Symbolism

I did symbolism. I think racism is a deeper symbol in this book. The book never said Racist or Racism directly, but when Luther came to town people would stare at him and yell at him. Some people in the town were very accepting of Luther they let him coach their kids, work for them, even become a partial family member. The couple weeks Luther was in town a lot of things happened. He was brought to the sheriff because a rumor about him spread that he was a murderer. He got beat up because of a racist.

                I think that Luther coaching Charlie’s friends and making a baseball team was a symbol of how close Luther and Charlie had become. Charlie looked up to Luther like a Father figure. Luther knew it too. Luther treated Charlie like a son. Luther would have taken a bullet for Charlie and he almost got stabbed saving Charlie.

                Charlie’s dad died in Korea while serving his country. This had a deep undertow on the story. I didn’t notice how much it affected the book until the end. One time a racist tries to stab Luther for killing his brother. This of course was an accident but he still tries to kill Luther. Charlie takes his dad’s bayonet to Luther which holds of the Racist long enough for the sheriff to show up. Charlie’s “almost” stepdad bails out the racist guy the next day and he tries to kill Luther again, but before that a brief story on the “almost stepdad”, Vern. Vern is also a racist, he hates Luther because Charlie is friends with him and Charlie hates Vern for being so prejudice. Charlie hates Vern so much he sometimes pretends his dad is still alive, and about to walk right through the front door. This of course never happens. So the next day Luther saves Charlie’s life after they lead the bloodthirsty racist into the storm sewer and almost drown. The racist didn’t make it to the manhole they crawled up and drowned in the storm sewer. Later that week everybody in town calls Luther a hero but Luther is disappointed. He thinks he should’ve saved the racist. Charlie is disappointed Luther has to leave, But Luther calls Charlie his son and they start crying and go into a father son embrace. I guess his father did walk through that door.