Racing The Rain Character Analysis

Have you ever been torn between something you love and something that you are good at? This past week, I have been able to finish reading John L. Parker’s novel Racing the Rain. In this novel, Quenton is a high school age boy that is growing up in Florida. He has a very difficult choice to make between his love for basketball and running track. He also has a friend, Trapper Nelson, that many people do not trust because of an incident that he was not is not his fault. Because of Quenton’s many conflicts, he makes decisions that will change his life and the life of his friends. While reading, I have found three important searches; the search for love, the search for truth and the search for identity. In Racing the Rain Quenton struggles with his search for love; running or basketball. He seriously considered playing basketball for the rest of his athletic …show more content…
One reason could be that he quit a couple weeks before the conference meet. The meet was very important to the coach but Quenton was injured and the coach wasn’t letting it heal; ”That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, Bick. He’s been about half injured the whole time”(Parker 194) Quenton felt that he had been considered a negligible part of the team. After that, he let it heal he restarted with the help of Trapper and won the all-comers division and beat the rest of his team. Another reason could be that he didn’t always take running as a top priority. When he was a freshman and sophomore in high school he really wanted to make the basketball team; both of his friends, Stiggs and Randleman, were on the team. Quenton and his friends spent all summer working on their basketball skills and having fun. This meant that he came into the season slightly out of shape and didn’t allow him as much time to progress. Either of these reasons or a combination of the two could have caused the prejudice against