Chapter 4

At any point in the story, predict how some character is going to change/develop (character development) as the story progresses. How will they change?

After school, Justice is sitting in the Bras Prep senior lounge and enjoying an afternoon snack when Jared, Manny and three other friends come in to get something to drink. They don’t notice Jus and Jared starts talking about what happened in Doc’s class. As soon as they are seated he loudly says “Can you believe that asshole? What kind of teacher has the nerve to suggest there’s racial inequality to a classroom full of millennials?”* and he goes on to state that they should fire Doc and that he might “have my dad give the school a call”** which tells us that whenever Jared has some kind of problem, he just runs to his dad who fixes the issue with his power & money. Jared goes on to talk about SJ and he says some pretty indecent & disrespectful (maybe even sexist, but that’s up for debate) things about her. Manny asks what is going on with him today, even he notices that Jared is behaving rudely. Jared says “I’m just sick of people suggesting that African Americans still have it so hard these days.”*** and he starts ranting about an eight-grade Heritage Play they did where Jared played Martin Luther King Jr. They put brown makeup on him (aka blackface) and he “totally got a standing ovation”**** according to one of his friends. And because “A white kid can play a famous black dude in a play, and it’s no big deal”***** and that “This is a colour-blind society, my brethren…people are judged by the content of their character instead of the colour of their skin”****** and “Like I totally don’t even see you as black, Manny!”******* is, according to the white guys, proof that racism doesn’t exist anymore. This chapter made me sick to the stomach and I wanted to punch Jared and his friends several times. I desperately hope that something is going to happen which is going to open Jared’s eyes, and he starts seeing how the world truly is, instead of how those four white guys see it. Maybe something bad will happen to a close african-american friend of his and he won’t be able to stop denying the racist nature behind that event or encounter, whatever it is. Maybe (hopefully) he will finally realise that he IS privileged and he’ll use this privilege to help others who are marginalised and discriminated against. But I think it’ll take him a long time to get over his prejudices and (I’m just gonna call it what it is) blatant racism. But if he does, I would be very proud of him. He just believes what society has told him, it’s not his fault that (especially) the US is still discriminating against POC (people of colour) while at the same time denying that it is going on. If Jared is able to (hopefully) get over his discriminating nature (which he denies exist) then even the most hateful and bigoted person can.

*Page 30, row 10-12

**Page 30, row 15

***Page 31, row 23-24

****Page 32, row 20-21

*****Page 32, row 22-23

******Page 32, row 24-26

*******Page 33, row 1-2

496