Symbolism In Tangerine

Tangerine, a realistic novel by Edward Bloor, is about a malfunctional family that keeps many dark secrets, later revealed. The truth was set free, along with the characters, making everyone 's sight more clearer. The motif of sight, a repeated element of understanding, is used to advance the main character’s sight of the truth throughout the story. Through the motif of sight, Paul, the main character in the novel, has a growing understanding of his friends, his family, and himself. The first group Paul experiences a growing understanding of is his friends. Near the beginning, Paul’s friends did not see him for him or understand him. They only saw him as a visually impaired, replaceable kid. In the book it said, “The kid in the gray checked out my goggles and said, ‘Yow! It came from Mars!’ The eighth graders laughed, but when I didn’t go away Gino said to me, ‘You here to play, or you here to model sportswear?’ ”(49). Paul’s friends do not take him seriously as a real

At the beginning, Paul’s parents did not see that paul already hated his brother and keep secrets about what he did will not change that. Paul sees this and confronts his parents, “He shock his head sadly. ‘We wanted to find a way to keep you from always hating your brother.’ I answered, ‘So you figured it would be better if I hated myself?’” (265) Paul sees his parents for who they really are and how they are blind to the reality of their family and Erik’s actions. Paul’s parents wanted to keep paul from hating Erik and make him seem like he was perfect, but in all, lying just made Paul hate himself and think of himself as a freak and stupid. Now that Paul sees and understands what the truth is about what happened to his eyes he doesn’t think of himself as a freak or as Eclipse Boy. By the end, Paul’s parents finally see and admit that Erik is a bad kid and needs help. They have a conversation with Paul’s grandparents, “