Tangerine- Review Essay

Submitted By rgould123
Words: 986
Pages: 4

Tangerine By: Edward Bloor
While reading Tangerine I had many different thoughts about the different characters throughout the book. My first thought of Mom was that she was a perfectionist because she was thoroughly checking every part of their house in Houston. Not wanting to leave even the cigarette stub to be cleaned up by the new owners, that they would think that they were unsanitary. Also that she wanted an inside look at the boys new school. She wanted the school to be a picture perfect learning center for them with no faults.
The next character is Paul. He seemed to me a very laid back kind of kid. Escaping all of the attention his brother was getting, for being a star football player. He seemed like he did not want attention. He just wanted to play soccer at Lake Windsor Downs. Sadly his mom messed everything up with his IEP for his so called “blindness”. Luckily he got his second shot at being a goaltender when his school was built on top of a sinkhole and collapsed. Therefore he got to go to Tangerine Middle School and play soccer there for the rest of the semester.
Another character is Paul’s brother Erik. Erik has a big ego. He thinks everything is about him and his parents support that. He thinks just because he is an amazing football player he is king of the world. Erik is not a person who dwells on things long after they happened. We see this when his friend and fellow football fanatic Mike Costello is killed by a stroke of lightning. Just a short time later Erik and his friend Arthur are making fun of Mike and what happened to his hair. Also when they are making fun of Mike’s brother, Joey because he wanted to take Mike’s shoes off because that was one of his favorite things to do when he got home.
The next character is Dad. He is very caring about his son Erik, but usually leaves Paul left out. He is very engulfed in Erik’s future football life and couldn’t care less about Paul’s future soccer career. He is also very engrossed in his own career and becoming the head of it.
As one can see this family has their hearts set on making a big splash in the town of Tangerine, Florida. Also they want to prove that they are great and will make a difference.
Out of all the characters in the book I liked Paul the best. I liked Paul best because he was not full of himself like the other characters. He did not want to be best in something. He did not want to be the coolest in school. All he wanted to do was play soccer with his friends.
The character I disliked most was Erik. I disliked Erik because he was very full of himself. He did not care what was going on in anybody else’s life. Nor did he care about anything at all, with the exception of football. Like when one of his good friends got him by a stroke of lightning and was killed after about a week he and his new friend were laughing about it.
Paul reminds me of one of my old friends from Westchester Day School. She did not care about anything. She just wanted to have a good life. She didn’t care if she wasn’t the coolest because she did not have the new brand name clothing.
There were a few events in the book that reminded me of events in my own life. The first if the bug infestation in houses. I connected this to when a few of my friends had the same problems in their