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Quotes From The Goldfinch

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Lizzy Minnerath Journal 4 The Goldfinch 137 1091/1200 A regular fifteen-year-old boy might be worried about homework or a sporting event. Theo, on the other hand, faces much more difficult and mature conflicts after the unfortunate death of his mother. Theo deals with differing opinions on his living situations, his poor excuse of a father, and his internal struggle for what is right. There are currently 23,692 homeless children in New York City, New York. This is a very real possibility as Theo contemplates his few living options. With the whereabouts of his mother still unknown, Theo continues to call the hotline for information. Upon being inquired about his age and the location of his father, information Theo was unwilling to give, the …show more content…

Theo’s father was often drunk and mistreated him and his mother: “My mother tried to make him go to AA but he wouldn’t go. Sometimes the doormen used to come and stand in the hall outside the apartment and make a lot of noise so he could hear them – so he knew they were out there, you know? So he didn’t get too out of hand” (Tartt 136). Theo’s father left them and only returned for the luring thought that Theo might have money from all the press he was getting. When Theo goes to live with his father in Vegas it is like he is living with a ghost.☺ Theo hardly ever sees his father due to his gambling addiction. At one point Theo’s father directs him to withdraw money under the charade that he needed money for boarding school. When Theo was unsuccessful to retrieve the money, his father lashed out: “Without warning, my dad snapped out and whacked me across the face, so hard and fast that for a second I didn’t know what had happened, Then almost before I could blink he hit me again with his fist… He caught me by the throat with a sharp upward thrust and forced me up on tiptoe so I was gasping for breath (Tartt 326). Undoubtedly, Theo and his father did not get along nor did they have any inkling of blood-linked love for each

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Throughout the book The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, we follow around Theo, who is more like his own father than he would like to admit. While heading to New York City, he decides to steal pills, her dog and tip money from Xandra, his dad’s girlfriend, after he recently found out that his father was killed in a car accident. Once he made it to New York, Theo decided to call Xandra. Through this phone call, it comes to no surprise that Xandra calls Theo out for being more like his father than he thought. This is obvious that this phone conversation threw him off because “her words were an ugly thread running all night through my dreams” (Tartt 370).

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to still keep established pace and tone, which is that calm, disassociated mood. At this point the father, the reader might think, is a construction of the husband’s mind, because the husband had focused on “the idea of never seeing him again. . . .” which struck him the most out of this chance meeting, rather than on the present moment of seeing him (Forn 345). However surreal this may be in real life, the narrator manages to keep the same weight through the pacing in the story to give this story a certain realism through the husband’s

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She explains how Aesha, because of her abusive husband, became homeless, the fears and difficulties she faced during her homelessness, and how she managed to survive her homelessness. She then talks about Adriana Broadway, Johnny Montgomery, and Asad Dahir who had all faced the tragedy of homelessness. After that, Bader tells us how LeTendre Education Fund for Homeless Children, a scholarship program administered by the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, is helping some of the homeless students across America. Towards the end of the article, Bader talks about a faculty member at a school who has helped homeless students by

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Donna Tartt, author of The Goldfinch, employs the value of a gift through the main character, Theo. Theo and his mother share a special relationship full of love, trust, and understanding. The gift of The Goldfinch painting symbolizes the love that Theo and his mother share. Although Theo stole this painting a did not receive it as a present, it was still a gift to him, considering the significance and meaning behind the painting.

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He initially seems concerned, asking about his father’s state and condition, but his distress quickly turns into hostility. Hally adamantly opposes his father’s return, spitefully saying “Order him to get back into bed at once! If he’s going to behave like a child, treat him like one” (33). Hally treats his father like an immature adult incapable of making proper decisions. By telling his mom

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