Buddy's Relationship In Gentlehands By M. E. Kerr

In the novel Gentlehands by M.E. Kerr, Buddy discovers that his grandfather had negatively affected thousands of lives in the Holocaust. Does Buddy believe it's true? At first, Buddy was an insecure teen who was worried about everyone’s opinion because he had just met his dream girl who was in another social class, Skye. As the story progressed, so did their relationship. They both uncovered some startling news about Buddy’s beloved grandfather. After pondering the thought of the scary news, it leads Buddy to be in a depressed state of mind. Ultimately, Buddy changes from being a self conscious teen to an unhappy, maturer young adult who has gone through pivotal experiences.
Buddy is an insecure teenage boy who struggles with identifying who

Immediately, Buddy begins to deny the suggestion. In the beginning of the chapter, Buddy is working at Sweet Mouth. He goes outside to read the newspaper and recovers a startling discovery. “MONTAUK MAN ACCUSED OF BEING NAZI” the title stated. Buddy kept reading; “In this Wednesday’s New York Record, Seaville summer resident Nicholas De Lucca, in a front page article, will accuse Frank O. Trenker of Montauk, of being a former SS officer at Auschwitz, notorious for his acts of cruelty and murder” (133). At this moment, Buddy knew that Skye's suspicions were true and he realized that his Grandfather was being accused of being the notorious Nazi; Gentlehands. Buddy does not want to believe this thought and is in denial. After Buddy finished reading the article, his dad pulled up and ordered him to get in his car, and began to drive Buddy home. On the drive, Buddy was telling his father that Grandpa Trenker is not Gentlehands; “‘It isn’t Grandfather,’ I said; I almost laughed at the idea, but my father punched the steering wheel again and barke, ‘The hell it isn’t!’” (136). Buddy is processing the fact that his beloved Grandfather contributed to such a significant atrocity in history . Buddy does not want to believe it and thus he is in denial. But, Buddy is forced to believe that his grandfather was Gentelhands because his dad does and so does everyone else. This lead Buddy to change by the end of the

He met a rich girl who was out of his social class who took his heart and he also reconnected with his estranged grandfather who turned out to be an abhorrent Nazi who was responsible for the deaths of an astounding number of Jews. These experiences changed Buddy in a significant way. Throughout the book it becomes clear that Buddy is a self- conscious teen who cares about how he acts and looks in comparison to the upper class, The Penningtons, and this was a consistent trait until he discovered that Grandpa Trenker was Gentlehands. Immediately before his grandfather came back and played the opera called the Tosca for the two, Skye and Buddy were just hanging out and eating burgers. Buddy mentions, “I made up a lie to impress her and I’d decided I was going to be a lawyer” (125). Buddy is very concerned that Skye may judge him and believes it is necessary to lie to her. Buddy is clearly insecure about himself and his future and wanted to impress her because he adored her. Moving forward, after Buddy finds the startling information, he starts to decline, meaning he doesn’t care anymore. Buddy goes back to his grandfather's house and sees the navy blue cashmere sweater. Buddy thinks, “I thought of picking up the sweater to take it with me, but I didn’t. I just wanted to leave everything about that summer behind me”