as how I'm completly out of ideas about the main character, I'm moving on to Themes expressed in the novel. Firstly, racism is a prevailing theme in this book, whether its The Tao getting made fun of by peers, or him playing "the bad dad" at his former therapists therapy sessions and being forced to scream racial slurs containing words that (being how I'm making this blog for school) I must resign from using. Another prevailing theme is child abuse, ranging from a child (see previous sentence) trying to scrup the black off of her skin because of how she is abused for having it, to TJ's girlfriend being taken home and abused for performing a slightly vulgar end to a cheerleading routine, to the story of Chris's brain damging by his mother's ex-boyfriend. These are some prevailing themes in Whale Talk.