Erik In Tangerine By Edward Bloor

Having an evil character in a story makes the story much more interesting. The evil character in Tangerine is Erik, a high school boy, brother and son who is focused only on himself. When we think of evil people, we think about Hitler, Osama, and Hiroshi. With his deceit, disregard for others, and self-centered attitude, Erik could be on that list. In this story, Paul, Erik’s younger brother, is the hero because he thinks about others and does the right thing in difficult situations. Although Erik is cruel, dishonest, and dishonorable, he makes a book’s best villain.

In the beginning of Tangerine Paul, doesn’t understand why he has always hated and been scared of his brother, Erik. “Why didn’t I answer the question? I used to have an answer ready for that question.(39). Paul started questioning himself even though he had a story. He didn’t understand why he started to question his story. However later in the story, he starts to remember his story. “I remembered Castor. Vincent Castor… I remembered spray paint on that wall. Erik and Vincent Castor had found a can of white spray paint, and they had painted something… ‘You’re gonna pay for telling on Castor.’”(263). As soon as Paul starts remembering he, finally, starts to understand, see, why. Why he has always been scared, hated and not wanted to confront Erik. He is finally able to uncover truth about himself, and he feels different, happy and brave, now that he

One way that Erik Fisher has affected Paul is that he is the cause of Paul’s blindness. To begin with, Edward Bloor writes from the view of Paul “And I remembered Erik’s fingers prying my eyelids open while Vincent Castor sprayed white paint into them.” This is evidence that Erik Fisher had a big role in damaging Paul’s eyes, because he was the one that opened Paul’s eyes for the white spray paint which blinded him. Also Bloor writes about how Dad tells Paul that “The doctors told us that you might never remember. And we figured that was the best way to handle the situation.” This explains that Erik was, for sure, the cause of Paul’s blindness. It also mentions why Paul didn’t remember being blinded by Erik, for a while, and why his parents never told him of this incident. Because of Erik, Paul has to live with

The quote “Joey stared him down. No, I don’t have a problem with that. I guess I got a problem with you.” This quote on page 158 talks about Joey, one of Paul’s friends, talking to Tino, another one of Paul’s friends. The two do not get along very well, and all this builds up to a fight between them. These examples of foreshadowing can be seen throughout the story. On page 258, a quote states “Tino crossed the floor and walked up to Erik.” Which would mean that Tino is confronting Erik, which builds up a lot of tension. Another quote on page 214 says “Erik, you’ll need to give me your key...I got it in my locker at school, I keep a lot of my stuff there.” This quote is about Erik talking to Paul’s mom about a key. Erik has his key in the locker, which makes Erik look suspicious. Leaving his key in the locker may seem like Erik trying to hide something from Paul’s

Paul refuses to accept his older brothers aid and moreover refuses to even listen to what his brother has to say. In order to make his brother listen Norman will be forced to confront his brother, something that he is not willing to do. Norman and Paul have never fought physically. They are equally good at street fighting and do not want to have to figure out who would win as this would cause their relationship to be destroyed. Norman ultimately allows and

First, one choice Erik made was to call Paul, ‘eclipse boy’. Many bullied Paul and saw him as a weak individual. Paul thought of himself to be a freak show on display. On page 35 of Tangerine, Paul stated, “So there I sat on that yellow bus - Erik Fisher’s younger brother, Eclipse boy, visually impaired and totally incapable of following in his brother’s footsteps.” The quote shows that Paul considers himself to be incapable of being normal. Erik’s choice had cause Paul to think that he has no chance of being popular and loved. If Erik hadn’t made fun of Paul, perhaps this chain of events wouldn’t have occurred.

Erik took advantage of the situation and started making fun of Paul’s friends because they work hard with their families in their groves. To illustrate, “Look at this. I think it’s great that these farm-labor kids get to spend a day away from the fields” (Bloor 204). This demonstrates how Erik was making fun of Tino and his friends for working hard. This got Tino mad so he started to make fun of Erik for missing the ball and slipping in the football game. Without a doubt, Erik got mad and he smacked his hand across Tino’s face. Indeed,“Immediately, faster than I thought he could, faster than Tino thought he could, Erik lashed out, smashing the back of his hand across Tino’s face, smashing him so hard that Tino spun halfway around in the air and landed on the grass”(Bloor 205). To authenticate, Erik hit Tino so hard that he twisted around halfway and landed on the grass. This affected Paul by making him feel useless because he had not defended his friends from the violent actions of his brother. His friends blamed him and rejected him even though his brother was at

Paul couldn’t see and had to wear thick special glasses. Paul saw Erik and Vincent Castor spray painting something on the wall and the next day Paul saw Erik and Erik said “ your going to have to pay for what you did.” Then paul said, “What? I didn’t do anything.” Vincent Castor got in trouble he was holding a can of spray paint. Then Paul felt Erik grab him from behind and prying his eyes open while Vincent spray painted his

The first thing the book says that tells you Erik is forcing Paul into submission is on page 263/264. Paul had a flashback back to Silver Meadows when Erik and his friend currently is Vincent Castor. Also to further explain Erik and Vincent had done so thing bad and Erik thought that Paul told on them, when it had been someone else. It states “And I remember Erik’s fingers prying my eyelids open while Vincent Castor sprayed white paint into them.” (263-264) This shows that Erik was doing something that was going to harm him and was not going to help him. Paul let them do it but struggle. In the end Paul lost part of his eyesight. This show he was about to start cowering in the shadows.

Paul doesn't comprehend what the joke means, but looking back at it, he understands it now. Paul had a tragic accident where he stared at the sun unprotected during a solar eclipse. Paul looks back at the flashback and realizes that Erik used Pauls a tragic accident against him and make fun of him. This shows how malicious Erik could be to his little brother. Erik doesn’t stand up and defend his little brother, he just lets it happen and laugh along with his other friends who bully Paul.

Also when Tino and Victor attacked Erik and Arthur, Erik and Arthur followed Paul to a ditch ready to kill him then, Paul had the courage to stand up and They got in a huge argument about Luis being dead. Erik enraged said “Shut up Castor” and that triggers a flashback of when Castor, Erik’s servant sprayed spray paint into Paul’s eyes. Paul sees how he went blind and uses his sight to remember how he went blind, and he is furious because his parents lied to him saying he stared at an eclipse for one hour straight and they had the truth all along!Paul’s family plays a big role in Paul’s life in uncovering lies, and Paul uses sight to help him find the truths and

It was his anger about Luis’ death that enabled Paul to make this confession. When the cops came to arrest Arthur for being linked to the death of Luis, “[Paul] stood up straight and faced them all, like [he] had seen Luis do. ‘I saw-I heard Erik Fisher tell him to do it’”(276). The guilt inside Paul over Luis’ death quickly turned into anger when Arthur’s father tried to convince the cops that Arthur was innocent. Paul gained this courage because of the presence of the many adults and officers who were around, making sure that Erik could not get revenge on Paul. The book implied that Erik was going to jail when the officer said “You keep this young man in the house-not in the neighborhood, not in the yard-in the house. I may call or come back at any time and I expect him to be here”(276). When Paul confessed, he changed his entire life, because his parents would no longer act as if Erik were the standard that Paul had to meet. This also helped Paul prove to his parents that Erik was a terrible person deep down and not destined for greatness the way his parents thought. Paul was brave for standing up to Erik in front of his family and the police. Most importantly, Paul exposed Erik for what he really was-a cold-hearted person who didn’t deserve all the attention that he received for being a great football

Erik acts disrespectful to Paul making Paul not want to be around Erik because of the poor treatment he receives from his older brother. Paul wonders why he receives this disrespect from Erik, because he has no memory of doing anything that

As you certainly see there are reasons why Erik is to be ratted out because he blinded him and teased him, which makes Paul want to tell him. In this paragraph, you will learn how Paul got back at Erik and how Erik tried to kill Paul. Paul comes home crying and freaking out saying that Erik to kill him while he was biking crazy hun. The story states “Then he brought forward in a mighty swing, right at my head. I dove to the right, I landed on my face in the grass…

First of all, almost the whole book Erik was being rude to Paul's friends or Paul himself. He always had something to say when Paul was with his friends to try to make fun of Paul’s friends for doing or saying something. For example, when Joey’s brother Mike died from the lightning strike during football practice Erik and Arthur