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Tangerine Paul Character Analysis

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Tangerine Paul Character Analysis
Tangerine Essay

In the book Tangerine, Paul, the main character, has a lot of problems to deal with. One of Paul’s problems has to do with his brother, Erik, who impacted Paul so much it changed the way Paul went through his daily life and thought about himself. Erik’s choices impacted Paul by making him think less of himself, affecting his eyesight, and making him angry at Erik.
In the novel, Paul thinks less of himself because of Erik’s decision to spray paint in his eyes. In the text in Part 1, Chapter 15, Paul states, “I should be in the freak show, too, as Eclipse Boy.” Here, Paul expresses his belief that he is like all the other people who look weird. Paul assesses he should be in the freak show because he looked into a solar eclipse -- an unwise decision that other people in the show made as well.
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On page 42 Paul explains, “I remember Erik standing behind me and my Dad asking if I could see him, but I could not.” For context, Paul turned around to look at Erik who was standing immediately behind Paul. Paul’s eyesight, however, was really poor and he couldn’t see very well. This was a result of Erik spraying paint in Paul’s eyes, something that required Paul to have prescription lenses in order to have normal vision.
When Paul learns Erik sprayed paint in his eyes, Paul becomes very angry and has a lot of hate towards Erik. Part 3, Chapter 9 highlights this point when Paul’s parents spoke to Paul and stated, “We thought it was best you didn’t remember, so that you wouldn’t hate Erik.” Paul’s parents were confessing to Paul that Erik sprayed paint in his eyes, and they didn’t tell him because they did not want him to hate Erik. When they told Paul that Erik had sprayed paint in his eyes he was very upset at his parents, but he was more upset at Erik because of what he did

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